Question about effect of spam (hacked) backlinks

[mcreedy]

Hi folks,

Last year one of my eCommerce websites was hacked. The hackers added a php script inside a folder which started creating hundreds of spam html pages inside that folder and linked those pages to lots of spam forums around the globe.

At the time my main focus was to stop the hack, remove the offending files and change site passwords etc and continue with the eCommerce business side.

I've never put any thought into backlinks, my theory was if my customers want to link to my site then great. I dont ask for links, dont do any link affiliates or anything like that.

I guess my question is, would you use G reconsideration tool, is it a no brainer here? I don't know if G have actually penalized the site, it still gets traffic but not as much, but that could be related to something else.

All the files that were added by the hack are gone and showing a 404 in G webmaster, but the spam forums are still linking to the domain and its thousands of links by the looks of things

Also I launched a new site a few months ago, and traffic to the site is poor. I had placed a banner for this new site on a small video site I owne that has about 20,000 pages. Would G penalize the new site for having so many immediate backlinks from that video site? I never added the banner for backlinks I added it to get coverage for the new site.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[tedster]

Hello mcreedy, and welcome to the forums.

Yes, I would do a Reconsideration Request in your situation (unless your Google Search traffic has not dropped.) This thread may help you Reconsideration Request Tips - from Google Search Quality Team [webmasterworld.com]

[mcreedy]

Hello tedster, whats your thoughts on the new website I liked the video site to? Would G penalize the new site for linking a banner on the video site with around 20,000 pages (20,000 links to a new domian)

[tedster]

I'd just be guessing there - too many details play into the answer.

The bottom line for me is that, at best, such links will barely count at all. You need to do much more natural link acquisition than that in order to rank well and in a way that is relatively future-proof.

[Robert Charlton]

I myself would do something to make sure that the 20,000 banner links do not transmit PageRank, and... more particularly... that they don't look like they were intended to. If the setup allows you to "nofollow" the links, I'd do that before filing a reconsideration request.

Even though the links will barely count at all, Google may not know that you know that. They can only guess at intention. I'd make the intention very clear, so they get the message that you're not trying to game them.