Found Agency - It Found Out Why You Shouldn't Spam!

[nuthin]

spam technique revealed

hi,

i made a discovery a few months ago now about an SEM/SEO firm who suprisingly managed to gain quite good placement on Google for our industries leading keywords in the SEM/SEO industry, which i saw as quite suprising. So being the nosey parker that i am.. i decided to delve a little deeper as you do.

first thing first, i did a backlink check at Yahoo.com.au (http://au.search.yahoo.com/search?p=link%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.foundagency.com.au&meta=) as of course we all know Yahoo's link search is much more accurate and contains alot more data on backlinks than Google.

what i got returned was alot of unrelated links, so i decided to see who's linking to them and why.

after checking a few links i was erm lets say, 100% positive that this firm is spamming Google with anchor text link spam at a rate that exceeds most other forms of anchor text spam i have seen in the past.

now to find out just how they acquired all those backlinks with the anchor text of there main keywords in them, you should have noticed that all the links are associated with a "free hits counter" website - counterdata.com a supposedly popular free hit counter.

a quick check of there website will reveal that they offer text link advertising, as presented on http://www.counterdata.com/advertise.html

what this means is that for everyone that downloads and inserts the piece of code counterdata gives you, the counterdata advertiser (spammer) will receive a link back to there web site with the desired anchor text. test it for yourselves on there website.

you should notice when the code is generated for you that there is an advertisers (spammers) url inserted into the piece of code.

i was quite suprised to see quite a few authority web sites using this hit counter, thus delivering in Google's eyes a high quality vote to the counterdata advertiser (spammer)'s web site.

now... conspiracy theories aside, it wouldn't suprise me that much if foundagency have an active role in the counterdata website, as a whois of the domain will deliver you private proxy info on the registrant, another thing is that all i see is foundagency related websites generated in the counterdata code.

i posted in here first as i don't know if this should yet be made public, as it may do more harm than good until Google finds out about this & i personally don't want to out them in public if we go that route, maybe someone else could. :D

some other hit counters sites offer this sort of text advertising also, so it maybe more mainstream than we think.

side note to this post are the associated high rankings for foundagency :

pay per click advertising - http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=pay+per+click+advertising
pay per click - http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=pay+per+click+
search engine marketing - http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=search+engine+marketing&meta=
search engine optimisation - http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=search+engine+optimisation
internet marketing - http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=internet+marketing&meta=
ppc - http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=ppc&meta=
search engine optimization - http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=search+engine+optimization&meta=

[WebSavvy]

Geez David. That sure looks like a mess. Yes, IMO -- it is spam.

[ihelpyou]

my goodness. I've not researched all your info yet, but it sounds like quite a scheme to me. I'd make this public for sure.

[nuthin]

http://www.seoconsultants.com/profile/2641/

pageoneresults was provided with the same evidence of spam back on Feb 14, 06 as I feel this would warrant immediate removal from there.

granted I haven't pushed for it's removal, only contacted him once.. but that should be enough, as this is a clear cut case.

sent him a message today to see why he backed out of removing this firm competely after it was put under a 'review' status for a day.

Google will also be contacted today sometime and I hope they will take immediate action as this firm in particular doesn't deserve to be there, IMO.

[ihelpyou]

<!-- CounterData.com Code START --><a href="http://www.which-insurance.com.au" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.counterdata.com/count.php?page=88052&style=0505009&nbdigits=5" alt="insurance" border="0" ></a><br><a href="http://www.which-insurance.com.au" title="insurance" target="_blank" style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; color: #000000; text-decoration: none;">insurance</a><font style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; color: #000000; text-decoration : none;"> Counter</font><!-- CounterData.com -->

I signed up for free counter and used the front page of these forums for the code. Check it out. Can someone load up this code on a page they have to see what it shows? Check the "irrelevant" site that is listed in that code. It's a random type thing based on who wants to advertise with them. I find this VERY spammy indeed.

[Connie]

David if you don't want to make this public I will here, and on my blog.

