With the joys of Google's Page Ranking system, comes people trying to piggyback off your successes by sneaking links of their websites into yours anyway they can. This might not be so bad if it weren't for the fact that these sites are generally those of hackers, phishers, and the sale of dodgy products. But alas there are some ways that can help minimize the damage these little buggers can do, you just need to understand the problem...
The link spammers will most likely try to get their links onto your web sites using one of the following three ways:
- Hacking your website and adding the links themselves.
- Putting their links into your pages using a comment feature (usually 100s of keywords are added by them for good measure).
- Leaving spam posts in your forums with their dirty links.
It is also likely that a bot of some sort will be doing all of the actual ground work for link spamming, although some spammers are known to outsource their work.
The main problem with blocking the spammers is that they are quite commonly not on their own IP address, and on that of a throwaway web host (one they have used stolen credit cards to pay for), or on an address hacked off an innocent internet user. So if blocking IP addresses is the route you decide to take, it is always a good idea to leave contact information in the 403 error page (the page banned people will see), just in case you block the wrong person.
Another problem is that the spammers are always using new domain names, so even when you block certain websites from appearing in your comments/forum they will always be coming up with new ones (or could also be using link redirection services).
So how can one work against these comment spammers? Well the following steps are known to reduce the spam (although sometimes it can be near impossible to remove completely).
- Make all external links on your web site 'no-follow' so your precious page rank is not helping the spammers.
- Moderate all comments and only allow through those which are genuine. It is also a good idea to check out the web sites of those commenting to ensure they are above board.
- Block the IP addressed of repeat spammers, as those which repeat often are likely to be more permanent for the spammers.
Remember not to let the link spammers get you down, it can be annoying, however your website must be pretty special if you are getting so many spammers trying to get links on there.
This article was written by Ryan Bailey, an experienced Web Developer.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ryan_Bailey
