Growing SEO spam on Bitcointalk

[ABCbits]

First of all, here's definition SEO spam for those who're not aware of such term.

SEO spam attack is a black hat SEO technique used by hackers to manipulate search engine results by filling your website with spam links and keywords. Search engines like Google typically reject spammy links to fake products, pharmaceutical ads, and adult, or gambling sites. But, they may mistakenly index the spam pages on your site due to their SEO value and authority.

While SEO spam usually removed on this forum in short interval, in past few months i notice higher frequency of SEO spam on some boards on this forum. In addition, i notice some technique which used to evade removal/report such as,

1. Using white color and small font size.

Code:

[SIZE=1][url=ffstylishname[dot]com][color=#FFFFFF]Free Fire name style[/color][/url][/SIZE]

Example of the BBcode was taken and modified from https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5441463.msg62717802#msg62717802. Backup link available on https://loyce.club/archive/posts/6271/62717802.html.

2. Use AI generated text to make it less spammy.


Screenshot taken from https://loyce.club/archive/posts/6266/62660310.html

3. Create reply which contain generic response/AI generated text. But later it's edited add SEO spam link, which wouldn't be noticed by most member.

4. Make reply/thread which actually engage some discussion, but padded with non relevant link. An example was mentioned on How are the rules on "link dumps"? Should this be forbidden?.

Those technique has some success where some of those SEO spam post/thread manage to last few months to years before i accidentally notice and report those. So i'm here with following suggestion,
1. Improve bot/tool which detect spam (such as MindlessElectron) to include post which combine URL with small text size or unusual color.
2. Member should report post which contain non relevant link even when the text/content doesn't look spammy with reason "SEO spam".
3. Agreeing with @NotATether post, all links posted by user should have rel="ugc" attribute.

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[LoyceV]

But later it's edited add SEO spam link, which wouldn't be noticed by most member.

Those are hard to find, but it has been going on for years. I report them with "Spammer. Nuke please.".
But they're hard to find, and I only find them when I stumble upon them. MindlessElectron can't find them, as it only sees new posts.

One way to find them all would be if Bitcointalk creates a page like patrol, but for edited posts only.

[jokers10]

While SEO spam usually removed on this forum in short interval

Sometimes not. Here we can see a message left three and a half years ago (I deleted link in a quote not to help a spammer):

No, I think Anyone is not a writer here.
If you know more about Top SEO Company in India, IndeedSEO is the most trusted SEO Company which offers top quality services in one package. Also, improve ranking and generate more traffics.

Several months after we can see that someone even quoted this spammy message:

No, I think Anyone is not a writer here.
If you know more about Top SEO Company in India, IndeedSEO is the most trusted SEO Company which offers top quality services in one package. Also, improve ranking and generate more traffics.

Even if someone is not a writer, SEO will not make him
You have to have a good knowledge of language and syntax is you want to be a good writer.
Good way to promote your paid services but this will not attract people to pay you.

And this was more than 6 months ago, so it's not advised to report it anymore... And we have:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5220511.msg53728158#msg53728158 by the same author
and also quoted https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5220511.msg53728368#msg53728368
and what we can find in just one single topic for years:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1547081.msg59997154#msg59997154
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1547081.msg32883554#msg32883554
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1547081.msg21343659#msg21343659
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1547081.msg23507673#msg23507673
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1547081.msg31166678#msg31166678
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1547081.msg31253146#msg31253146
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1547081.msg20226790#msg20226790
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1547081.msg21089853#msg21089853
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1547081.msg17551412#msg17551412 and quoted https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1547081.msg17551540#msg17551540

I'd say that SEO spam is not always deleted fast and I don't think it should be discouraged to report this if it is older than 6 months.

[LoyceV]

I'd say that SEO spam is not always deleted fast and I don't think it should be discouraged to report this if it is older than 6 months.

I still report old spam, and it still gets deleted. The Old post warning isn't meant to keep spam:

Old post: We generally do not moderate posts this old for on-topicness, substantiveness, multi-posting, and other "cleanliness" issues.

[jokers10]

I'd say that SEO spam is not always deleted fast and I don't think it should be discouraged to report this if it is older than 6 months.

I still report old spam, and it still gets deleted. The Old post warning isn't meant to keep spam:

Old post: We generally do not moderate posts this old for on-topicness, substantiveness, multi-posting, and other "cleanliness" issues.

Well, let's try. I just reported all the posts I mentioned in my post, including with quoted spam. Let's see what will happen. Hope even spam aged with several years will be removed, including that in quotes.

Upd. What is direct spam is already deleted (took several minutes), what was quoted is not yet. If it will not be deleted from the posts with quotes we have another one problem: if someone will help a spammer with quotation it could stay. Don't quote spammers!

[Xal0lex]

I'd say that SEO spam is not always deleted fast and I don't think it should be discouraged to report this if it is older than 6 months.

