Automated Backlink Software as a Takedown Tool

Dealing with Copyright Infringers with Push of a Button

[mhansen]

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System: The following 4 messages were cut out of thread at: http://www.webmasterworld.com/link_development/4407154.htm [webmasterworld.com] by martinibuster - 12:14 pm on Feb 5, 2012 (utc -8)

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This won't be a popular answer to your questions... but it's how WE have used automated link building services like SENuke, XRumer, etc.

When we spot an MFA scraper site or a spam site that has copied or rewritten our content... we send the webmaster an email and tell him he has 24 hours to remove our content. We send a large number of URL's, and tell them it's "one of these", so they cannot really know for sure which one is ours. The ONLY choices we give them are to remove it, or we will report it to Google. We are non-negotiable. Period. We got tired of having our content scraped and rewritten, and tired of relying on Google to work it out and rank the proper site, when they have a vested interest in showing the one with Adsense.

If our content is not down within 24 hours, we get a low cost $5 gig at a project site and we blast the scaper URL's with 30,000 xrumer links, or 25,000 SENuke comments, etc etc.

Google might be correct in saying that you cannot badly harm a quality site with low quality backlinks, I'm not sure, I would never use these on my own site... But I assure you, you can knock an MFA scraper site off the serps with very little effort, and $15-$20 worth of Xrumer and SENuke gigs.

[mike2010]

yikes.

I guess now we know why almost nobody posts their websites here.

ummm....I guess i'll just keep everything the way it is.

nevermind..

[Planet13]

@ mhansen:

...we get a low cost $5 gig at a project site and we blast the scaper URL's with 30,000 xrumer links, or 25,000 SENuke comments, etc etc.

A couple of questions:

1) Do you blast the home page of the site? Or do you blast the specific page that is using your content? Because if you blast the specific page that is using your content, then it would probably be easy for the scraper site to figure out who did the blast.

2) Does it have to be a specific type of anchor text? (I.e., an exact match keyword?)

3) Also, how long does something like this need to take effect?

4) And finally, have you ever done it on a LEGITIMATE site (like an amazon page or an ebay page or an ehow page)? I find that these are the types of sties that are "borrowing" my content without my permission. Heck, even wikipedia uses my content with only minimal rewording.

[mhansen]

I don't want to give the impression we do this regularly, we don't. I would much rather work with a webmaster, even if they copied our content, to have it removed. We've used this on very few occasions, as a last resort. I have filled out spam reports. I have filed DMCA requests and followed up weeks later to have to jump through hoops to get OUR CONTENT removed and hope to get it removed from SERP's.

At some point, we decided that instead of dedicating several hours of our time for chasing, filing, and followup, it only takes 5 minutes and a few bucks to blast out 30,000 overnight backlinks and help the MFA site be found a bit easier.

@Planet13 -

1) Do you blast the home page of the site? Or do you blast the specific page that is using your content? Because if you blast the specific page that is using your content, then it would probably be easy for the scraper site to figure out who did the blast.

We use the homepage, and in the very few times we have done this... it's obvious the target phrase the MFA was targeting. Usually an exact match domain, and the existing backlink profile was easy to discern what their target terms were.

2) Does it have to be a specific type of anchor text? (I.e., an exact match keyword?)

We used terms that we found during a quick backlink check. Although it wasn't hard to tell the phrase the MFA was targeting by the domain names. keyword1keyword2keyword3.tld, with bold keyword1keyword2keyword3 headings.

3) Also, how long does something like this need to take effect?

I wish I had solid data but I don't. The last time we did this, the MFA site we helped Google locate was no longer ranking in 4-5 weeks.

4) And finally, have you ever done it on a LEGITIMATE site (like an amazon page or an ebay page or an ehow page)? I find that these are the types of sties that are "borrowing" my content without my permission. Heck, even wikipedia uses my content with only minimal rewording.

No. Fortunately, I haven't found any of our content in those places. Wikipedia on the other hand has almost verbatim copies of several of our pages from one of the sites we manage, and we've done nothing. Davey and Goliath kinda thing.

Edit: eHow has also copied us pretty extensively... I usually spot it by referrals in the logs. We get a good bit of referral visits from eHow and Wikipedia.

MH

[Planet13]

@ mhansen:

Thanks so much for the input.

...the MFA site we helped Google locate was no longer ranking in 4-5 weeks.

It's interesting the way that you phrase that. Combined with the length of time that it took google to remove the site from the SERPs, it seems like there isn't an "automatic" penalty form all those link coming in.

Instead it does seem like all the link building does is just bring attention to the site, and their own mischievous deeds are what actually do them in. Your just sort of using the links to "point a spotlight" at the site, and then let google figure it out on it's own that the site is not worthy of being in the SERPs.

Is that a fair summary of google's reaction?

[mhansen]

@ Planet13

it seems like there isn't an "automatic" penalty form all those link coming in

The actual effect may have come quicker (or not)... we aren't really hung up on rankings as much as we are conversions/sales, and only check our search ranking on the major terms we follow once monthly, at best. Possibly more often when a noticeable change in sales occurs, and we go looking for the answer to why.

Your just sort of using the links to "point a spotlight" at the site

I guess you could say that's correct. We don't really have any specific method or even statistical followup. We just hate seeing our content, and the time that we have taken to provide detailed quality information, being copied, used, and wrapped in made-for-adsense sites. So we throw thousands of low quality backlinks at it, and hope it disappears.

In the few times we have done it... we've seen results. That said, it could just have easily been a Panda refresh or some other algo change that caused the changes.

MH

[mike2010]

If our content is not down within 24 hours, we get a low cost $5 gig at a project site and we blast the scaper URL's with 30,000 xrumer links, or 25,000 SENuke comments, etc etc.

Google might be correct in saying that you cannot badly harm a quality site with low quality backlinks, I'm not sure, I would never use these on my own site... But I assure you, you can knock an MFA scraper site off the serps with very little effort, and $15-$20 worth of Xrumer and SENuke gigs.

well, hopefully Google is aware of all this...to prevent innocent sites from fallen victim.

[graeme_p]

Wikipedia on the other hand has almost verbatim copies of several of our pages from one of the sites we manage, and we've done nothing.

The last time I found my content on Wikipedia it was identified by a Wikipedia copyright bot and taken down before I got round to complaining.

You could also delete it yourself and add a note as to why.