Does my competitor use hacked websites?

Hello there,

I am far from being an SEO expert, and I need your help to see if you recognize/know this technique.

I studied one of my competitors on a particular keyword. On aHrefs, I noticed two strange things. He has a lot of backlinks coming from apparently hacked websites:

• Case 1: Links from hxxt://domain.com/domain-list-xxx where xxx is a number.
• Case 2: Links from hxxt://domain.com/<random-string>/slug

Case 1: backlinks from domain-list-xxx webpages



This is a strange webpage with the top million domains, modified to include a backlink to the competitor. When clicking on "Add your link there", this webpage opens:



Do you know such a service? More precisely, I would like to know if a "domain-list-xxx" backlink is always linked to a bought SEO service, or if it always happen on most of websites. I have seen that on many sites, so I am starting to wonder if all sites owners buy such a backlink campaign...

Case 2: backlinks from random directories

The other type of backlinks are put in a subdirectory of a hacked website. Example:



What is interesting is that it's not only a webpage. It's a full isolated website inside this subdirectory. All links goes to another page of the same directory. Even if we click on the logo of the hacked website, we goes on the "hacked root" of the website, perfectly isolated from the main website but with the same presentation. I wonder how it is done, if it is a known service or software.

Like the case 1, there are thousands backlinks coming from such hacked websites, which is impressive. I am not able to say at 100% "my competitor bought a nasty backlink campaign", as it can be some automated stuff. What do you think?

More generally, any information about these techniques is welcomed, as this is something I see very often, particulary since end of 2021.

Many thanks!

I have battles these sites in SEO for many years with my CBD brand.

The directory top domain sites I don't have experience with, but the 2nd site you mentioned is most certainly hacked.

This is an automated system, mass scanning wordpress sites for known exploits (outdated plugins) and injecting malicious scripts into the server. Once the script deploys, it will create copies and backups of itself throughout the wp directory in case of detection and in some cases if folder/file permissions allow change wp_options tables and add stealth admin accounts.

The script is designed to mass generate spam seo content to parasite off decent authority domains, so it ranks quite well and fast.

They use advanced cloaking so web administrators will not see the pages in the back end and only when organic traffic visits with matching search engine referer URL it will trigger the redirect script to their middleware domain.

At the middleware domain, usually a .php code that checks your geo/IP fires and will instantly push you to a valid offer in your specific country. There are usually at least 10+ offers.

The group that does this has been operating for many years, recycling through dozens of shell companies, hundreds of product names and have very deep pockets.

They previously merged with a credit card processor (which allows them to be extremely aggressive on policies without breaking and the law) and run the largest subscription scam networks in North America.

An example of a live link (do not fill any info or buy from this):

Their network extends into the tens of thousands of hacked websites, with dozens added daily.

If you are really interested in learning about this network in depth, there was a 22 page report from Risk IQ, a leading cyber security intelligence company that breaks down many of the early stage tentacles they have using fake news sites surrounding Corona/elections to push fake products.


After my review, I tracked them to a company located in Vancouver, BC, Canada and they did a RTO for a publically traded cannabis company. They have since focused more efforts on CBD and do well over $100M in annual revenue.

There are some other tactics as well. You have a dozen of HTML converter websites. They clean Word HTML output, do Text to HTML conversion etc.

In newly created HTML output which you copy and paste, they add links to their websites and sometimes even scripts.

Case 1: backlinks from domain-list-xxx webpages

It are some automated sites which scraping the web and making such top Alexa lists.
As I remember good - these links are nofollow.
Many domains which does not has organic backlinks at all, can have these kind of links.

Case 2: backlinks from random directories

These are hacked 100%.

No, both is not hacked site...the first one is paid directory , the second one is article submission 5 dollar per article ...the second type website you'll get many of them (provider) on Fiverr they doesn't care what you posted as long you paid but the first directory owned by 1 guy ...

Many thanks for the answers.

I have seen a similar thread here, for the second case. In my perspective, no clear answer yet about the objective (SEO or negative SEO of competitors?)

https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/weird-spam-links.1388231/

I’ve had similar with competitor. They lost a few million backlinks in a monthish time span.

I have case 2 type links but I definitely did not build them. I dont think they help with seo

I'm having case 1 issue, anyone know how to solve it?