Just let me know. Since this was posted in a private thread I won't do anything without your permission.

If you want to remain anonymous I will keep it that way.

[ihelpyou]

I want to know what that code actually shows on a page before we make it public.

[nuthin]

Originally posted by ihelpyou
<!-- CounterData.com Code START --><a href="http://www.which-insurance.com.au" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.counterdata.com/count.php?page=88052&style=0505009&nbdigits=5" alt="insurance" border="0" ></a><br><a href="http://www.which-insurance.com.au" title="insurance" target="_blank" style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; color: #000000; text-decoration: none;">insurance</a><font style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; color: #000000; text-decoration : none;"> Counter</font><!-- CounterData.com -->



it should just load up a hit counter graphic and text underneath it that says insurance and lead off to that site.

i have a feeling what there doing is putting up dummy sites just getting the links and then once Google counts all the links in about 3 to 4 updates time.. they will move on them and develop em.

dodge.

sneaky and to the untrained eye they will get away with it, not for much longer.

Connie feel free to make public and post to your blog just say an unnamed source referred you to it all or "David" from IHY. :)

I just didn't want to make public as I don't think Google can yet combat this type of spam and if blackhats get a wind of it.. well.. where creating more havoc for Google.

I sent off a spam report just then, but if that will be read in a timely manner is another thing.

for reference..

Domain Name: which-insurance.com.au

Last Modified: 23-Jan-2006 01

Registrar ID: R00015-AR

Registrar Name: NetRegistry

Status: OK

Registrant: FOUND AGENCY PTY LIMITED

Registrant ID: ACN 110867895

Registrant ROID: C2976790-AR

Registrant Contact Name: Tim Macdonald

Registrant Email: tim@foundagency.com.au

Tech ID: C0573762-AR

Tech Name: Dominic Main

Tech Email: dmain@netregistry.com.au

Name Server: ns1.austweb.com.au

Name Server IP: 202.89.163.243

Name Server: ns2.austweb.com.au

Name Server IP: 202.89.163.244

[ihelpyou]

http://www.birdphotos.com.au/

scroll to the bottom.

fundagency is not spamming imo, ALL sites that are using the free counter are running a huge risk by displaying random type links on their pages that are not relevant at all. I can't believe that Google is rewarding fundagency for all these crappy links?

[ihelpyou]

OH!!

What you are saying is that fundagency IS COUNTERDATA.com ???

Now that's a different story. You just said the link in my code was owned by the SAME fundagency??

OH my. That's pure spam then.

[nuthin]

IMO foundagency know what there doing by advertising with counterdata.com (which may also be them too).

they should be condoned and the links discredited which will see there site take a dive in Google anyway.

they are spamming and to date, are getting away with it. :)

[WebSavvy]

Originally posted by ihelpyou
Can someone load up this code on a page they have to see what it shows?
Removed link -- I removed this test page a long time ago.

[nuthin]

IMO Doug it still would not matter the least if FoundAgency owned Counterdata.com or not.

counterdata.com looks to be penalized on Google as we speak for an unknown reason - http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=counterdata.com&meta=

however all sites that use counterdata.com would still be there and passing on the fruitful rewards the Google algo is currently giving anchor text spammers, like FoundAgency.

as you have said, I also can't believe Google is giving credit to all that damned anchor text and excessive amount of links with a similar pattern.

FoundAgency know what there doing and in my book, there spamming and even getting people like yourself questioning if there spamming or not. :P

imagine the rewards this web site received.. never before seen in the serp's but they built up that nice little network of anchor text spam and after waiting say 9 or so months for the anchor text and links to kick in, there now everywhere on Google.

Google got gamed and the initial wait, I'm sure isn't an issue for a company like the one in question.

long wait but rewards with varying anchor text in this sheer amount, as shown.

short lived? with people like me out there, i would hope so. :)

[Connie]

At this point I may just raise a question. But it looks to me like this may be something akin to link counter spam.

I will look at this in more detail tomorrow and will either accuse them or raise a question about the practice if warranted.

David thanks for pointing this out.

