What sort of tool is this?

[birdman1776]

So I am working to optimize our rankings (ecommerce) and I see competitors have some exact match anchor text links showing up from sites like this:

tq1.me
racloq.com
n1s.me

These look like a fake URL shortener service. If you look at the list of "recently shorted links" it looks like a mix of actual real links with the anchor text matching the title of the page it redirects to, yet some are exact match keywords for valuable terms that go to people selling the goods.

What sort of tool is this? It appears to be extremely effective at increasing rankings for the sites that are clearly using it for this. It certainly doesn't appear to be any legit URL shortener as while it appears to take a submission, it doesn't seem to do anything with it.

Curious as to what the experts here think of this?

 

[w1ll]

Where did you find this? Im curious. Watching for future answers..

 

[birdman1776]

I found it doing backlink research on a new competitor who "magically" started ranking higher than well established sites. The links show up in semrush.

 

[Aizik]

I’ve asked the same question, with little to no response. Hopefully someone here can tell us.

 

[birdman1776]

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who found no information on this. I'd really like to find out who is running it, see what is offered, etc. I'm sure "someone" knows who is responsible.

 

[w1ll]

Well, if its that effective, why not make your own for your website?

 

[LinksForPros]

It appears to be extremely effective at increasing rankings

It only appears

 

[Aizik]

In what quantities are you seeing it used in? I’ve noticed 100k - 250k of these links refreshing over a 30day period. Which makes up of 3-6% total links, yet it’s 99% of new links in Ahrefs.

 

[SocialManager]

Well, if its that effective, why not make your own for your website?

Because he doesn't understand it. What a bizarre response. His question is literally "What sort of tool is this?" If you explained what it is and how it works, he probably would consider building it. It may also be short term strong but long term ban, in which case, he might not want to make one for his own website. There are lots of problems with your response.

 

[LinksForPros]

I’ve noticed 100k - 250k of these links refreshing over a 30day period.

Can you paste a SS please? Thought it was just about these 3
tq1.me
racloq.com
n1s.me

 

[umerjutt00]

Sounds interesting. If you try to create your own link, nothing happens. Looks like privately owned domains made to look like legit url shortners. Someone is create link redirects from this site. I am guessing then he is creating tiered links on these shortened links...?

 

[Aizik]

If you haven't already, in Ahrefs >> Backlinks >> New, click on "all", guessing you'll see a lot more.

 

[terrycody]

I am lost

 

[Aizik]

My guess, it has something to do with positive link velocity after a particular link threshold.

I’m no where close to needing this tool, I’m more curious then anything.

 

[w1ll]

Because he doesn't understand it. What a bizarre response. His question is literally "What sort of tool is this?" If you explained what it is and how it works, he probably would consider building it. It may also be short term strong but long term ban, in which case, he might not want to make one for his own website. There are lots of problems with your response.

While writing this reply, I simply tought those domain names had lots of DA.

I mean, ns1.com is a 3 letter domain name, google may give alot of value to it. Maybe thats it? They wanted to take advantage of it?

 

[Aizik]

Finally! I was able to figure it out. Man was that bugging me.

Look for a 1-800 number in those backlinks, and it will show you who is really creating all of those backlinks.

They are faking the referrer. (e.g. shortURL?=Domain?=Referrer).

There is enough noise that is not immediately noticeable.

Reviewing their website, it doesn't appear to be helping them that much, but who knows.