Adult content links in a scan report

In your report

If a scan finds links to adult destinations, the overview shows an Adult content card, marked High risk. It is one of the category cards, so it sits alongside Pharma, Gambling and the others, in order of seriousness. Only links that were flagged (Not safe or Needs review) count towards it.

The card shows Flagged links, On a blocklist, Off-topic for their page and Hidden from visitors. Its advice is to remove the links unless you meant to publish them, and if you did not add them, to find out who did. Review these links opens the findings filtered to this category.

In the list, each link carries an adult chip. A link on the blocklist is Not safe with a Confirmed tag. A keyword match alone is Needs review. If the page carrying the link is not about adult content, an Out of context chip is added, and a concealed link also shows Hidden, Cloaked or Hidden in script.

How adult links are detected

• Blocklist. The destination’s domain, or a parent domain, is checked against the bundled adult list, which holds 61,159 domains. A match is the strongest evidence. See blocklist sources.
• Keywords. The destination’s title, description and text are scanned for terms such as porn, xxx, nsfw, hentai, escort, onlyfans, camgirl, erotic, nude, sex cam, fetish and “adult video” or “adult content”. A domain name containing words like porn, xxx, hentai, nsfw or onlyfans is also treated as a signal.
• AI check. The destination page is read and judged for adult content, and compared with the page carrying the link and the anchor text.

Keywords are the weakest evidence. They are plain word matches, so an article about a nude lipstick shade or a family car called the Ford Escort can trip them. That is why a keyword-only match is Needs review, not Not safe.

Intended or injected?

Whether an adult link is a problem depends on the page it sits on. On a site about adult entertainment, a link to another adult site is expected, and the report treats it as related. On a recipe blog, a charity or a plumber, it is unrelated and almost never chosen by the owner.

Signs of injection are a link that is hidden from visitors, an anchor that has nothing to do with the paragraph around it, links appearing on many pages at once, or links in a footer or template that nobody on the team added. In that case the cause matters more than the link. After a WordPress hack covers the usual ways in.

Why it matters

• Visitors, customers and staff may see or follow links that do not belong on your site, particularly children and anyone browsing at work.
• Advertisers, payment providers and partners may react badly to a site linked to adult content.
• Injected links are usually a sign that the site has been accessed without permission.

What to do

1. Open the findingRead the reason and the Found on page. Check the Out of context and Hidden chips first.
2. Look at the source of the pagePress Ctrl+U on the page and search for the anchor text. Note where in the page the link sits, for example inside a footer, widget or post.
3. Decide if you meant itIf it is a deliberate link on a relevant page, mark the finding reviewed. Mark it sponsored or nofollow if it was paid for.
4. Remove what you did not addDelete the link where it is stored, then look for the way it was added: new users, changed plugins and themes, and recent file changes.
5. Secure the siteChange passwords, update software and ask your host to scan for changed files.

Common mistakes

• Deleting the link and stopping. If it was injected, it will come back.
• Trusting the anchor text. The words can look harmless while the destination is not.
• Treating a keyword match as proof. Check the destination yourself before making changes you cannot undo.
• Ignoring a related link. Adult links on an adult site are expected, but the destination can still have changed hands.

How to confirm the fix

Use Re-check on each finding to confirm the link is gone, then scan again. For links you have decided to keep, Mark reviewed records the decision, and the link is checked again on the next scan.

How this counts in your LinkSignal

A link to an adult site is flagged as risky or unsafe, and that is what links that need review counts in your site’s external LinkSignal. If the same link is hidden, or sits on a page it does not fit, it is counted once in the hidden, cloaked and script-injected links or out of context links row instead. The LinkSignal overview lists every row, and how the score is worked out gives the points. LinkSignal is Link Signals’ own metric, worked out only from what this tool finds, and it is not connected to any search engine or third-party score.