[nuthin]

the more i get into researching this type of spam, the more amazed i get.

add http://www.amazingcounters.com/ to the list of companies that are helping spammers.

i signed up and look what i see ?

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.amazingcounters.com"><img border="0" src="http://c5.amazingcounters.com/counter.php?i=1040853&c=3122872" alt="Web Site Traffic Counters"></a><br><small><a href="http://www.allonlinecoupons.com/st/mrs-beasleys/"><font color="#999999">Mrs Beasleys Coupon</font></a></small></div>

now lets hop on over to Google and type in Mrs Beasleys Coupon & what shall we see?

curious to know how long these anchor text spammers have been getting away with this. :D

would be quite profitable... and if this isn't seen as spam? let's go!

:D

[WebSavvy]

I signed up also and used "google.com" as my url and the counter style I selected was their "invisible counter."

I put the code they gave me on that page too. Mine is the second paragraph.

I changed the link and font colors so we're able to have it jump out a bit more.

Notice in the 2nd one that the two words CounterData each link to something else?

Check the one that "Data" links to. Go on, click it. You know you want to! :D

[nuthin]

what it all boils down to when offering text link advertising such as these hit counters are offering is quality control.

no one, IMO should be able to stop you from offering text link advertising.. however by saying that, I have a feeling Google is going to frown big time on these hit counters that at a glance are offering there services to people that are obviously out there to game Google via anchor text spam.

at the end of the day, Google will be the one deciding the fate of the web sites that participate in these bad neighborhoods -- which i see them as? agree?

[ihelpyou]

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLC,GGLC:1969-53,GGLC:en&q=search+engine+optimization

hey nuthin, guess what?

I can't find foundagency.com.au anywhere in the serps in Google anymore. Not for any industry terms. LOL :D

[ihelpyou]

hmm

It looks like it's "term related".

Doing searches on :

search engine optimization
search engine optimisation

they use to be ranked #2 or 3. NOT anymore. They are on the second page now.

It seems a very slight penality was put in place. I find it ironic that this happened right after we discussed this.

[Irony]

Second page a penalty? They may be back tomorrow, as Google is now messing up with the SERPs on a daily basis again, and anyway, I bet any of us would love to be "penalized" like this :)

[JohnC]

Yeah .. from here I see them 1st page #10.. :(

[nuthin]

http://www.searchengineroom.com.au/search10-found-agency-penalised-by-google/

Does anyone else agree that you should now make this thread public with applause to Google and showing people that if you play with fire, you my friend are going to get burnt?

[ihelpyou]

YES. Reading that page and this guy is one arrogant character that needs to be slapped silly.

He also claims he has 4 "backup" sites that will eventually get him up there again. Those sites will be penalized as well buddy. Trust me.

You bite buddy. I hope the Photon Group who bought you rips you a new one.

I am moving this thread to the public forum where it now belongs.

[ihelpyou]

I edited the title of this OLD thread to make it very current news. :)

Their level of spamming the search engines was pathetic. The guy has the balls to even state what he was doing and it really doesn't seem to matter to him. He will just keep on spamming it appears with new domains.

[nuthin]

I thought I post a clarification on why I didn't release this thread to the public last year when I stumbled onto Found Agency's anchor text one-way link farm.

Basically the reason was that I didn't want other people using this technique of obtaining one-way links from 'free hit counter' web sites that offered text link advertising on all sites that there hit counter was featured on.

This would generate thousands of one-way & sometimes quality links from authority web sites. With a blackhat behind the scenes structuring these text links, they were able to manipulate Google's algorithm to help obtain quality rankings for there own site -- based on all that anchor text.

This is why you saw 'Found Agency' doing so well for industry leading keywords like "search engine optimization" "pay per click advertising" "search engine optimisation" "search engine marketing" etc.

I was waiting for Google to react to this technique & now that they have, this thread is to be made public to show people that you will get f****d up if you go down this route.

It might have taken some time but now this company in question along with losing rankings now has a tarnished brand. All for being stupid.

Well done Google.