Strange Links

Marilyn Braun · Jan 2, 2006

I just searched for my blog on Google and I found that someone had linked it to a porn site. It's also been linked in a financial planning site filled with links (I guess it would be an SEO site).

Is there a reason for this?

My husband says it has something to do with ranking but I'm not so sure about that. Unless you're searching for my blog and it's subject, how can it be high in ranking? Or high enough that someone with a porn or financial site would list my site amongst theirs?

paprikapink · Jan 4, 2006

Maybe because it has a woman's name in the name?

That's the downside of an unregulated medium that's popular with adolescent boys. (It can mean that adolescence has no upper age limit.)

Dawno · Jan 4, 2006

How did you enter the search for it? I tried a couple different ways and didn't get the same results.

Richard · Jan 5, 2006

Marilyn Braun said:
I just searched for my blog on Google and I found that someone had linked it to a porn site. It's also been linked in a financial planning site filled with links (I guess it would be an SEO site).

I'm not seeing this happen either.

My husband says it has something to do with ranking but I'm not so sure about that. Unless you're searching for my blog and it's subject, how can it be high in ranking? Or high enough that someone with a porn or financial site would list my site amongst theirs?

That's not really how Google ranks. There's no real benefit from just linking to a site, or at least, none in practical terms (it works the other way, in the ultra-ultra condensed version, the more high-profile sites that link to you, the more relevant Google deems your site). Sticking your URL onto a links page won't have any benefit.

What you DO often get is 'referral spam'. There are two kinds, one targeting the site owner, another targetting the site visitor. This is when a webmaster tricks the server into thinking it's received a visit from a web page that it's not actually linked from. Sometimes this is to catch the attention of the site owner (usually to sell them software to inflict the same crap on other people), most of the time it's done in the hope that the site publishes its visitor logs somewhere (thus casting a vote for the origin site that may not mean much on its own, but goes with a whole load of others to boost its rankings in the Texas Hold-Em lists or whatever).

Comment spam's the same idea, except the links are hidden in comments rather than pretending to be direct links.

Marilyn Braun · Jan 5, 2006

Dawno said:
How did you enter the search for it? I tried a couple different ways and didn't get the same results.

I searched under google.ca with "marilyn's royal blog" (in quotes). It's on the third page. The site is titled as 'Marilyn's' but it's actually a porn site.

My link also comes up in Yahoo as under 'Marilyn Monroe's official site' which is actually a discount shopping site. A send flowers to Princess Margaret in Toronto page, and a site called financial solider - although it's not listed in the actual site itself.

Richard · Jan 5, 2006

(clicks site) Oh, right.

Whoever runs it probably just scraped Blogger looking for keywords - it'll have a billion or so, naming different blogs, it's nothing personal. The trouble with gaming Google is that it's free to do, so you can waste all sorts of time. It's annoying, but it's the kind of thing that gets buried deep within the search engines.

(And occasionally is even useful, in a...uh...off-handed kind of way, making it look like your site is influential enough to be worth pornsquatting. Not that this makes it any better, of course.)

Dawno · Jan 5, 2006

google.ca! *headsmack* I looked under the US version. duh.

paprikapink · Jan 5, 2006

Richard said:
I'm not seeing this happen either.

That's not really how Google ranks. There's no real benefit from just linking to a site, or at least, none in practical terms (it works the other way, in the ultra-ultra condensed version, the more high-profile sites that link to you, the more relevant Google deems your site). Sticking your URL onto a links page won't have any benefit.

What you DO often get is 'referral spam'. There are two kinds, one targeting the site owner, another targetting the site visitor. This is when a webmaster tricks the server into thinking it's received a visit from a web page that it's not actually linked from. Sometimes this is to catch the attention of the site owner (usually to sell them software to inflict the same crap on other people), most of the time it's done in the hope that the site publishes its visitor logs somewhere (thus casting a vote for the origin site that may not mean much on its own, but goes with a whole load of others to boost its rankings in the Texas Hold-Em lists or whatever).

Comment spam's the same idea, except the links are hidden in comments rather than pretending to be direct links.

I did not understand any of this. I only mention it in case anyone else didn't get it; I didn't want them to feel alone.

Marilyn Braun · Jan 6, 2006

Richard said:
(clicks site) Oh, right.

Whoever runs it probably just scraped Blogger looking for keywords - it'll have a billion or so, naming different blogs, it's nothing personal. The trouble with gaming Google is that it's free to do, so you can waste all sorts of time. It's annoying, but it's the kind of thing that gets buried deep within the search engines.

(And occasionally is even useful, in a...uh...off-handed kind of way, making it look like your site is influential enough to be worth pornsquatting. Not that this makes it any better, of course.)

I don't have a problem with being linked to another site - who wouldn't? if someone finds my site interesting enough to link to it, or put it on their blogroll, then it's flattering.

Outside of that, I'm occassionally linked to by other sites because of the subjects I've written about. I've written about royal weddings and royal wedding dresses and found my link on pages that list all kinds of links for wedding info. That makes sense to me because it's related.

But a porn site is bizarre. I'd prefer my link not come up, but I guess I can't really do anything about it. At least it's on the third search results page as opposed to the first page. I'm going to assume that most people won't look beyond the first search results.

Richard · Jan 6, 2006

They haven't linked to you. No human being there knows your blog exists. Their computers have just plucked the words out of the web and stuck them on the site.

Watch out for linking scripts as well - usually they'll say something like 'Hello, I found your site while browsing for THING and think it's great! I've put a link to your site on mine, please do the same for me! KTHXBYE!', which sounds okay, except that it's just another bit of spam, and the sites they're talking about are just endless lists of URLs that nobody ever visits or clicks on.

Marilyn Braun · Jan 6, 2006

I'm not saying that those type of sites have deliberately linked to me, but when I see my link on them, regardless of how it got there, it makes sense because it's related to the subject. Porn is not related to the subject, although I did write an article called Prince Charles - Royal Sex Symbol. Maybe I shouldn't be so surprised then.

Since I put the word verification I haven't had any spam like that (love your site come see mine!) When I've been contacted to add someone to my site in return for a link. It's been a legitimate royalty site related to mine.

Richard · Jan 6, 2006

Hi! Welcome to the internet!

(Just kidding ;-))

Strange Links

Marilyn Braun

Royal Bibliomaniac

paprikapink

Bored fanatic

Dawno

Shiny!

Richard

13th Triskaidekaphobe

Marilyn Braun

Royal Bibliomaniac

Richard

13th Triskaidekaphobe

Dawno

Shiny!

paprikapink

Bored fanatic

Marilyn Braun

Royal Bibliomaniac

Richard

13th Triskaidekaphobe

Marilyn Braun

Royal Bibliomaniac

Richard

13th Triskaidekaphobe