I was looking at my stats for bimblog.net and I noticed 5 referral links from a site I didn’t recognise. Being curious, I clicked on the link in my stats package and found myself on a site that was trying very hard to get me to install a virus not very convincingly masquerading as a video codec.
I then looked up the domain and found some information on the site, it seems that it was using an old black hat technique that was originally used to gain ranking in Google. The technique works by sending a fake hit from a website so that this site will appear in the referrers list in stats packages. In the past this was used to boost Google ranking as lots of sites left their stats data open to the public, Google would pick this up and count the backlinks. It seems that doing this has got less popular as people have tightened up their security.
As I poked around my stats further I came up with a site that seems to have done just this, a site called Stockleaf. It seems to have provided Bimblog with two visits yet their isn’t a link from anywhere on their site and the site itself is completely irrelevant to Bimblog. I could complain to Google which may result in their banning from any Google search results, it’s a rather dangerous way to promote your site and is a good illustration of why black hat SEO can ruin your business. Stockleaf, if there is an innocent reason for your referrals, I would love to know what they are!
The difference between Stockleaf and this other site is more to do with the psychology of a site owner. The original technique was for SEO, this technique is for planting viruses and relies on the fact that a new referrer is something a webmaster is almost compelled to find out about. In other words, it is a good bet you can get a webmaster to visit your site by faking a referral or 5 and it’s more effective than contact form spam!
I escaped being handed a virus on a plate and stopped it it before my antivirus software picked it up (which according to Google searches it would have). Be careful before you click on that new link, especially if it doesn’t look like a site that would link to you!
