Help - unusual spam activity targeting our domain
- Thread starter Innocent007
- Start date
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- Tags
- attack help spam backlinks
rankvisible
Regular Member
- Sep 9, 2023
- 233
- 79
Can it be a cause of spammy backlinks?
- Nov 11, 2018
- 12,107
- 10,871
Op didn't created , that's means hackers created the links. This urls are on his site. That's how i know.
except for the part where the op said the URLs are not on his site, and they hit 404s
TwilightGreevil
Newbie
- May 9, 2018
- 13
- 7
I think I'm going insane reading half of the comments. The links DON'T EXIST, that's why GSC returns a 404 error.
It's just random spam from outside sites that try to generate permalinks on a certain property, nothing else. I've had that on one of my sites over the past 6 months, but it's gotten worse since September, I think some of the algo updates messed up something.
You can safely ignore these. Google marks them as 404 (you can check on your GSC) and they don't really impact your SEO or anything. I mean, Google themselves have discounted them, hence the 404 in GSC.
Usually that's spam sites trying to upload their own sitemap and latch onto an existing URL on your site and try to 301 it to their own property etc. It doesn't usually work, and in some time you'll see the 404'd pages in GSC disappear too. It can take a few months.
If you're worried, run a Sucuri/Wordfence whatever check.
- Nov 11, 2018
- 12,107
- 10,871
@TwilightGreevil
Calm down.
If it's on gsc -> index pages, site got hacked, pages got indexed, this is done via a .php file so could be 1 page 100 page 1000 pages. Once that php file is removed you see 404 errors.
If it's under gsc-> backlinks that's spam links/ external links
Calm down.
If it's on gsc -> index pages, site got hacked, pages got indexed, this is done via a .php file so could be 1 page 100 page 1000 pages. Once that php file is removed you see 404 errors.
If it's under gsc-> backlinks that's spam links/ external links
TwilightGreevil
Newbie
- May 9, 2018
- 13
- 7
@IM Dude
That's factually incorrect and you can double check it with a statement from John Mu himself. Source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-search-console-404-errors-report/499751/
It's in GSC under Pages -> Page Indexing -> Not Found (404)/Not Indexed pages. That's literally what OP said.
He's not hacked, it's just a spam site blast that tries to latch onto 301s etc.
I've seen this numerous times on my sites and on the sites of clients I've managed. It has nothing to do with hacking, and it doesn't have an impact on SEO as they're 404s/literally do not exist in Google's database.
As I said to OP, just run a check for an extra piece of mind or live check the URLs -- you'll most probably see they don't exist anywhere. Hence the 404.
That's factually incorrect and you can double check it with a statement from John Mu himself. Source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-search-console-404-errors-report/499751/
It's in GSC under Pages -> Page Indexing -> Not Found (404)/Not Indexed pages. That's literally what OP said.
He's not hacked, it's just a spam site blast that tries to latch onto 301s etc.
I've seen this numerous times on my sites and on the sites of clients I've managed. It has nothing to do with hacking, and it doesn't have an impact on SEO as they're 404s/literally do not exist in Google's database.
As I said to OP, just run a check for an extra piece of mind or live check the URLs -- you'll most probably see they don't exist anywhere. Hence the 404.
CanuckSEO
Regular Member
- Sep 9, 2019
- 343
- 340
I wouldn't be so sure. If you search the links OP mentioned, you'll find other (hacked) sites that redirect to spammy affiliate offers. Check my example above.