Suspicious link in the text

Why it matters

Hidden links are usually not put there by the owner. They can be left by an old supplier or by a hack, and sometimes stay for years. Google can penalise a site for them. Snaglist only reports what it sees: whether a link is wrong is for you to decide.

How Snaglist checks it

For links to other sites in the content, Snaglist looks at styling that hides the link: the text colour without an underline, or a position off-screen. It also looks for a short list of spam words in the address.

Snaglist reports this as a warning. It costs 15 percent of the page in the health score. Fix it before your next crawl.

Common causes

• A hack that added links to pages that rarely change
• Text pasted from elsewhere
• An old agreement with a link partner

How to fix it

1. Open the page and find the link.
2. Check whether you know it.
3. If not, remove it and look for other places where something was added.
4. Change your passwords if you suspect a hack.

How it shows in the report

In the report for your client this appears under the heading "Suspicious links on your pages". When everything is in order, the report says: "No suspicious links in your texts".