I'm Think I'm Getting Knocked Out With A Negative SEO Attack

[GivenToFly]

I have a site that has been losing rank since the second week of March. Looking at ahrefs backlink profile, I think I can see a correlation. Up until about the 11th of March I would get 1 or 2 new backlinks per day. Now I'm getting 15 to 30 from bullshit sites that are nothing but spam. The weird thing is, the back links are image links...not the normal spammy text links I've seen before. There are spammy image links to almost every other company in my industry as well, not just me. And these types of links are spread out among many different domains.

Aside from downloading and using the disavow tool in Google, which I've heard will provide limited benefit, is there anything else I can do to fight this, or protect my site from future attacks? I guess I'm not even sure this is an attack, but it would be one hell of a coincidence that's for sure. I just want to fight back against it is all, but I don't really know where to even begin. Thanks!

 

[littlewebdragon]

Keep building strong backlinks that will actually override that attack. Use disavow tool as final resort.

 

[MikeyMikey13]

I've seen this kind of spam, depending on what market you are in.

They are embedding your images right? Just host them elsewhere.

Go with something like Imgur

 

[GivenToFly]

Yes, that is correct. They are just embedding the images. In your opinion, can this have a negative impact on ranking? I've also added a small script to .htaccess, but not sure if that will prevent this. I do like your idea better though, and will work towards migrating everything to a new host. I'm thinking about just having a separate domain that I only store my images on. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[MikeyMikey13]

Yes, that is correct. They are just embedding the images. In your opinion, can this have a negative impact on ranking? I've also added a small script to .htaccess, but not sure if that will prevent this. I do like your idea better though, and will work towards migrating everything to a new host. I'm thinking about just having a separate domain that I only store my images on. Thanks for the suggestion.

I migrated my stuff to a new host before I saw the impact.

But, they do it to all the sites in the niche, so they will do it again. You should just move them

 

[aidenhera]

cloudflare has feature "protect images from offsite linking" not sure if it helps

 

[littlewebdragon]

I migrated my stuff to a new host before I saw the impact.

But, they do it to all the sites in the niche, so they will do it again. You should just move them

Why don't you guys try to disallow hot linking of images? That might help? Or I'm missing something here?

 

[GivenToFly]

Will do, and thanks again for your time! Do you think this is something that can be recovered from fairly easily? Link building has never been my strong suit, but I don't see any other way to do it other than just trying to overpower all this with good solid links.

 

[MikeyMikey13]

Why don't you guys try to disallow hot linking of images? That might help? Or I'm missing something here?

Disavowing links literally does nothing. And, this kind of spam just keeps coming from new domains every day. So when you upload them elsewhere, they can't link to your image.

All they do is embed your image, then link back to the image source from the image.

 

[MikeyMikey13]

Will do, and thanks again for your time! Do you think this is something that can be recovered from fairly easily? Link building has never been my strong suit, but I don't see any other way to do it other than just trying to overpower all this with good solid links.

Also, there was an update from the 8th-13th of March. That could have been what done you over.

 

[littlewebdragon]

Disavowing links literally does nothing. And, this kind of spam just keeps coming from new domains every day. So when you upload them elsewhere, they can't link to your image.

All they do is embed your image, then link back to the image source from the image.

No, I'm not talking about disavowing in G. I am talking about disallowing linking of a image (disable remote hotlinking). If someone tries to link image from domain.com/image1.jpg it goes to 404 or whatever page/link you send them to. Would that help?

 

[GivenToFly]

I added some code to my htaccess this morning to prevent hot linking once I saw what was going on. Not sure if that will help much or not.

 

[MikeyMikey13]

No, I'm not talking about disavowing in G. I am talking about disallowing linking of a image (disable remote hotlinking). If someone tries to link image from domain.com/image1.jpg it goes to 404 or whatever page/link you send them to. Would that help?

It depends, i've seen the spammers linking to homepages etc too.

If I find an example i'll post it for you so you can see it.

 

[littlewebdragon]

It depends, i've seen the spammers linking to homepages etc too.

If I find an example i'll post it for you so you can see it.

Thank you. If you do find it please post it or PM me please, whatever suites you better.

 

[GivenToFly]

My industry is not all that big. 30 to maybe 40 companies. I'm going to find out what companies just happen to not be getting these links built, and that should narrow down who is behind it.

 

[Vladamir]

A user on here Scritty did a post experimenting with link velocity a few years back, he showed how the more links he would blast at a certain time range the slower rank rises would happen. For example if he blaster 2000 links in a month over his normal 20 high ranking growth would flatline. Link velocity is a thing in the algorithm is what i got from his test.

So its quite possible a massive burst in links caused some trouble for you, try using the disavoy tool I like semrush disavow tool lets you create your own from link toxicity scroes and send that badboy off.

If its not this then the freshness of your content could be it, try reworking some of it and adding to it then sending off a good link or two

 

[ThopHayt]

I agree 100%, the disavow tool is your best go-to here. NSEO attacks will ultimately be canceled out, assuming your site has a little authority and trust built up. It's mostly a threat to new or dirty sites. I'd gather all the NSEO sites listed in Google Analytics and disavow them ASAP. The wait a bit for the list to refresh and disavow more each time until they are cleaned out. I'd avoid disavowing sites not listed by Google, however, as sites not listed are either already ignored... or it looks suspicious to Google if you're aware of them.

-ThopHayt

 

[GivenToFly]

Well I searched through the list of all the links Webmaster Tools has for my site. None of the spammy links that I've received over the last month are included in that list. So maybe it's just a coincidence that my ranking dropped at the same time all of these spammy image links came about??

 

[zapgoose]

I know this is an old thread but did anyone recover from this attack? I'm seeing this come back.

 

[Sykorian]

I'm still puzzled about this subject.

My several big adult sites are heavily targeted with that specific scraping method by at least 50 identical sites that scrape all over the adult sites, mine and hundreds more. They simply snatch pics with alt texts and titles and link back via url.

I don't know how that affects my rankings but definitely doesn't do anything positive.
I also don't know what is the purpose.. blatant negative seo or some invisible monetization method. Those scraper sites DO HAVE some ads but I doubt it makes the grand scheme worthwhile.