Return to Home Page Link Hijacked!!!

Jewel · #1 (**permalink**) 03-15-2008, 08:30 PM

Hi,

I know I am probably going to need to email SBI tech support on this but I still thought I would run this buy you guys and see if you know how this happened.

Okay, remember my first page went live early this week. Last night around 11:45 pm I built my second page.

In the footer, I put a clickable link to return to the home page.

When I got online to look at it this morning and tested that link, instead of taking me to my home page, it takes me to another SBI site....somebody I don't know, although oddly enough, my site is a camping site and I live in Florida, well it takes me to a Florida tent camping site!

I thiink this might be an SBI glitch, unless there is some other way this could have happened. I have a hard time believing that this page I uploaded last night, which doesn't rank at all yet in the search engines, would be maliciously hijacked. I don't even know how the guy could have found it to begin with!

I went back in this morning and tried to fix the footer, but it is still happening. I have been out all day at a scouting event and just got home exhausted so I haven't done anything else to it yet.

Any feedback would be appreciated. Oh yeah, the site is your-camping-guidebook.com

Thanks.

Jewel

lisa · #2 (**permalink**) 03-15-2008, 11:24 PM

Whoa.... that is waaay freaky. I would contact Support immediately! I had an issue with my footer once too. I kept trying to update it but it wouldn't change. Finally after several attempts it worked. Seems like they need to get the kinks out of whatever controls the footer file.

Jewel · #3 (**permalink**) 03-16-2008, 10:42 AM

Yes, freaky!!!

I emailed tech support this morning but haven't heard back from them yet.

Jewel

James · #4 (**permalink**) 03-16-2008, 11:53 AM

Jewel,

The only innocent type mistake (and I'm sure you looked for it) was that the other site is named almost exactly like yours except for one letter that you could have spelled incorrectly on your link. Or that it has a different extension that you could have used inadvertently, for example.

Not likely (especially since you were unlikely to have a full link back to your own page), but such a mistake in your link on that page could do it. Those things are easy to do.

Anyway, please tell us what you find out.

Good success!

James

Jewel · #5 (**permalink**) 03-16-2008, 12:17 PM

It is not even remotely close!!!

I still haven't heard back yet. I will let you know when I do though.

Jewel

Jewel · #6 (**permalink**) 03-17-2008, 05:08 AM

Well, it seems that SBI put a link in my link library for me, called "your-camping-guide"....and this automatically transferred to my footer page. The support tech was a little adamant that I had done this...but I have yet to even go to the link library...it was put in there as a default. Unless I typed it in somewhere else wrong and it transferred there...but so far I just don't see how that happened.

When he emailed me that it was wrong and I needed to fix it, at first it wouldn't leave the footer page..I was not able to delete it. Then I began search and hunt until somehow I stumbled onto the link library and saw it in there...then the change worked.

And after I found this out, I did some research and saw this website has 14 domain names parked and pointed at it, including this one above.

Now I am a little worried that people wanting to come back to me in the future will forget the last four letters of my domain name and end up at his site!!!

His site is SBI, so it has some great content and uses all of the tips and techniques as well. The main difference though is that his site is more back country camping, mainly focused on the Everglades and Florida camping, while mine is more related to family camping...although in my original site blueprint I do eventually have a T2 strictly related to camping in Florida..the numbers there were so good I even wavered at first on doing a site solely on camping in Florida or general camping...so again, hopefully my content will be good enough I can stand on my own.

Jewel

Greg1 · #7 (**permalink**) 03-17-2008, 07:46 AM

Hi Jewel,

Having a link to your homepage in the footer is a good idea but make sure you put a text link with some anchor text on each page too. The footer is an image and the search engine spiders can not see the link. They can see the text link.

ssmorgan · #8 (**permalink**) 03-17-2008, 07:47 AM

Hey Jewel,

First, I am glad you got it fixed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jewel

Now I am a little worried that people wanting to come back to me in the future will forget the last four letters of my domain name and end up at his site!!!

Most people will come to you through a link on a different website, in an email, their favorites/bookmarks, etc. In my opinion, it's very rare that someone types the url into the browser. Even when someone types the url in the browser, he/she already knows what the website is supposed to look like, so even if he/she land on a different website, he/she will realize that it's not the right website.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jewel

His site is SBI, so it has some great content and uses all of the tips and techniques as well. The main difference though is that his site is more back country camping, mainly focused on the Everglades and Florida camping, while mine is more related to family camping...although in my original site blueprint I do eventually have a T2 strictly related to camping in Florida..the numbers there were so good I even wavered at first on doing a site solely on camping in Florida or general camping...so again, hopefully my content will be good enough I can stand on my own.

Even though you both touch up on the same topics, do not worry about that... I am confident you will have your unique spin and fresh approach. Don't worry about his site, keep working on your own, and you will be fine.

Jewel · #9 (**permalink**) 03-17-2008, 08:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greg1

Hi Jewel,

Having a link to your homepage in the footer is a good idea but make sure you put a text link with some anchor text on each page too. The footer is an image and the search engine spiders can not see the link. They can see the text link.

Thanks Greg, I didn't realize that. I am not sure if I hadn't gotten to that part of the AG yet, or it just didn't register.

I will take care of that today on the page I have up. I guess this would be a text link that I will have to build individually on each page in one of the boxes (the last one) when I am building?

Jewel

Jewel · #10 (**permalink**) 03-17-2008, 08:12 AM

Thanks Sherif...you are always so positive about everything.

It is like having a cheering section in my court!

Jewel

Quote:

Originally Posted by ssmorgan

Hey Jewel,

First, I am glad you got it fixed.

Most people will come to you through a link on a different website, in an email, their favorites/bookmarks, etc. In my opinion, it's very rare that someone types the url into the browser. Even when someone types the url in the browser, he/she already knows what the website is supposed to look like, so even if he/she land on a different website, he/she will realize that it's not the right website.

Even though you both touch up on the same topics, do not worry about that... I am confident you will have your unique spin and fresh approach. Don't worry about his site, keep working on your own, and you will be fine.

Greg1 · #11 (**permalink**) 03-17-2008, 08:48 AM

Hi Jewel,

If you are using the block by block builder in SBI just insert a text link block at the bottom of the page. The link should take you back to the page you came from, which is not always the home page.

If you use the page analyzer (highly recommended) this will catch if you forgot to put the link in.

ssmorgan · #12 (**permalink**) 03-17-2008, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jewel

Thanks Sherif...you are always so positive about everything.

It is like having a cheering section in my court!

Jewel

That's what I am here for

I am glad I could help.

Sherif

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