This Should Be Illegal

0_00_0 · Oct 21, 2014

So I was taking a look at my backlink profile for a website that just got slapped by penguin 3. I only have <40 mostly very high quality links to the website and it got penalized (wtf right?) so I figured I could dive into ahrefs and get rid of a few of the obvious eyesores.

This is what I most recently encountered:

I don't mind outing the website one little bit. This is crap and borderline extortion. "Kojaxx" is a bookmarking website and I have no idea how my link managed to land there but I want it off. I have one link there and it's going to cost me $29.95 USD to get rid of it. If anyone has a clue how I can get rid of it without paying this outrageous fee then please speak up! The main purpose of this thread is to hear people's thoughts on this - not find an alternative way to get rid of the link (although recommendations are appreciated).

I put this in lounge because I feel it's not constructive enough for a real section.

bartosimpsonio · Oct 21, 2014

That page is a direct consequence of Google's policies for the WWW. Failure to reign in Google's obvious market abuse is what's causing that page to exist.

Therefore I disagree: that page is perfectly legal and within Google's view of the WWW.

If links are to be blamed on the target site, then that site is just playing along the obvious new niche Google created. Google should be reigned in by authorities, not that site.

Open up your favorite tool and freely destroy your competition. That's what the Ebola Update is about: killing healthy websites.

antichrist · Oct 21, 2014

tweet this to matt cutts =) I want to see what he says... oh wait, hes on vacation, john mueller then?

praetserge · Oct 21, 2014

I've had a few things like that and I didn't even put my links there... but I'm not paying anything.

As bartosimpsonio correctly said it's google who created it... all google had to do is de-index those kind of sites and sorted but no, they are punishing real hard working people.
I see that google wanted to have less spam so they created this penalty system but they are hitting the wrong people. It was much better before when they used to discount those sort of links.

this system is just getting silly, and spammers prevail by killing good websites...

I bought a domain for $10k and a few months later somebody spammed me with forum profile links (I know it happened as I do monitor my links) even though most of those spammy links have disappeared by now, google still penalised me with penguin 3... why on earth would I spam my own website after paying $10k just for the domain???????

charto03 · Oct 21, 2014

well the website owner is probably tired of people spamming them with bookmarking links then people asking for removals. I dont see a thing wrong with it since they are probably much more annoyed by the requests for removals.

The easy solution is to disavow the link if you dont want it to count problem solved free of charge.

0_00_0 · Oct 21, 2014

bartosimpsonio said:
That page is a direct consequence of Google's policies for the WWW. Failure to reign in Google's obvious market abuse is what's causing that page to exist.

Therefore I disagree: that page is perfectly legal and within Google's view of the WWW.

If links are to be blamed on the target site, then that site is just playing along the obvious new niche Google created. Google should be reigned in by authorities, not that site.

Open up your favorite tool and freely destroy your competition. That's what the Ebola Update is about: killing healthy websites.

Yeah this is honestly one of the only sketchy links pointing to my site. I'm really interested to know how much damage it is actually doing to my search engine rankings. I was actually scared to share this because god knows how many people here are going to get ideas. Just go spam crazy and wait for the removal requests to flow in...

antichrist said:
tweet this to matt cutts =) I want to see what he says... oh wait, hes on vacation, john mueller then?

I would love to see what Google has to say about this. This is the monster they created.

praetserge said:
I've had a few things like that and I didn't even put my links there... but I'm not paying anything.

As bartosimpsonio correctly said it's google who created it... all google had to do is de-index those kind of sites and sorted but no, they are punishing real hard working people.
I see that google wanted to have less spam so they created this penalty system but they are hitting the wrong people. It was much better before when they used to discount those sort of links.

this system is just getting silly, and spammers prevail by killing good websites...

I bought a domain for $10k and a few months later somebody spammed me with forum profile links (I know it happened as I do monitor my links) even though most of those spammy links have disappeared by now, google still penalised me with penguin 3... why on earth would I spam my own website after paying $10k just for the domain???????

