just found some dodgy links to my site....

[mugatea]

About a year ago I found that my wordpress website had been hacked (probably by a bot) and tons of spammy files had been uploaded packed with links. I cleaned it all up and that was that.

Today I was using linkdiagnosis.com for the first time and found my link on very similar spammy pages that look like they've been uploaded to other peoples hacked worpress websites. The links contain junk anchor text and they are linking to hacked files and users that were on my website when it got hacked.

take a look at the screenshot and anchor links. This can't be good for me right?

What do I do?

 

[mugatea]

I got as many as I could get and listed them on a file and sent it to google's disavow tool.

Wonder if these links are harmful or not?

 

[MarcusMiller]

Disavow it, by all means, but I would not worry about this kind of thing too much. You have cleaned up the infection and this is clearly spam / hack related links so the fingerprint they leave is clearly identifiable as so.

It's good that you have cleaned it up, but don't lose any sleep over it.

 

[SetupaCompany]

There is also a theory that the Google Disavow tool exists purely to alert Google to the spammy sites that people are using to build links. Therefore submitting them to Google may do no more than alert Google to the fact the links are bad - it could even negatively effect you if this theory turns out to be correct.

You should try contacting the owners of these sites and try and get the links removed. Chances are it will be a lot of effort for very little reward so you need to look at your overall link profile and decide the risk/reward ratio of doing this.

 

[Cheapwebdesign]

Just to let you know the disavow tool is just another way for Google to catch as much data as possible to then use in the future. I would stay well clear of it. You can find services online which able you to grab the webmaster's information from each of those sites and then try and remove them manually. If you don't have time to do this nor want to do it maybe have a think at how much is if affecting your site/traffic etc and potentially look at buying a new domain and starting again.

 

[Websitehandyman]

If you are going to try and remove such links you better be prepared to work 247 or employed a workforce in the hundreds. If you post links to social networks those links will possibley end up on such sites that use scripts to pull in content on keywords.

It's not all bad - one of my sites ended up on the home page of a celeb and brought some decent traffic for a while

 

[justguy]

This is a well rounded article on the Disavow tool. http://www.seomoz.org/blog/googles-disavow-tool-take-a-deep-breath

I am afraid I do not subscribe to the tin-hat brigade that think Google have only written the tool to go after sites - they have more than enough data in their servers to find this out without skulduggery.

Another good item on the subject of spammy links from Matt Cutts

http://searchengineland.com/matt-cutts-qa-how-to-use-google-link-disavow-tool-137664

One warning from Matt at Pubcon 2012 he said "Most sites should not use this tool" .. twice in the same slide!

 

[kevinclarke]

Get them removed before they star creating problems