"This Site May Harm Your Computer" sites hurting my rankings?

[Jez123]

I have 2 sites that have scraped my content and are listed by google as "This Site May Harm Your Computer" could this have caused a penalty on my site? My site has lost most of it's SERPs and appears on page 2 for its own snippets of text.

Also, on one of the SERPS where I found my site (on page 12) Goto has been inserted in front of the title. This is not present on the site only in the results.

I had links to my own Penguin affected site from this one and I am wondering if it's part of the problem with the other site.

Any idea what I can do about this? I can't see any other reason why it would be penalised.

[goodroi]

If your site has been scraped, why not deal with the stolen content? Contact the offending website, contact their hosting company, or file a DMCA report.

As for your backlinks, I think you might want to re-evaluate your link strategy. Is it truly organic? Are the backlinks likely to drive referral traffic via real click-throughs or did you manufacture these links just for their link juice?

[Jez123]

Hi Goodroi, No, there is no link strategy, just a link from a sub ten page site on the same topic. I didn't put the site up to link from it - if I did I would have linked all my sites from it. In fact the only reason the site exists at all was as a replacement for my main site when google's Florida update hit and my site vanished for weeks. Do you not have any lin ks at all from your own sites? Does nobody? I thought it was acceptable to link from your own on topic sites as long as it wasn't overboard.

The problem is that the sites that have scraped the content are not cached (I expect google removes cache if it's an infected site) and I wanted to know the extent of the copied content and if it links to my sites but also don't want to open the sites and get infected myself.

[Jez123]

In addition to your reply - what about all the thousands of blogs and blogger sites that people set up JUST to link to their own? Organic? How organic is ANY sites backlinks? They are not and I would question anyone that said they were.

[goodroi]

Every serious website needs a link strategy. Google has been very clear that backlinks are important to rankings. So you need to be smart & creative enough to know how to gain backlinks in a non-spammy way. If your backlinks are poor, your rankings will likely also be poor.

I would also suggest you be careful when it comes to spammy link tactics. You may think your competition is benefiting from it but that benefit could be short term till they are penalized or it might not even be a benefit but rather a drag on their other link tactics that are the real reasons behind their ranking power. Do good research and come up with link strategy that works for your site.

Good luck with your backlinks and your duplicated content.

[Lame_Wolf]

How organic is ANY sites backlinks? They are not and I would question anyone that said they were.

Sorry, I disagree with this. I have plenty of organic/natural links to my sites. People have liked it, and then linked to it - without ever contacting me. I do the same with my outbound links.

[Jez123]

Sorry, I disagree with this. I have plenty of organic/natural links to my sites

So do I.

I still stand by what I said. Is EVERY one of your links organic? Or do you have some from blogs you have created? Some from friends sites or your own semi related site? Articles, directories including DMOZ?

[Jez123]

I would also suggest you be careful when it comes to spammy link tactics.

Where did you get that it's a spammy link tactic? It's a closely related site that I happen to own. I don't see anything anywhere that says that you can't link from your own stuff within reason.

[Lame_Wolf]

I still stand by what I said. Is EVERY one of your links organic?

No, you said... "How organic is ANY sites backlinks? They are not and I would question anyone that said they were."

Or do you have some from blogs you have created?

You don't know me very well do you. ;) If you did, you'll know I hate blogs with a passion.

Some from friends sites or your own semi related site?

The person[s] became friends AFTER building the site, and their sites are 100% related. I do not have semi-related sites.

Articles,

LOL, no.

directories including DMOZ?

Only DMOZ, but that's not worth anything. They are not what they used to be, nor worth the effort in gaining such links. They could remove it today, and I won't be bothered about it.

[Robert Charlton]

Do you not have any links at all from your own sites? Does nobody?

I strain to avoid it (probably to an unusual degree), and I would never interlink for link juice... only when necessary because of existing business relationship.

I thought it was acceptable to link from your own on topic sites as long as it wasn't overboard.

We're likely to have very different definitions of the word "overboard", and that in part may depends on the quality and independence of the link profiles of the sites, whether they're competing for the same keywords, whether they're different in purpose, and whether the links are pushing keyword anchor text.

I didn't put the site up to link from it - if I did I would have linked all my sites from it. In fact the only reason the site exists at all was as a replacement for my main site when google's Florida update hit and my site vanished for weeks.

The Florida note could be an interesting clue to what is going on. Among other things, Florida hit linked sites that were under common control.

I don't see anything anywhere that says that you can't link from your own stuff within reason.

"Within reason" becomes part of the "not overboard" discussion. Google actually does say quite a bit about linking. I don't know whether it applies to you, but since your other site got hit by Penguin, I'm thinking the following might at least suggest some possibilities....

Link Schemes
Webmaster Guidelines
[support.google.com...]

However, some webmasters engage in link exchange schemes and build partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. This is in violation of Google's Webmaster Guidelines and can negatively impact your site's ranking in search results....

[Jez123]

Hi Robert, thanks. I have read the guidelines and it does not mention anything about linking from your own on topic site. None of my sites are "interlinked" as such but some of the on topic ones do have a link to another but never reciprocal and never excessively. If that shows up as a link farm / scheme / strategy I would be absolutely amazed (given what I have seen get through the net as it were). In hindsight, probably nofollow would have been the thing to do but most of these sites pre date nofollow.

[Robert Charlton]

I have read the guidelines and it does not mention anything about linking from your own on topic site.

Jez123 - As I read the guidelines, they do mention something related to your situation... particularly if there were a whole bunch of your "your own on topic sites" linking to you and these comprise the bulk of your link profile. This corresponds to "partner pages" in the guidelines.

See more discussion on linking to one's own site's in this thread....

Linking self-owned sites bad? (per Google)
http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/3863422.htm [webmasterworld.com]

We've completely lost track of the "this site may harm your computer" part of the discussion, btw. It may be that the discussion really is about backlinks.

[Jez123]

Thanks Robert. Yes, the thread got commandeered by "holier-than-thou's" who just want to tell the world how devout they are. Reading that thread, the links from that site fall into the "done with caution" category.

I started a thread on another forum as I got sick of having to defend myself posting here. I seems that if anything goes wrong with your site you are a spammer.