That's pretty rough to hear about the 10k domain... My website is the perfect example of how a few bad links will abolish any hope of ranking. I have 39 links to the website according to ahrefs and most of them are pristine.

charto03 said:
well the website owner is probably tired of people spamming them with bookmarking links then people asking for removals. I dont see a thing wrong with it since they are probably much more annoyed by the requests for removals.

The easy solution is to disavow the link if you dont want it to count problem solved free of charge.

I understand you're playing devil's advocate but really? REALLY? Have you ever tried to use the disavow tool? It doesn't work. Do you really think that $29.95 is a fair price to remove a bookmarking link?

nhgjob · Oct 21, 2014

1. Why would this one site have so much power to kill your rankings if you have mostly quality links?

2. Doesn't disavow solve the problem?

0_00_0 · Oct 21, 2014

nhgjob said:
1. Why would this one site have so much power to kill your rankings if you have mostly quality links?

2. Doesn't disavow solve the problem?

1. I'm not sure if this is the sole cause of the penalty. It is a terrible quality d0follow link with gibberish text on the page with my website link so it certainly isn't helping.

2. Disavow (in my experience) hasn't solved a thing. I will be using the tool anyway because I'll take what I can get. I've spent many hours writing articles and building high quality links to this site so I don't want to give up on it quite yet. I'll have to find another source of traffic in the meanwhile though.

ShadeDream · Oct 21, 2014

Report the website to Google.

On the other hand, that's some awesome out of the box thinking.

flybeta · Oct 21, 2014

Can you put malware on them then report them as malware as a different user not an owner?

JournoNick · Oct 21, 2014

I'm sorry to hijack your thread, but it's closely related.

I cam across this article about link removal requests and this particular line made me think:

SEO spammers are the scum of the earth. They've given the entire SEO industry a bad name.

and

I've wasted several days of my life just deleting and cleaning up comment spam in my blog comments. Why waste even more time now dealing with dozens of link removal requests.

Code:

Source: http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2013/11/15/seo-spammer-link-removal-request

So this Kojaxx site could very well be filtering all of these quests, much the same way I give advice for a $75 fee to people that bombard me with 1000 questions at once via email.

What are your thoughts?

jazzc · Oct 21, 2014

bartosimpsonio said:
Google should be reigned in by authorities, not that site.

I have a better idea, let's cut all the unnecessary middle steps. Gov nationalizes Google and pays you a direct dividend. Sit back, relax and let the money chimes in. That should work!

Deleted member 708208 · Oct 21, 2014

jazzc said:
I have a better idea, let's cut all the unnecessary middle steps. Gov nationalizes Google and pays you a direct dividend. Sit back, relax and let the money chimes in. That should work!

Regulation is a slippery slope and I am glad to see your post JazzC.

kegnum · Oct 21, 2014

This sucks.. but if you think Google gives a crap your wrong. It effects their bottom line 0%. Also, this is extortion imho.... This is what Google is turning the web into. While it may hard to hear, its time to start weening off of their teet and stop giving them more power than they deserve.

InstaRank · Oct 21, 2014

This is not extortion if you have put the link on that website, its a different case if they added your link and now asking for money to remove it.

pxoxrxn · Oct 21, 2014

flybeta said:
Can you put malware on them then report them as malware as a different user not an owner?

Yeah no problem...

hatblackguy · Oct 21, 2014

leena said:
they added your link and now asking for money to remove it.

This is what Google is turning the web into, theirs no ruling here they don't care.

SocialMediaManager · Oct 21, 2014

What if he is receiving 50-60 requests a day to remove link from site ?
Spending all day looking for links to remove is boring work so he wants to get paid but 30$ is too much

Google is to blame for this soon these payment requests forms for link removal will be on all bookmarking sites

nikchaing · Oct 21, 2014

At least 10 new bookmarking sites were made as a result of this thread.

Wilson Grant Fisk · Oct 21, 2014

This Should Be Illegal

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