Got a weird backlink and I don't know how it got there - Fake Bing Image Backlink

[DavidDennison]

Hey all!

Not sure if this is the right place to ask, but I'm perplexed on this one.

I got a weird backlink. I don't know how it got there...and I don't even know how someone would create this backlink as the website seems to be a Microsoft Bing emulator of some sort. But when you click on any of the other search engine links, like "ALL", it goes to an error page. So it seems to not even function.

How would one even get a link onto such a site? Is there a way to get it removed (other than disavow)? I'm not even sure I want it removed as the main site 4.bing has an AS score of 86 in SEMrush. Or do I? Lol

This is the link: https://4.bing.com/images/search?FORM=IRMHRS&q=Cupcake%2BSoap

[danmoyle]

Hi @DavidDennison. I'll echo what @rikkilear says. I've seen some "weird and wonderful links" (I love that!) in the world since I first got into digital marketing and looking at analytics. This seems like one of those anomolies that likely came from some cache somewhere. That's why I feel like analytics is more of an artistic science than a true scientific discipline. 

[DavidDennison]

Definitely agree that analytics has an artistic component! As they say "massage the data!"

[rikkilear · Accepted solution]

Hey David,

It seems to be some sort of cache or index for Bing search. Nothing you could actively do to get the link or remove it on the face of it. Personally I would just leave it unless you get a manual action or if your site has a high link toxicity in general because of a lot of other spammy links.

Having looked at links for the last 10 years of my life I end up not looking into things like this too much anymore as the web creates all sorted of weird and wonderful links 😂

[DavidDennison]

haha most definitely! I hadn't seen it and for some random reason it caught my eye and curiosity got the best of me!

[MiaSrebrnjak]

Hi @DavidDennison,

Thank you for posting! I'm not sure what's going on here either 😅, but I wanted to tag a couple of other experts, I hope you can figure it out togehter. 

Hi @rikkilear & @danmoyle (thank you so much for your help with the previous SEO-related question👍), @NicoleSengers, @KTownsend  any ideas how that backlink came to be? Thank you!

Cheers
Mia, Community Team

[DavidDennison]

SAME 😂

Thank you for tagging some peeps to help me out! 🙌