Pages mirrored on unknown websites (not just content, all the HTML)... blackhat I've never seen before.
-
Someone more expert than me could help... I am not a pro, just doing research on a website... Google Search Console shows many backlinks in pages under unknown domains... this pages are mirroring the pages of the linked website... clicking on a link on the mirror page leads to a spam page with link spam... The homepage of these unknown domain appear just fine... looks like that the domain is partially hijacked... WTF?!
Have you ever seen something likes this?
Can it be an outcome of a previous blackhat activity?
-
The links actually are just in some forms
-
Thanks everyone, I'll do more research and update all
-
One more thing that could be a long shot but is worth keeping an eye on: If someone had zero ethics and wanted to steal your links, one thing they could do is reach out to webmasters that link to you and pretend to be you, and claim that the mirror site is the new version of the website and ask them to change their links. Once complete, they'd redirect the mirror site to their own commercial site.
So, keep an eye on your own link profile and theirs, just to make sure none of those links are changing.
-
We see scraped content all the time. Occasionally we see scraped HTML in full form but slightly edited.
In general I'd do the following:
- Disavow those domains in GSC. Also consider disavowing any domains pointing links at the mirror sites. It could be possible that they are building up junk links to a mirror site which canonicals your site. No idea why anyone would do that but worth covering your bases.
- Submit DMCA notices to Google, their webhost, etc.
- Take a look through server logs for anything screwy. If you see tons of weird traffic from countries that aren't relevant to your business, you might decide to block them with your .htaccess file.
- Certainly make sure nothing has been changed on your own site (canonicals, common Wordpress hacks, etc.), though nothing is suggesting to me that that has happened.
Other than that I would just keep an eye on it and keep an eye on Google Search Console.
-
Hi,
From what I read it looks similar to these cases - https://mza.bundledseo.com/community/q/getting-different-search-queries-in-google-webmaster & http://moz.com/community/q/chinese-site-ranking-for-our-brand-name-possible-hack
In these cases - sites where hacked using a vulnerability in a Wordpress slider - they copied sites they wanted to target on to some of the hacked domains and used other hacked domains to point links to them. At that point they were trying to redirect traffic from genuine e-commerce sites to bogus ones.
You could try to contact the site owners & tell them they have been hacked. At the same time file a complaint @Google
rgds,
Dirk
-
Some basic scraping maybe common, but they have gone out of there way to backlink to you...
Have you checked there metrics on open site explore...? Checked whois?
-
As far as I know website scraping is not uncommon, apart from the backlinks
-
I am honest I am still a little puzzled. But if what you are describing is what is happening. Something very strange is going on. I have not heard of it before.
A totally different domain, that you did not build is linking to your site with the exact copy of a page that it is linked to. If that is the case, your site is being specifically targeted. Someone has to have gone out of there way to copy your site and then re-build it on a different domain.
This is what I would do:-
I would contacting google asap.
Can you find who owns the site on whois?
Check the wayback machine to find out what the site was previously
User open site explorer to track the nature of the links on the other domain. .
And wow... that is unbelievable if it is correct...
-
Yes, sorry but I thought that was clear from the beginning.
If I click to the console links I am directed to the mirrored page in these domains. That's exactly how I saw them, otherwise I coudn't discover them
-
That console part provides clickable links. So that goes back to my original question. Can you click through to the domain and see a mimic copy of your site? Or is it simply showing you a link that clicks to nothing?
-
In the console there is a section called (translating into English) "Links pointing to your site"
Traffic has not changed, in fact these do not appear in GA referrals.
I can see all these domains, either the mirrorer paged, or the actual genuine pages pertaining to them originally. You cannot reach the mirrored pages via the menu in hp
-
Where in google search console are they reported?
Also to be clear, nothing has happened to your site. ie traffic has not changed. However you have found "strange" links in search console? Which do not click through to anything?
Or as I am still not clear - have you found another domain, that mimics your site that you can actually see?
-
Exactly, I am confused too.
Indeed, Goole Search Console reports do list them, but I can't see them in the html
Instance, I find this
<form <span="" class="html-tag" data-mce-mark="1">id="search_mini_form" action="http://mydomain.ext/it/catalogsearch/result/" method="get">
and also images hosted in the scraped websites's domain
Also, these pages apparently are under these domains that in turn appear to be real websites equally unaware of the scam
</form>
-
I am a little confused.
