links from gambling sites

obietemp · #1 (**permalink**) 12-16-2005, 10:39 AM

Hi
When I check my stats to see referring links from other pages I always have referrers from Texas Holdem sites, viagra sites, etc..usually just one from each of these sites. Of course there is no way I have shared links with these sites and I have searched their codes to see if there is anything hidden. What's going on here? Are visitors REALLY coming from these sites (and how would they be doing that). I suspect it is kind of spam or malicious code that someone is manipulating but I haven't a clue how to stop it. Is my server to blame?

any ideas?

obie

Bidera · #2 (**permalink**) 12-19-2005, 09:56 AM

I imagine (that is hope) a few errant links from questionable sites would not really affect SEs.

I do not have any inside knowledge, but guessing that SEs do not penalize for such links as long as they are not over a certain percentage.

obietemp · #3 (**permalink**) 12-19-2005, 10:59 AM

I'd like to know how someone is linking to my site and I would like to know how to stop it. As far as I can tell there are absolutely no connections or links to my site but my stats still show usually one visit a month. This only started about 6 months ago.

I'm mostly wondering HOW they're doing it, WHY they're doing it and if it's detrimental to any security.

Thanks.

adbart · #4 (**permalink**) 12-19-2005, 11:39 AM

I wouldn't think it would be detrimental to your security.

Also, don't worry about it hurting your search engine ranking. Whilst you can be held liable for people that you link to (as you would expect), you can't be held liable for people who link to you.

Because of this, I'm pretty confident that Google & others wouldn't penalise your ranking.

braknews · #5 (**permalink**) 12-19-2005, 12:25 PM

From what I have read the general feeling from all the SEO gurus us that incoming links from "bad" sites do not harm you. If they did all of your competitors could submit links to your site to every link & spam farm in the world to make your site drop off the surface of the earth.

I have had this experience with links from gambling, dubious Rx, & pornography sites linking to my sites. It is then followed a couple of weeks later with a request for a link exchange.

obietemp · #6 (**permalink**) 12-19-2005, 01:51 PM

but HOW are they linking to my site when I can't find any links on their site that point to mine. I'm not worried about ranking, just in the HOW.

just-trying-to-help · #7 (**permalink**) 12-20-2005, 10:06 PM

Just one way a scraper site can fool the search engines in believing they are linking to you (it is said you get better ranked when linking to on-topic sites).
Copy the below web page as anyname.html on your desktop and open it.
As you will notice, when you view the page it's not exactly what's in the source code.

<HTML><HEAD>
<script>window.status=' ';</script><title>Rivertree web design</title></HEAD><FRAMESET border=0 rows="100%,*" frameborder="no" marginleft=0 margintop=0 marginright=0 marginbottom=0>
<frame src="http://www.river-tree.net" scrolling=auto frameborder="no" border=0 noresize><frame topmargin="0" marginwidth=0 scrolling=no marginheight=0 frameborder="no" border=0 noresize>
<body>RIVER TREE WEB DESIGN - River Tree Web
Design is dedicated to the backbone of America's commerce, the entrepreneur.RIVER TREE WEB DESIGN - River Tree Web
Design is dedicated to the backbone of America's commerce, the entrepreneur.RIVER TREE WEB DESIGN - River Tree Web
Design is dedicated to the backbone of America's commerce, the entrepreneur.RIVER TREE WEB DESIGN - River Tree Web
Design is dedicated to the backbone of America's commerce, the entrepreneur.RIVER TREE WEB DESIGN - River Tree Web
Design is dedicated to the backbone of America's commerce, the entrepreneur.RIVER TREE WEB DESIGN - River Tree Web
Design is dedicated to the backbone of America's commerce, the entrepreneur.RIVER TREE WEB DESIGN - River Tree Web
Design is dedicated to the backbone of America's commerce, the entrepreneur.RIVER TREE WEB DESIGN - River Tree Web
Design is dedicated to the backbone of America's commerce, the entrepreneur.RIVER TREE WEB DESIGN - River Tree Web
Design is dedicated to the backbone of America's commerce, the entrepreneur.RIVER TREE WEB DESIGN - River Tree Web
Design is dedicated to the backbone of America's commerce, the entrepreneur.RIVER TREE WEB DESIGN - River Tree Web
Design is dedicated to the backbone of America's commerce, the entrepreneur.RIVER TREE WEB DESIGN - River Tree Web
Design is dedicated to the backbone of America's commerce, the entrepreneur.RIVER TREE WEB DESIGN - River Tree Web
Design is dedicated to the backbone of America's commerce, the entrepreneur.RIVER TREE WEB DESIGN - River Tree Web
Design is dedicated to the backbone of America's commerce, the entrepreneur.RIVER TREE WEB DESIGN - River Tree Web
Design is dedicated to the backbone of America's commerce, the entrepreneur.
</body></FRAMESET></HTML>

This is one of many black-hat optimization techniques used.
No harm no fowl. I have well over a thousand of these scraper sites linking to me in this fashion and my rankings are still stable. Nothing to worry about.

adbart · #8 (**permalink**) 12-21-2005, 05:39 AM

There are tons of cloaking techniques that these guys can do. But like I said before, it's not going to harm your SERP.