# What the hell is this page? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 7, 2013, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-this-page/652280 "2013-03-07T10:25:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nippless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/df788c/32.png) [@Nippless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nippless)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2013, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-this-page/652280/1 "2013-03-07T10:25:06Z")
At work we noticed our site is getting hits from a link on this page: [http://www.zetta.com.hk/dl/url5.html](http://www.zetta.com.hk/dl/url5.html) Sure enough it is linked from there, along with about 5000 other sites. What the hell? The main domain (zetta.com.hk) looks legit, but that page of links seems a bit dodgy…? ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2013, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-this-page/652280/2 "2013-03-07T12:08:51Z")
Has your company hired an SEO contractor lately? It appears like an old SEO trick of putting a link to your site on a “link farm” which Google used to interpret as a legitimate link to your site and would boost your ratings. If that is true, talk to your SEO people and have it taken down ASAP as, if that is what they are doing, it can get your site blacklisted. ---
**Author:** ![Nippless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/df788c/32.png) [@Nippless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nippless)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-this-page/652280/3 "2013-03-08T06:01:22Z")
No way it’s SEO, company owner hates that sort of thing… ---
**Author:** ![fifty-six](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@fifty-six](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fifty-six)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-this-page/652280/4 "2013-03-08T06:23:14Z")
There are over 5000 links on that page. Do the “visitors” from that site travel to other pages? ---
**Author:** ![DataX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@DataX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DataX)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-this-page/652280/5 "2013-03-08T06:24:10Z")
Sometimes SEOs for other companies link to your site (along with a ton of others) in the hopes that that will help them. It happens - there isn’t much you can do about it (or need to). That is an ameraturish attempt at SEO spam which will pretty much get ignored by Google. ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-this-page/652280/6 "2013-03-08T07:05:35Z")
It doesn’t look at all like the usual spammy SEO stuff. Educated guess: it’s the buggy output of an application. Could be a malicious or spammy one, could just be a wacky Joomla plugin. If I were in your shoes I’d double check that everything is up to date and secure on your web site, then ignore it. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-this-page/652280/7 "2013-03-08T08:11:25Z")
OK. We’ve had several explanations for why someone would put up such a page (SEO, buggy output). But the OP said that the links on this page are getting hits. Why would anyone be clicking on this page? ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-this-page/652280/8 "2013-03-08T14:40:46Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > Why would anyone be clicking on this page? Because someone on the Dope posted it? ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-this-page/652280/9 "2013-03-08T16:14:36Z")
From looking at the source it seems that the programmer coded up a bunch of links with only a lower case a for the link. Why, who knows. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-this-page/652280/10 "2013-03-08T17:55:35Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > But the OP said that the links on this page are getting hits. Why would anyone be clicking on this page? My guess would be automated web trawlers. No humans necessarily involved, until **Nippless** noticed and went there. ETA: I assume that could count as a click, depending on how they were coded.