Are you saying that an exact copy of a unique page you have created on your website is on another domain name (which you know nothing about) and then that site is linked to your site, ie via a backlink?
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
-
Canonical tag On Each Page With Same Page URL - Its Harmful For SEO or Not?
Hi. I have an e-commerce project and they have canonical code in each and every page for it's own URL. (Canonical on Original Page No duplicate page) The url of my wesite is like this: "https://www.website.com/products/produt1"
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | HuptechWebseo
and the site is having canonical code like this: " This is occurring in each and every products as well as every pages of my website. Now, my question is that "is it harmful for the SEO?" Or "should I remove this tags from all pages?" Is that any benefit for using the canonical tag for the same URL (Original URL)?0 -
How to find Spam Website?
Hi guys, I'm seo newbie and really want to find websites that hurt seo ranking to avoid get link. Which tools or trick can help me to find those site?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | denakalami0 -
Better ranking competitors have paid links from blog pages
I have a trial of all the tools at the moment and it's a lot of fun. I have been delving into site explorer and found that some competitors have links to them from obvious seo promoting paid blog sites. One has no other links except a paid for blog from a site that openly admits it offers paid marketing and they shot up to 4th on page one for a main keyword phrase. The info from moz and matt cuts video's say not to do this, but it's so tempting. The blog is well written, while I sit here and do the right thing, my competitors have page one. If the blog is well written and is meaningful is it OK and if google ever decide it's paid and don't like it, wouldn't it be better to be page one for 6 months and then recover? I'd love to give the link to the seo, blogger thingy but don't want to come across as promoting it in any way. I am sure there are loads of them anyway.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Peter24680 -
Are multiple domains spammy if they're similar but different
A client currently has a domain of johnsmith.com (not actual site name, of course). I’m considering splitting this site into multiple domains, which will include brand name plus keyword, such as: Johnsmithlandclearing.com Johnsmithdirtwork.com Johnsmithdemolition.com Johnsmithtimercompany.com Johnsmithhydroseeding.com johnsmithtreeservice.com Each business is unique enough and will cross-link to the other. My questions are: 1) will Google consider cross-linking spammy? 2) what happens to johnsmith.com? Should it redirect to new site with the largest market share, or should it become an umbrella for all? 3) Any pitfalls foreseen? I've done a fair amount of due diligence and feel these separate domains are legit, but am paranoid that Google will not see it that way, or may change direction in the future.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | SteveMauldin0 -
Content within a toggle, Juice or No Juice?
Greetings Mozzers, I recently added a significant amount of information within a single page utilizing toggles to hide the content from a user and for them to see it they must click to reveal. Since technically the code is reading "display:none" to start, would that be considered "Black Hat" or "Not There" to crawlers? It isn't displayed in any sort of spammy way. It is more for the UX of the visitor that toggles were utilized. Thoughts and advice is greatly appreciated!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | MonsterWeb280 -
How can I recover from an 'unnatrual' link penalty?
Hi I believe our site may have been penalised due to over optimised anchor text links. Our site is http://rollerbannerscheap.co.uk It seems we have been penalised for the key word 'Roller Banner' as the over optimised anchor text contains key word 'Roller Banner' or 'Roller Banners'. We dropped completely off page 1 for 'Roller Banner', how would I recover from this error?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | SO_UK0 -
Sitewide logo footer link - what's the risk?
Hi, an incredibly popular website, with several thousand pages, has offered me a site-wide footer logo link. The site this popular website would backlink to has 50 high quality backlinks (and low volumes of traffic - it's a new site). I am tempted to say no, because of the risk of penalty, but then I started wondering whether a logo link posed the same penalty risk as a text link.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | McTaggart0 -
Buying a website and redirecting everything
We are considering purchasing an existing website in our industry with a domain authority of 52 and 20K inlinks and redirecting it to our new website with a domain authority of 26 and 1,000 inlinks. Would this be the best way to improve our new site's authority and inlinks? Would Google penalize us for doing that or would it effectively transfer the old sites authority to us?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | pbhatt0