Why are these blackhat sites so successful?
-
Here's an interesting conundrum. Here are three sites with their respective ranking for "dental implants [city]:"
http://dentalimplantsvaughan.ca - 9 (on google.ca)
http://dentalimplantsinhonoluluhi.com - 2 (on google.com)
http://dentalimplantssurreybc.ca - 7 (on google.ca)
These markets are not particularly competitive, however, all of these sites suffer from:
- Duplicate content, both internally and across sites (all of this company's implant sites have the same exact content, minus the bio pages and the local modifier).
- Average speed score.
- No structured data
- No links
And these sites are ranking relatively quickly. The Vaughan site went live 3 months ago.
But, what's boggling my mind is that they rank on the first page at all. It seems they're doing the exact opposite of what you're supposed to do, yet they rank relatively well.
-
Not exactly. When it comes to different countries, like the example domains you listed above. (.com and .ca) Google allows for mirrored or duplicate sites by country.
When it comes to multiple sites in the same country, Google will give value to the first use of the content, then no value to the 2nd use. In the example you gave of San Diego and Atlanta, it is important to create unique content, citations and backlinks that are localized to that site's location.
I have a client that has two separate appliance companies in the same area and two separate websites. I've used some of the same general content on both, but have content that is unique to both, along with unique links, and they both rank really well.
-
I guess what baffles me is that there's duplicate, spammy content. Exactly what Google tells you to stay away from.
-
So, suppose a site is #1. It's for a bakery in Atlanta, Georgia. The content is doing really well. You're telling me that, as a bakery in San Diego CA, I can take that content, slap it on my site, replace the business name and location information, and it'd be okay?
-
Yes, if they are different businesses, they should be treated differently.
-
Even if those sites are for different practices/businesses?
-
I have similar sites I have reviewed. It comes down to the - exact marching url. Plus the space has to be not overly competitive. No doubt there is 600 other factors but the dominant standout is the url. Ironically once there tough to dislodge, unless the site dislodging is 10 x 's better - cannot be just twice as good... .
-
Not a bad looking site. Google does allow for duplicate content across multi-regional sites. And sometimes a new site will get an initial boost then drop back down. Also, if there is not a lot of localized website competition, Google will rank them as the most relevant for this category in Hawaii.
-
Interesting: view-source:http://dentalimplantssurreybc.ca/faqs/
view-source:http://dentalimplantssurreybc.ca/faqs/
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
-
Main Site and eCommerce Site URLs for SEO
My client currently has a main website on a url and an eCommerce site on a subdomain. The eCommerce site is currently not mobile friendly, has images that are too small and are problematic - and I believe it negates some of the SEO work we do for them. I had to turn off Google Shopping ads because the quality score was so low. That being said, they are rebuilding a shopping cart on a new platform that will be mobile friendly BUT the images are going to be tiny until they slowly replace images over several months. Would you keep the shopping cart on a subdomain, or make it part of the main website URL? Can it negatively impact the progress we have made on the main site SEO.
Technical SEO | | jerrico10 -
Why is Google not indexing my site?
I'm a bit confused as to why my site just isn't indexing on Google. Even if I type in my brand name, my social channels rank and there's no evidence of my website. I've followed all of the advice I've read and gone into webmaster tools and got the Wordpress yoast plug-in but nothing seems to be making a difference!One thing I've noticed, in Google Webmaster Tools it says "Couldn’t communicate with the DNS server." in site errors. I've called GoDaddy and they said that everything is fine. A bit frustrating. Trying to work out what my next steps should be but feeling a bit lost to be honest! Any help GREATLY appreciated!
Technical SEO | | j1066s0 -
Will Links to one Sub-Domain on a Site hurt a different Sub-Domain on the same site by affecting the Quality of the Root Domain?
Hi, I work for a SaaS company which uses two different subdomains on our site. A public for our main site (which we want to rank in SERPs for), and a secure subdomain, which is the portal for our customers to access our services (which we don't want to rank for) . Recently I realized that by using our product, our customers are creating large amounts of low quality links to our secure subdomain and I'm concerned that this might affect our public subdomain by bringing down the overall Authority of our root domain. Is this a legitimate concern? Has anyone ever worked through a similar situation? any help is appreciated!
Technical SEO | | ifbyphone0 -
Site getting referral traffic from its self
Buon giorno from zero degrees C freezing fog Wetherby UK On this site http://www.collegeofphlebology.com i ran a referral report via Google Analytics and was surprised ro see referral traffic being counted from its own url, illustration here http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc53/zymurgy_bucket/referral-anomoly.jpg So my question is please how can a site get referral traffic from the same url? Grazie Tanto, David
Technical SEO | | Nightwing0 -
What Would i do to get my site ranking high?
Hello Friends, I need your help please tell me what would I do to get my site ranking high in Google search engine. When I start my work on my site my work blog commenting , social bookmarking, keyword targeting etc.… But now the scene is completely changing. Now I am working on just guest blogging. I don’t understand that what would I do next after the guest blogging. Because I think there is now just one way to promote your site VIA guest blogging. Now please tell me is there any other option to work and get high ranking?
Technical SEO | | KLLC0 -
Mobile Site & SEO
If i create a mobile site for a client will google crawl that site for mobile results or will it effect my rankings. My guess is no, just want to make sure. Obviously code will be different.
Technical SEO | | waqid0 -
New Site Search Critique
Hi I am a huge fan of the SEOMOZ site and this great community which has helped me learn the current SEO skills I have now which are still very basic compared to the pros on the forum. I have tried to follow best practice regarding onsite and technical seo when developing my new site www.cheapfindergames.com and I would really appreciate it if experts on the forum could spare a minute to critique the site from a search perspective please This will give any elements of what onsite and technical SEO I done well and what aspects still need work. I am currently trying to build quality links and social mentions into the site which will take time, and the site has been designed around usability and conversions. Many Thanks Ian
Technical SEO | | ocelot0