Found hidden pages of outbound links created via ex-SEO consultant. Best way to detect other possible problems?
-
We paid for an SEO contract in addition to our new website design (same company did both) and after 12 months cancelled the SEO. I have been very suspicious ever since of our bad page rank and general lack of traffic (despite my efforts) and today found a hidden page of outbound links. Currently in shock that this happened although my own fault for lack of due diligence. The SEO consultants were very unhappy that I cancelled the contract so I am worried about the extent of bad links or negative google juice they may have created (god knows what else they may have done).
So my questions are:
-
How can I detect any other (potentially hidden) problems?
-
How can I recover from this - any right/wrong way to approach google?
-
What is the best way to bring this up with the SEO consultants?
Thank you in advance.
-
-
Removing the page should more than likely be a basic task. However knowing if what they have done was worthwhile would require a well-practiced eye. I don't want to discourage you, but it sounds like you may not be that well-versed with off-page.
So, for the low low cost of reading this; I can give you a few things to watch out for. I'm sure some others will jump in, and I would be grateful for that as well. I probably won't remember to mention everything, and I may learn something.
All of that is the real reason I come back to Q&A, aside from the fact that I want to solve problems. I blame my dad.
Nevertheless, here's what to look out for:
- A lot of exact match anchors (your target keywords)
- Low quality directories (You will know them if you can search adult, pharma and casino keywords in their search function.)
- Paid stuffs (A dead giveaway is an 'Ad' that actually passes juice - not nofollow or otherwise 'neutered'.)
- Unrelated links (This means you, due to the reciprocals. You aren't related to a thatcher in New Zealand... or at least most likely not.)
All of the above are examples of things that may get your site penalized, depending on the circumstances.
Now if the agency was doing a lot of low quality directory listings, there's actually something pretty new you should be aware of. A lot of low quality directories are blocking popular crawlers. So maybe a lot of links aren't gone, just your favorite crawlers have been blocked.
Get all your standard link datas: GWT, BWT, Majestic, Ahrefs, etc. - filter duplicates and commence crawling. That's where Screaming Frog also comes in handy. You can spoof a popular user agent, thus you will not be blocked. So you will have a better idea of the actual links that exist, or don't exist, to your site.
This is what you have to do, brochacho. Chin up.
-
Thanks everyone for your helpful responses. Some further info and responses from me:
-
The site definitely hasn't been hacked - the links all go to other customers of our ex-SEO company. So I assume it is part of a reciprocal link exchange however we don't seem to have any returning links anymore as I would expect since we no longer pay for their SEO services.
-
site:domain search in Google does not pick up the page - it hasn't been indexed - what is the value if Google is unaware? The only way I found out about this is watching Analytics in real time and seeing a strange URL I didn't recognise then navigating to that page.
-
Screaming Frog is a great tool however it doesn't appear to be detecting these links either - nothing appearing under the "External" tab.
-
Re "I don't want to make you paranoid, but there's also a possibility that a sufficiently miffed contractor may also pull links. But since we don't know the actual site, we can't really say if that's happening - or if their work is worth worrying about in the first place." - How do I go about checking this myself?
In summary I will have a discussion about this with the SEO company shortly and maybe just ask them to remove this page? I just want to be sure they are not doing anything else untoward.
-
-
I 'third' the screaming frog recommendation. I honestly couldn't do my job effectively without it! It'll tell you loads about your site, not just to help with this problem.
Also look at your backlinks in WMT. Is there anything untoward there?
I think you should speak to the company you believe did this. I wouldn't go in all guns blazing though, as mentioned by others, the site could have been hacked. Maybe just say 'I found this page, do you know anything about it?' which isn't accusing them of anything, simply asking if they know about it.
Sometimes companies do strange things when you stop using them. A very very long time ago, I worked for an agency which would remove as many links as possible (sometimes pointing them to other clients in the same niche) when a company cancelled their services. I used to lie and say I'd removed the links when I hadn't (I know, naughty to lie, but IMHO more naughty to take someone's money for a service and then delete as much of the service that they paid for as soon as they stop paying - despicable). Another thing they did (when customers particularly annoyed them) was to put nofollow, noindex in the robots.txt when a client left to use the services of a competitor - they even had a betting book of how quickly it took the competitor to work out why the site wasn't listing. Again, despicable. I should say, this company (funnily enough) went bust and no longer exists. I only worked there for a very short time, it gave me a foot in the door of SEO as it was my first SEO job and for that I am grateful to them. I love my job and wouldn't want to stop doing SEO.
All the agencies I've worked for since have not operated in this way.
I am only telling you this to say, you may be right about the agency doing something they shouldn't (and hidden link pages are quite common), but the site could have been hacked and if you have a conversation with the company about it, I would not say 'I think you did it' because if they did, they'll deny it (and where's your proof) and if they didn't they will be very very offended.
As a precautionary measure, I would change all the passwords to your site (ftp, admin etc) so if someone got in (hacked or this company) through a password breach they can't get in again.
-
I second the Screaming Frog crawl. Last I knew, it was free - up to 500 URLs. The paid version may seem expensive, but the value I've received is pretty solid. Seriously, fractions of a cent on the dollar type stuff.