If you find such examples in the Russian section, you can send reports without paying attention to the term of the post or the topic. I personally process reports regardless of the date of the post or topic. And not only spam, but any violations of forum rules. Most importantly, you don't need to cross the 2018 boundary.

[hugeblack]

Can rwaltz.coom be considered as SEO spam. I tried to report these topics but they are deleted on the basis of topics, not account. For example, @cyrilmorris^[1] created 36 posts, all of which contain a rwaltz.coom link.
The same thing with Bitget^[2], which now has a signature campaign, but in the past there were a lot of accounts that created topics for nothing but promoting this service.

What is the appropriate reporting format given that not individual topics are deleted but banning the account.

[1] https://ninjastic.space/search?content=rwaltz.com | https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2594741;sa=showPosts
[2]

There are some members who promote their services in all their posts without intending to discuss, and so all posts are considered spam because there is no intention to discuss here. For example, these accounts:

 - Grace366 (rwaltz.com SPAM)
 - Vivageneviv (Bitget SPAM) alt (ananyabushra

[LoyceV]

If it will not be deleted from the posts with quotes we have another one problem: if someone will help a spammer with quotation it could stay. Don't quote spammers!

Unfortunately, creating a post that counts for a signature payment is more important to many members. They're literally helping spammers this way. What they should have done, is Report the post.

[jokers10]

If it will not be deleted from the posts with quotes we have another one problem: if someone will help a spammer with quotation it could stay. Don't quote spammers!

Unfortunately, creating a post that counts for a signature payment is more important to many members. They're literally helping spammers this way. What they should have done, is Report the post.

Well, it took a little more time for these posts with spam quoting to be deleted, but they are deleted as well. Great! So we can report them too.

But unfortunately, and you are right in this, catching SEO spam in quotes is harder, because it can be in several posts from the original spam. So even if it would be deleted by report, it can be missed because links in quotes are not as visible.

The same thing with Bitget^[2], which now has a signature campaign, but in the past there were a lot of accounts that created topics for nothing but promoting this service.

I remember I reported a bunch of Bitget promoting posts as AI written. I don't know if this can be considered as SEO spam, but as to me this type of spamming, when there are multiple posts "as natural" from newbies with promotion of some project (so called virus spam) should be considered as spam, because they are not natural. But how to report them?

[BitMaxz]

1. Using white color and small font size.

Code:

[SIZE=1][url=ffstylishname[dot]com][color=#FFFFFF]Free Fire name style[/color][/url][/SIZE]

Example of the BBcode was taken and modified from https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5441463.msg62717802#msg62717802. Backup link available on https://loyce.club/archive/posts/6271/62717802.html.

I saw the same post as this a month ago or so it is just a plain white to me I thought it is just a bug on the forum but if you do right click and "select all" the text you can see the hidden text.
I'm sure Google hates this SEO strategy it could affect also our forum it must be reported to mods.

[un_rank]

One way to find them all would be if Bitcointalk creates a page like patrol, but for edited posts only.

This could work. The edited time could also be moved up to when the post or reply will not be likely seen by others.
For example, a post that was edited after 15-20 minutes is still very much new and does not need to be added to such a patrol list.

I'm sure Google hates this SEO strategy it could affect also our forum it must be reported to mods.

We are still very far away from the frequency of spam links that will hurt the forum's SEO ratings from google or any other search engine.
For most cases you will have to actually as a forum be encouraging such spam links and to a very high degree for it to affect the website.

The admin also seems to not care much about the rating of the forum om search engines nor take any professional action to improve it.

- Jay -

[arhipova]

This happens on forums which give dofollow links for added links. I do not think theymos would have allowed that for this forum. Nofollow links from this forum might carry some small weightage for which these spammers are spamming the forum.

[coin-investor]

The admin also seems to not care much about the rating of the forum om search engines nor take any professional action to improve it.

The forum is doing great when it comes to relevancy and keywords dominance Bitcointalk is still on top
With a Pagerank of 6/10 they are on top of keywords researches



And with over 368,000 pages indexed, I don't see their value going down



And they still hold the number one spot on the keyword Bitcoin forum



A site that existed for 10 years does not just lose its authority.

[arabspaceship123]

I haven't seen SEO spam so didn't know it's a growing problem. I've noticed hidden texts yesterday but they weren't SEO spam they're private messages between users. Just because SEO spammers posting hidden text doesn't mean it's going to work. It's done pointlessly because it doesn't work.

1. Using white color and small font size.

Code:

[SIZE=1][url=ffstylishname[dot]com][color=#FFFFFF]Free Fire name style[/color][/url][/SIZE]

Example of the BBcode was taken and modified from https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5441463.msg62717802#msg62717802. Backup link available on https://loyce.club/archive/posts/6271/62717802.html.

