Site in top 3 with a 1-day old domain and no backlinks

[iwebdevnl]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to understand some searchresults, when searching in the netherlands for 'online casino':
http://www.google.nl/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=online+casino&pws=0

You'll see as position 3 result this website: http://bit.ly/qhRsUT, it's obviously that this site is there because of blackhat. But how did it come there such high for a keyword with high competition? I don't see anything wrong in the website? It's not like Google did something wrong, because it happened already a few times for this keyword with different domains from that owner.

Regards,

Yannick

[RyanKent]

In this instance the html code is added to a blog comment which seems to be legitimate.

The site adds the nofollow tag to links in comments, but the way the html has been added in this instance allows the link to appear normally without the nofollow tag.

The css for the div class being used is part of the site's code. Based on everything I am seeing it appears most likely the person who added that link has access to the site's code. It could be an employee, or someone who otherwise has access to the server files, or someone who has hacked into the server.

The level of effort involved for this relatively low value link (the PA of the page is 1) is not reasonable for a person to put forth any serious level of effort. If the link's creator is not affiliated with the site, he would have had to study the site's code, found the proper CSS class to reference, and then found a way to inject the HTML into the comment. It's certainly possible, but not at all reasonable.

[achillies000]

Hi,

I found his blackhat technique, here is an example of his backlink

http://www.thereporterethiopia.com/News/us-admits-prior-knowledge-of-famine.html

The link is not visible to anyone.But if you look in the source code.

<div class="t3-logo-sm ja-video-thumb"><div><p>&nbsp;p><h2>casinoh2><p><span>Poker and blackjack is my favorite at an online <a href ="[http://www.casinostimp.com](view-source:http://www.casinostimp.com/)">casinoa> and I love the casino cash that comes along with it as I am playing. span>p>div>div>

He is using hiddentext.

[RyanKent]

In the example you offered from Matt Cutts, the context was buying expired domains solely for their backlink value. In this case iwebdevnl shared the website owner has operated other casino sites. The site's footer has a copyright from 2003. I didn't read anything in this Q&A that suggested this site purchased other sites for their backlink value.

If you buy an expired domain because you notice it has good backlinks, then redirect the domain to yours in an effort to boost your backlinks, then yes that is a blackhat activity. Clearly those actions do not benefit users and are being performed for the express goal of manipulating search engine ranking.

Almost any legitimate activity can be transformed into a black hat method.

I am not disputing that this casino site may be involved in black hat techniques. I would share there are not any obvious black hat activities visible on the site, and the act of redirecting another domain to this site is not black hat in and of itself.

A suspicion exists without any solid evidence. If the suspicion is valid and you were willing to dedicate enough time investigating the matter, you could probably find evidence. The question is are you willing to dedicate the hours required to thoroughly research this site? If you are one of the other top sites on the page then it may be profitable to do such.

[iwebdevnl]

I agree it ain't kosher, but why would a webmaster like the guy i'm talking about care about that? He earn's like hell now in top 3 for such a keyword. if i had such a domain i would have done the same i think.

[iAnalyst.com]

Well Matt Cutts said buying another established domain to 301 redirect to another is against their guidelines. If its domain you own or created i'm sure its legit but if your just buying expired domains and using a 301 I don't think that is kosher.

[RyanKent]

It is not necessarily "getting away" with anything. It is a legitimate SEO tactic.

If SEOmoz.org decided tomorrow their brand would better be served by moving the site to SEOmoz.com, the site would move and all pages would be 301'd to their respective pages on the new site.

In this case SEOmoz already owns the .com domain but let's assume for a moment they just bought it. The .com site would be 1 day old and retain all the rankings (minus a possible small drop based on the loss of link power from the 301) on the new .com site.

This method is designed to allow businesses the flexibility to change and grow over time. There is nothing wrong or blackhat with this approach.

[iAnalyst.com]

Yep, funny Rand was just talking about this in the last webinar. It's surprising Google lets people get away with that still.

[RyanKent]

There is a big difference between a backlink and a 301.

If you receive a backlink that is one link. That link may be highly valued, but it is still one link and can only do so much. A single redirect can forward a page with thousands or even millions of links.

If you take the current #3 site for any search term and move the content to a new site and redirect your traffic to the new site, that "new" site may rank #3 in one day. Maybe it might lose a spot or two due to the redirect, but it still can land on the 1st page of SERPs for a competitive key term immediately. It is not really a "new" site but an old site which has been redirected.

[iwebdevnl]

Even a new site doesn't appear in top 3 for a high competive keyword like online casino, so i don't believe it's because of the new site-thing. Further i added some new information in my other comment about the only backlink it has.

[iwebdevnl]

In the netherlands they are quite devoted to anti spamming as well, i just think he's really good with blackhat.

He doesn't dissapear fast, with sites he owned before he staid there for more then 3 weeks, another site which is in top 10 as well for the same keyword: http://bit.ly/oCrLcl uses blackhat as well. This is a domain which he bought from a previous site owner i assume and then put this overlay at this page, but it still doesn't represent which such an overlay make such a page appear in top 10 for such a competive keyword.

[iwebdevnl]

I just found out with help from another webmaster that this completely new domain got 1 301 redirect from an old-domain he used with blackhat techniques so it appeared in the top 10 for 'online casino' as keyword. That only redirect was enough for appearing with a new website back in the top 3 directly..

[RyanKent]

it's obviously that this site is there because of blackhat.

Can you point out any black hat techniques used? I don't see anything obvious.

Why do you believe there are no backlinks?

New sites get a boost. This is a "new" site but since the copyright is from 2003-2010 and there is plenty of content it seems this is an old site on a new URL. It has a keyword in the domain name and would benefit from the new site boost. Unless the site makes changes I would expect it to drop down in rankings in a month. The site is not optimized for SEO.

[iAnalyst.com]

Amazing, well its possible he has some crazy link scheme going and of course it won't show up in the yahoo index or anywhere a day after it was launched. I'm not sure how strict is with the NL search results, I don't know if there's as much resources devoted to anti spamming as there is in other places.

You said he's done this before, does he usually disappear fast?