Download your OS flavor here. You will be happy you did. The learning curve isn't very steep. Most everything runs 'out of the box', but you may find the advanced features pretty snazzy as well.
I also agree that the page you found may be reciprocal links list. But is there any way it could be a, real, resource page that wasn't finished? That's another possibility.
I don't want to make you paranoid, but there's also a possibility that a sufficiently miffed contractor may also pull links. But since we don't know the actual site, we can't really say if that's happening - or if their work is worth worrying about in the first place.
In regard to contacting the consultants, if the relationship ended poorly - I wouldn't exactly hold my breath. They've likely moved on by now. They might not have the time or the inclination to respond to you.
But if you're inclined to confront them, I would avoid the prosecuting attorney approach and err toward the Columbo style of questioning.
-
Hello,
It is possible that your website has been hacked and someone has created additional pages, which link back to their money site.
Some of our clients websites occasionally get hacked with spammy link pages being added. If you google site:domain.com it should show you all the pages of your website that have been indexed by Google.
Rob
-
The links might of been for a link exchange (you link to us and we link to you type of thing) wouldn't be the first time I've seen it so don't assume its an evil plot to take over the world just yet! You can use a handy little tool called screaming frog to detect out going links on your site.
If you monitor your site via OSE (or any similar alternatives) you can also keep track of any impact that you may fear be it negative or other wise. You mention recovery but are you sure you need to recover? Could just be you need to do some SEO and build some links its not really a recovery thing more of a just do it right thing. I'm confidant that you would know right/wrong (white/black hat) way to approach it.
Have you tried just straight up asking them what the page is for? They might explain it, deny it etc. but at least you will be better off than wondering why or what.
Best of luck and let us know what they say the page is for.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Unsolved Is Moz Able to Track Internal Links Per Page?
I am trying to track internal links and identify orphan pages. What is the best way to do this?
Moz Pro | | WebMarkets0 -
What is the best way to track our rank vs competitors?
I have 181 keywords that I have been asked to track rank on. So first I will track against our url then our competitors. With a 250 word limit will that count for every url I want to track? Is there any other way to do this than using rank tracker?
Moz Pro | | Sika220 -
Why is Link Count smaller than Internal Links in Crawl Test report?
We recently ran the crawl test report and for most of our pages we are getting 1150 internal links but 40-50 as the link count. Why is there such a big disparity?
Moz Pro | | usdmseo0 -
More than 100 links
Hi Everyone, I was trawling through You Tube and came across this video from Matt Cuts from Google about the 100 links limit being removed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6g5hoBYlf0&feature=relmfu I then logged into my SEO account as I remember a previous report we did for a competitor where they had quite a number of pages just over the 100 links, but only barely (They are highlighted in SEOmoz as a warning). Given that google has removed this number from their guidelines and it's clear that a few over 100 isn't as bad as it used to be, is it not about time this was changed or looked at again? Maybe even put ones like these under a new title such as recommendation rather that the alarmist Warning one unless it's ridiculously high? I wonder if the SEOmoz team can also find out a better range figure for it instead of the outdated 100? Regards Alan watch?v=l6g5hoBYlf0&feature=relmfu
Moz Pro | | ContactOnline0 -
Current on-page best practices
Given all the recent talk about over optimization, when was the last time SEOMoz updated the on-page report card tool? Rand wrote an excellent piece on Perfect On-Page Optimization (which is great, and thanks) in summer 2009. Is that still best practice 3 years later (and post-Penguin/Panda)? If not, has the SEOMoz on-page report card tool been updated to reflect current thinking for on-page best-practices? I know the higher level concept is "write for humans, not for bots" but if you can do both (and not create an unreadable seo-frankenpage) then why not? Does getting an "A" grade wreak of over optimization now? Should I use the key phrase at the start of the title, h1, and strong (or bold) elements on a page? Should have an image with file name and alt text equal to (or containing at the start) the key phrase?
Moz Pro | | scanlin2 -
Why would the SEOMoz Page analysis pick up exact keywords used in page title and text?
Hi, I am trying to optimise this URL : www.adaptiveconsultancy.com/ecommerce/features/advanced-ecommerce with the keyword being 'advanced ecommerce' With the 'On-Page Report Card' from SEOMoz that the exact keyword isn't featured in the page title or text, but it is in there. Why would this not be picked up? Thank you in advance,
Moz Pro | | adaptiveconsultancy
M0 -
"Duplicate Page Title" and "Duplicate Page Content" issue
Hi I am having an issue with my site showing duplicate page title and content issues for www.domain.com and www.domain.com/ Is the trailing slash really an issue? Can someone help me with a mod_rewrite rule to sort this please? Thanks,
Moz Pro | | JoeBrewer
Joe0 -
Too many links on a page - pull-down menus
SEOMoz is showing too many links on the page (www.ankinlaw.com). There clearly aren't 100 visible links on the page. Is it counting each page found on the (extensive) pull-down menu as a link? If not, where do all the links come from?
Moz Pro | | rarbel0