If our site hasn't been hit with the Phantom Update, are we clear?
-
Our SEO provider created a bunch of "unique url" websites that have direct match domain names. The content is pretty much the same for over 130 websites (city name is different) that link directly to our main site. For me this was a huge red flag, but when I questioned them and they said it was fine. We haven't seen a drop in traffic, but concerned that Google just hasn't gotten to us. DA for each of these sites are 1 after several months.
Should we be worried? I think yes, but I am an SEO newbie.
-
Hi Jesse,
I checked our WMT account and we seem to be fine at the moment. I raised the concern about the duplicate content sites with the SEO. However, they defended their strategy, saying that because the urls are all on different c blocks, it isn't an issue. Also, said we would negatively impact our DA.
I agree that it would hurt our DA because these duplicate domains represent the bulk of our linking domains. IMO this is going to catch up to us. My understanding is the only safe value of these other sits is if the content on the other sites is unique and valuable. Not to mention there are not links from any other site to the duplicate sites, only outbound links to our main site.
Can you shed some light on this tactic?
-
The thing is a lot of so-called "SEOs" these days are still using these types of tactics. I'm dealing with this regularly. And the real kicker is, sometimes blackhat SEO works. But in every instance it is temporary. Meaning no matter what that algorithm is going to catch up with those sites sooner or later.
So while yes they should have known better, there's a pretty good chance they think they can sneak past the Penguins and the Pandas out there.
Nonetheless this is a dying art and hopefully all of these "SEOs" go away soon so that us real marketers can maintain (or re-build) our reputation.
You're incredibly welcome for the input. Keep an eye on your Webmaster Tools account and your rankings. If you notice a penalty or things start to shift dramatically, it's time for a re-submission package. Should that day come, hop on these forums, read the moz blogs, and this community will help you through it.
-
Thanks for the validation and advice! It seems blatantly clear we should fire the provider, but to be understand, they should have known better, correct? It is one thing to pay for services and it not work, but to be charged for services that could harm your business, is really unfortunate.
Again thank you for the input.
-
I agree with Jesse - this would cause major red flags to go up at google.
-
Hi,
Short answer: yes, you are right, you should be worried. Google is good at spotting those satellite sites and they will either just not consider those links so all your effort with those is for nothing or they might push a manual penalty for unnatural links and/or one of the algo will get this network and push them all down including your main site.
Those links don't count towards your link profile and are for sure not sending any "love" so it will be a good idea to lose those asap. If for some reason those sites or some of them are performing well in search for local terms keep them but add no follow to the links that are pointing back to you to be safe.
As for the duplicate content - I would't worry so much - you won't rank but there is no filter or penalty for duplicate content.
-
Yes.
You should be worried. This is blackhat SEO by its very definition and it is exactly the kind of stuff the Google Webspam team is going after. It's kind of like saying "Hey we just fired a bunch of chemical weapons even though we were told not to. Should we be worried?" Yeah, expect some cruise missiles headed your way.
Okay maybe it's not that drastic but I'm trying to be topical here
I would fire that SEO company and shame them in the process for giving us digital marketers a bad reputation. The Penguin (not Phantom) will come for you. It's only a matter of time.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Why My Website's Rank still in Millions
I am getting enough Traffic on my website on best weed killer on affiliate but Moz still showing its Rank in millions. What would be the best strategy to improve the rankings.???
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | sarahelen0 -
Penguin Hit, Looking for some advice from Takeshi Young
Hello, Takeshi had the good idea to compare google analytic traffic data to penguin updates. We may have got hit by Penguin 2.0 (#4) on May 22, 2013. There's nothing in GWT indicating it though. Most of our traffic is return customers, by the way. I've attached a Google Analytic Screenshot. It just happens to be the time when we removed a bunch of paid links. Will you look at this screenshot and make sure that it was Penguin, then give me some advice about 20 little blogs with keyword rich anchor text. 2 paid links that look editorial 1 sitewide paid link w/ keyword rich alt tag 1 more paid link that's an image near the footer on a single page, keyword rich anchor text. 1 paid link site with different types of links scattered across the site - 30 links total We have 70 links total - the above 25 are paid. penguin.gif
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | BobGW0 -
Does Google Consider a Follow Affiliate Link into my site a paid link?
Let's say I have a link coming into my domain like this http://www.mydomain.com/l/freerol.aspx?AID=674&subid=Week+2+Freeroll&pid=120 Do you think Google recognizes this as paid link? These links are follow links. I am working on a site that has tons of these, but ranks fairly well. They did lose some ranking over the past month or so, and I am wondering if it might be related to a recent iteration of Penguin. These are very high PR inbound links and from a number of good domains, so I would not want to make a mistake and have client get affiliates to no follow if that is going to cause his rankings to drop more. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Robertnweil10 -
Is this a 'real site' or a spam site for backlinks
I have been asked what type of site this is? What kind of page is this? [http://www.gotocostarica.com/](http://www.gotocostarica.com/) In my opinion it is site put up to create back links and should be avoided (especially in the light of the new Penguin and Panda updates coming). But I don't want to give wrong advice. What are your opinions?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Llanero0 -
Will aggregating external content hurt my domain's SERP performance?
Hi, We operate a website that helps parents find babysitters. As a small add- on we currently run a small blog with the topic of childcare and parenting. We are now thinking of introducing a new category to our blog called "best articles to read today". The idea is that we "re-blog" selected articles from other blogs that we believe are relevant for our audience. We have obtained the permission from a number of bloggers that we may fully feature their articles on our blog. Our main aim in doing so is to become a destination site for parents. This obviously creates issues with regard to duplicated content. The question I have is: will including this duplicated content on our domain harm our domains general SERP performance? And if so, how can this effect be avoided? It isn't important for us that these "featured" articles rank in SERPs, so we could potentially make them "no index" sites or make the "rel canonical" point to the original author. Any thoughts anyone? Thx! Daan
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | daan.loening0 -
What's the best way to set up 301's from an old off-site subdomain to a new off-site subdomain?
We are moving our Online store to a new service and we need to create 301's for all of the old product URLs. Being that the old store was hosted off-site, what is the best way to handle the 301 re-directs? Thanks!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | VermilionDesignInteractive0 -
Why won't my home page rank for branded terms?
Hello, I've been trying to figure out what factors are causing my home page not to rank for my branded terms. The site is www.lipozene.com and after the late April Google algorithm our rankings have disappeared off the map for the term "lipozene". Different element of the site show up in organic rankings, including our shopping cart (http://shop.lipozene.com) as high as page two. However, the home page is not ranking organically. On Yahoo & Bing we have never dropped out of the number 1 spot. We did engage in some link building activities, however we've removed nearly all of the links that were created by our SEO guy. I did NOT receive any notifications from Google regarding their link policy. If you search for lipozene.com we rank #1. Any thoughts on what we're missing thats causing us to not rank is greatly apprecaited. Thanks!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | lipoweb0 -
Thinking of redirecting *all* mobile traffic to another site (via an advertiser) - safe to do?
Hi, I am thinking of redirecting all mobile (iphone, cell phone, etc) to an advertiser (so completely different content than my site). Is there any risk of getting banned from google (etc) for doing this? (this is for an adult site)
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | dmn020