Hidden links help you own Google search results seriously

[mobilegame]

I' ve got hit by Panda, and I do not know why. Low quality content? Seriously? My site got no brand signals, I admit.

But I do see definitely new site with lots of dup and paid-hidden-links ranks top on Google search result.

I started a thread yesterday here [webmasterworld.com...] and I asked web masters here to give it a try. But now I figure it out.

This site got quite a lot of hidden links purchased from some hackers who place links on other websites they do not own just because they hacked those websites and gained web shell.

And Google helps this black SEO techniques by pushing those sites buying hidden links to the top of their results. Shouldn't Google devalue or ignore those links if they could not punish those sites buying links?

This is not the only site buying hidden links, I myself have seen quite a few.

[tedster]

hidden links purchased from some hackers who place links on other websites they do not own just because they hacked those websites

You are talking about parasite links or parasite hosting, and yes... they can work for a while. But only for a while, because there are two facts to take into account:

1. Google is after this practice, when they can identify it and they can eventually.
2. Even more important, in most countries it is ILLEGAL.

This is beyond black hat or spam - as I said, it breaks the law. If I found someone doing this and ranking well, I'd have no qualms about reporting them.

[Planet13]

@ mobilegame:

How did you find the hidden links that are linking to your competitor? Did you use yahoo or goolge and the linkdomain: function?

You said in the other thread you started that you did not see them when you searched in Open Site Explorer.

[mobilegame]

@tedster, I know it's illegal in most countries, but it's not rare in developing countries where a great number of government websites have been attacked and no hackers have been sentenced for that -:)

@Planet13, you need to use Yahoo site explorer in local language.

[wheel]

This is beyond black hat or spam - as I said, it breaks the law. If I found someone doing this and ranking well, I'd have no qualms about reporting them.

Yeah, that's a report for sure. I never could be bothered to figure out how to report a site to Google. I will however take the time to call the webmaster that owns the site and let them know they've been hacked. And I have occassionally spent an hour or two following the trail of hacked sites and calling webmasters. That's even better than reporting it to Google, because it gets it cleaned up from the webmaster's site first, then Google will figure out the link is gone next crawl.

Unbelievably, I had one guy angrily hang up on me when I called to tell him his site had been hacked. And frankly, nobody's ever really happy with me when I call :).

But back on topic, it's not that hard to crush those sites. If they're using hacked sites to get links you can get rid of their backlinks either by reporting to Google or just calling the webmaster who's site got hacked. Either way, they're gone. In this case you're not helpless.

[lucy24]

I had one guy angrily hang up on me when I called to tell him his site had been hacked.

The hacker was giving him a cut?

And frankly, nobody's ever really happy with me when I call

They're afraid the person who writes their paycheck will discover that they haven't set foot on the site since 2007.

[tedster]

Some unscrupulous hackers have been known to do the damage and then call up for protection money. You never know what mindset or past experience you're running into when you cold call someone.

[wheel]

Huh, never thought of it that way.

I've found that the websites that get hacked are normally small independents. I've left messages with kids, stuff like that.

[Planet13]

I've left messages with kids...

Who are most likely their webmaster...