Hacker using backlinks with malware causing penalty

Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi

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Hacker using backlinks with malware causing penalty

Rankings have tanked, seems nothing I can do

ch0keh0ld

11:09 pm on Oct 15, 2024 (gmt 0)

So there is a database of content and links that's being uploaded to hacked websites.
In this database is my client's URL and I'm positive this is the reason he can't rank for anything of value.

These links are so toxic, if I even put one in a Google doc, Google will flag it immediately with a huge warning banner,
and they will send me an email saying my account is at risk for sharing this kind of thing.

At first I sent take-down notices to these websites' hosting providers letting them know about the malware,
and while that worked, I noticed for every site I successfully got the data scrubbed, two more popped up in GSC.

I've disavowed the links but that doesn't seem to have helped. In the old days you could actually send an email
to Matt Cutts or his team for special situations like this...

Is there anything else I can do?

NeapTide

2:07 pm on Oct 16, 2024 (gmt 0)

Nothing you could do. Google doesn't give a damn about webmasters anymore. They are only busy in milking last drop out of this search cash cow before it dries up.
Disavow tool is useless now. They don't crawl submitted links anymore. Everything is handed over to bots that are wrecking havocs. Search Liaison has gone silent for months now.

not2easy

3:54 pm on Oct 16, 2024 (gmt 0)

Hi ch0keh0ld and welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]

I wouldn't waste time on disavow. That was introduced to give people a way to disavow backlinks they had created and regretted. I guess it is still there, but it is not intended to control unwanted links you did not create. I don't think they even look at disavows any more.

In my experience Google can spot and does remove such links on their own. It is less stressful and just as productive to ignore unwanted link schemes.

ch0keh0ld

4:25 pm on Oct 16, 2024 (gmt 0)

@not2easy - I've been doing this a long time. Google is pretty good, but it doesn't get everything right 100% of time. This is an unfortunate situation, whereby Google has penalized a good business unjustly and it's to the point of having to start over from scratch.

tangor

1:05 am on Oct 20, 2024 (gmt 0)

A complete PITA, you can change all the affected URLS to something different, which completely breaks the "backlinks" profile from good sites ... but does have the immediate effect to immediately terminating any activity beyond a 404 (recommended!) for g to see.

Do nothing, and lose. Do something, and lose. Your choice.*

_{* the 404s will at least show g YOU don't have those links and MAY prevent/correct any "penalty".}