Wtf are these spammy links ending in "k.html"?

DeadJoe · Apr 19, 2023

I've noticed on my site, as well as a lot of other well performing sites, there is this new kind of spam from random ass domains that links to images only.

All of these links end in k.html - same pattern, random sites, a lot of weird extensions, and some even have tons of traffic.

Not sure what this is, but it has been going on for a while. Google is obviously ignoring these links since they are incoming in quite a few numbers to sites all over the web.

I just don't understand what the point is, and why it is happening. If someone is running some malicious scripts hacking these sites then linking out to random sites makes no sense to me.

One theory I have found over the web is that these are link injections and along with the target site, the attacker also links out to multiple other relevant sites.

Anyone else getting these links as well?

IM Dude · Apr 20, 2023

Where do you see the links? gsc, semrush ahrefs?

Vendettta · Apr 20, 2023

DeadJoe said:
I've noticed on my site, as well as a lot of other well performing sites, there is this new kind of spam from random ass domains that links to images only.

All of these links end in k.html - same pattern, random sites, a lot of weird extensions, and some even have tons of traffic.

Not sure what this is, but it has been going on for a while. Google is obviously ignoring these links since they are incoming in quite a few numbers to sites all over the web.

I just don't understand what the point is, and why it is happening. If someone is running some malicious scripts hacking these sites then linking out to random sites makes no sense to me.

One theory I have found over the web is that these are link injections and along with the target site, the attacker also links out to multiple other relevant sites.

Anyone else getting these links as well?

Can you show an example? I have never seen this but I am super intrigued.

wiaderny01 · Apr 20, 2023

I'm getting lots of such links. No idea what's their purpose.

Vendettta · Apr 20, 2023

wiaderny01 said:
I'm getting lots of such links. No idea what's their purpose.

You mean, people are commenting these links on your blog?

wiaderny01 · Apr 20, 2023

Vendettta said:
You mean, people are commenting these links on your blog?

No. I see them via Ahrefs/Semrush

veropy0 · Apr 20, 2023

do you have sample code from k.html or from unknown php on your site?

IM Dude · Apr 20, 2023

Vendettta said:
You mean, people are commenting these links on your blog?

No read the OP, they are linking to images of your blog/site

TZ2011 · Apr 20, 2023

They are using your images (and server resources) in their pages. You can block hotlinking with .htaccess

Code:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^https://(www\.)yoursite.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteRule \.(gif|jpg|jpeg|bmp|zip|rar|mp3|flv|swf|xml|php|png|css|pdf)$ - [F]

DeadJoe · Apr 20, 2023

IM Dude said:
Where do you see the links? gsc, semrush ahrefs?

I see them in GSC and ahrefs

Vendettta said:
Can you show an example? I have never seen this but I am super intrigued.

No

wiaderny01 said:
I'm getting lots of such links. No idea what's their purpose.

Idk either

veropy0 said:
do you have sample code from k.html or from unknown php on your site?

No, they're just linking back to me

IM Dude · Apr 20, 2023

DeadJoe said:
I see them in GSC and ahrefs

No

Idk either

No, they're just linking back to me

Seeing in gsc is bad, if its coming from onr or a few domains report the domain to Google and ask them to deindex the domains for spamming.

Vendettta · Apr 20, 2023

DeadJoe said:
No

I hate to break it to you buddy, but if you post low quality and boring text, nobody is going to care to help you

DeadJoe · Apr 20, 2023

Vendettta said:
I hate to break it to you buddy, but if you post low quality and boring text, nobody is going to care to help you

Not looking to disclose my site with giving out links to a random nobody on the forum, my posts are plenty high quality and engaging all over the forum, you should go read them. Looking for people who have these links incoming, it is happening with almost all bigger sites. If you don't have a site as big, I really don't need your help/input, it is irrelevant.

Steptoe · Apr 20, 2023

Spam farms, scraping the images and content of ranking websites. They've been discussed a few times recently:
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/questions-about-the-external-chain-of-the-website.1482626/https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/h...cklinks-with-k-at-the-end-of-the-url.1459441/

DeadJoe · Apr 20, 2023

Steptoe said:
Spam farms, scraping the images and content of ranking websites. They've been discussed a few times recently:
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/questions-about-the-external-chain-of-the-website.1482626/https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/h...cklinks-with-k-at-the-end-of-the-url.1459441/

yeah, that's what I concluded as well. Thanks for linking those threads. It's been happening for a while, I've seen these links on my competitors as well.

TZ2011 · Apr 20, 2023

Did you tried .htaccess solution? You can also redirect them to some page, or other site.

Here is detailed lot of stuff https://perishablepress.com/creating-the-ultimate-htaccess-anti-hotlinking-strategy/

DeadJoe · Apr 20, 2023

TZ2011 said:
Did you tried .htaccess solution? You can also redirect them to some page, or other site.

Here is detailed lot of stuff https://perishablepress.com/creating-the-ultimate-htaccess-anti-hotlinking-strategy/

Thanks for that, I looked into the solution, I am going to implement that script this weekend and disable the ability for anyone to hotlink my images.

Wiktor6 · Jun 19, 2023

DeadJoe said:
Thanks for that, I looked into the solution, I am going to implement that script this weekend and disable the ability for anyone to hotlink my images.

Hi, any news on this topic? Were you able to successfully resolve it, or at least understand what's going on?

Davegnima · Sep 2, 2023

Ahrefs is still finding those links even after implementation of anti hotlinking in my htaccess. They are boring and harmful.
Anything we can do?

cruize800 · Oct 11, 2023

Davegnima said:
Ahrefs is still finding those links even after implementation of anti hotlinking in my htaccess. They are boring and harmful.
Anything we can do?

The .htaccess entries against hotlinking didn't work at my clients site as the webshop didn't deliver lazy loading pics anymore - so I need to dive into that more.

But I had success putting all the domains, from where the *-k.html links originated, into the GSC disavow file. Soon after that the ranking for the site improved to their old levels.

Wtf are these spammy links ending in "k.html"?

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