I saw the same post as this a month ago or so it is just a plain white to me I thought it is just a bug on the forum but if you do right click and "select all" the text you can see the hidden text.
I'm sure Google hates this SEO strategy it could affect also our forum it must be reported to mods.

[un_rank]

The forum is doing great when it comes to relevancy and keywords dominance Bitcointalk is still on top
With a Pagerank of 6/10 they are on top of keywords researches

That is all organic engagements and traffic. The forum is pretty active and I am sure we get a lot of backlinks from other websites which will give it a pretty good rating on keywords relate to bitcoin and crypto.

The admin does not actively try to improve the ratings through directed approach or pay directly to search engines to give the forum higher results in search pages.

- Jay -

[robelneo]

While SEO spam usually removed on this forum in short interval, in past few months i notice higher frequency of SEO spam on some boards on this forum. In addition, i notice some technique which used to evade removal/report such as,

I'm sure Bitcointalk is a NOFOLLOW site, prior to March 1, 2020, all links on NOFOLLOW sites have no effect on indexing and ranking.

Google introduced the nofollow attribute in 2005 as a way for publishers to address comment spam and shady links from user-generated content (UGC). Linking to spam or low-quality sites could hurt you, and nofollow offered publishers a way to protect themselves.

But after March 1, 2020, Google treats links on NOFOLLOW sites as a hint to index or rank a site

rel="nofollow": The nofollow attribute is for cases where you want to link to a page but don’t want to imply any type of endorsement, including passing along ranking credit to another page, Google said.

Today vs March 2020: Today Google will treat the nofollow attribute as a hint for ranking purposes. Meaning Google might count a link as credit, consider it as part of spam analysis, or for other ranking purposes.

On March 2, 2020, Google will use it also for crawling and indexing. That means will Google use it as a “hint” as to what should be indexed or crawled...

So SEO spam is now being used to try to index or crawl a site, especially a new site.
But I don't think Bitcointalk will be penalized for those Spam links but its recommended to be take these down

To be clear, if a site is properly using nofollow today, SEOs do not need to recommend any changes be made. Though sites are free to do so, they should not expect any rankings boost for doing so, or new penalties for not changing.

https://searchengineland.com/google-to-treat-nofollow-link-attribute-as-a-hint-after-march-1-2020-321664

https://moz.com/blog/nofollow-sponsored-ugc

Note: I have the same response to one of your posts and this is the reason why there is a high frequency of SEO spam.

[NotATether]

But after March 1, 2020, Google treats links on NOFOLLOW sites as a hint to index or rank a site

Well that means that nofollow is no longer effective enough to completely shut out link building by spammers. However, there's two new attributes I've read about which can help in this case:

rel="sponsored": To be used for advertisements and has no effect on Google page rankings

rel="ugc": For all user-generated content (e.g. forums), also prevents the links from being used in page rankings.

(You can check https://www.searchenginewatch.com/2020/07/24/what-google-says-about-nofollow-sponsored-and-ugc-links-in-2020-does-it-affect-your-seo-rankings/ for a more detailed explanation.)

So in this case, I believe that Theymos should change the attribute to rel="ugc" to solve this problem.

[yhiaali3]

This problem happened to me once in the forum, when I wrote a post containing a link, and I was surprised the next day that a member quoted my post with his own link, I reported immediately and the post containing the suspicious quote was deleted.

Reporting such spam is completely healthy, but deleting posts is not a solution. There should be stricter procedures with members who publish such spam, such as banning or at least preventing them from having the power to include links.

[LoyceV]

or at least preventing them from having the power to include links.

This applies:

The things on the forum which encourage spam are allowed mainly because it's part of the forum's mission to be as free as possible.
~
Limiting newbie participation is very harmful for a community. ~ When barriers to participation are too high, then the best people often just won't go to the trouble of joining, and the people who are willing to jump through the hoops are often people who aren't good for the community: people with nothing better to do, scammers, get-rick-quickers, etc.

If spammers can't post links, they'll just spam a bit more until they have enough Activity to edit their old posts and add spam links. But a new user with a technical problem who can't post a link will just give up.

[arabspaceship123]

Because I haven't noticed SEO spamming doesn't mean it doesn't happen. If you didn't create the thread I wouldn't have learned it’s a problem. I'll report it if I'll see it. I'm saying SEO spamming's pointless because if they're promote a scam Double bitcoin scam websites by posting hidden text in Fun & learning Bitcoin blockchain downloaded on 1TB Silicon Power 2.5 SSD how's SEO spammers gaining in on topic threads. If it's topics about casinos spammed with referrals it's more attractive for spammers but we don't know success fail ratios in indexes.

Just because SEO spammers posting hidden text doesn't mean it's going to work. It's done pointlessly because it doesn't work.

I disagree. If it doesn't work at all or bring any benefit, there would be far less SEO spam and i wouldn't bother create this thread.