How to Deal with Trackback Spamming?

Discussion in 'WordPress' started by Blogspotter, Sep 28, 2006.

  1. #1
    Everyday, Most bloggers usually check the who links to my site on technorati, and each time we see a new link or trackback, it gives us this small pleasure. But of late, the pleasure seem to be very shortlived.

    Been getting a lot of new trackbacks, but when you click on the site linking to you, it takes you to a non-sensical MFA site, more annoying are the ones that redirects you . Have you also been encountering these problems.

    It is true that most of the bloggers who care about links, enough to check technorati linkbacks everyday will easily spot an MFA, and will mostlikely leave the site.

    But is there some otherway they are benifitting? The spammers?
     
    Blogspotter, Sep 28, 2006 IP
  2. Franck S

    Franck S Peon

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    #2
    I am in the same situation.

    I've read that it benefit the spammer with all the inbounds links for them. It helps their ranking with Google.

    My major concern is does that can harm our blogs on Google or Yahoo MSN?
     
    Franck S, Sep 28, 2006 IP
  3. mad4

    mad4 Peon

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    #3
    Make the links nofollow.
     
    mad4, Sep 28, 2006 IP
  4. DomainMagnate

    DomainMagnate Illustrious Member

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    #4
    any link has value, in yahoo and msn it might help, in google that shouldn't hurt.
    I also remember reading some research where it was stated that scraper sites actually help you get rankings by linking to you and even by scraping your content.. which sounds weird
     
    DomainMagnate, Sep 28, 2006 IP
  5. Blogspotter

    Blogspotter Notable Member

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    #5
    It won't give inbound links to the spammers, since most trackbacks are nofollow by default.

    It will not harm as long as you are not linking out to them. But I think, if your trackbacks don't have a nofollow, google will see you as linking to them and might penalise you since google penalizes for outbound links as well if you link to suspicious or blacklisted sites, like link farms or known Black hate MFA operators.
     
    Blogspotter, Sep 28, 2006 IP
  6. Blogspotter

    Blogspotter Notable Member

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    #6
    If the scrapper sites are good, they will give you a good ranking. But the problem is when the scrapper sites rank better than you for the same article on Google SERP :D
     
    Blogspotter, Sep 28, 2006 IP
  7. DomainMagnate

    DomainMagnate Illustrious Member

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    #7
    if they do than you haven't done any proper seo :p
    well anyway they usually get banned/penalized fast, so you'll get your rankings back with new links :D
     
    DomainMagnate, Sep 28, 2006 IP
  8. Blogspotter

    Blogspotter Notable Member

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    #8
    Problem is they manage to do a better SEO.. what with millions of track Backs some are bound to miss a nofollow.. :)
     
    Blogspotter, Sep 28, 2006 IP
  9. Franck S

    Franck S Peon

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    #9
    What should I do to be sure the links is no follow in wordpress?

    And do you advise me to delete those trackback?

     
    Franck S, Oct 16, 2006 IP
  10. andreww

    andreww Peon

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    #10
    I'd delete trackbacks to splogs, just like i'd delete spam comments.

    they're coming to you for scraped content anyway, so they'll continue scraping you regardless of whether you post their trackback (i wouldnt...) or delete it.
     
    andreww, Oct 16, 2006 IP
  11. DomainMagnate

    DomainMagnate Illustrious Member

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    #11
    trackacks have nothing to do with scraping :D
    Blackhats very rarely scrape sites, only search results or autogenerated content.
    But spam trackbacks are very easy to block - just install akismet, or spam karma
    Also i usually check posts that get more comments and trackbacks and block trackbacks on those posts - I only blocked one and that decreased spam trackbacks by more than 90%!
     
    DomainMagnate, Oct 16, 2006 IP
  12. Indian

    Indian Peon

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    #12
    Does Google really follow the "no-follow" rule?
     
    Indian, Oct 16, 2006 IP
  13. godinu

    godinu Peon

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    #13
    i had a serious trackback spam issue on a b2evolution-run website. someone there suggested i add the term "http:" (without quotes) to the blacklist of spam terms. That got rid of every spam trackback in one fell swoop. It may have deleted a couple legit trackbacks too, but it was worth it.
    (The problem in this case was spammers tracking back on really old posts that I haven't read in a while -- there were literally hundreds of trackbacks on several posts.)
    If you use wordpress, there's always spam karma or akismet, as someone has mentioned.
     
    godinu, Oct 16, 2006 IP
  14. DomainMagnate

    DomainMagnate Illustrious Member

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    #14
    it does (well, by most part), but thats not gonna save your blog or stop the spammers :D
     
    DomainMagnate, Oct 16, 2006 IP
    Indian likes this.
  15. Indian

    Indian Peon

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    #15
    I have done some research on links placed under the no-follow tag. I have discovered that a website is ranking very high on Google for a quite competetive keyword and has 95% of the backlinks from comment spam. I've seen many experts say that the no-follow thing by Google is nothing but a joke.
     
    Indian, Oct 16, 2006 IP
  16. Zeo

    Zeo Active Member

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    #16
    On my WP blog, I use Trackback Validator plugin.
     
    Zeo, Oct 19, 2006 IP
  17. abdussamad

    abdussamad Active Member

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    #17
    On the blog software that I use there is an option to check whether the site that sent a trackback does infact link to your site or not. This usually removes all trackback spam for me. Is this what this WP plugin does?
     
    abdussamad, Oct 22, 2006 IP
  18. Franck S

    Franck S Peon

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    #18
    Thanks I see that I got to use Akismet.

    I too noticed hundreds of Spam Trackbacks on Authorithy blogs like Seth Godin and others.
     
    Franck S, Oct 23, 2006 IP