If you are willing to share a link to your site, we can offer a more specific evaluation. Otherwise we are offering vague generalities which may or may not apply to your situation.

I believe there are just 2 links each to FB and Twitter - one at the top and one at the bottom.

I noticed in the top there are the "f" and "t" icons which each link to facebook and twitter respectively. In addition, there is the "@NantucketBrand which is a twitter link, and "Facebook instantly" which is a facebook link. It's ok to have these variations if they are helpful and visitors use them. I point them out mainly because they may not be used or there may be confusion as to how they are used compared to the normal "f" and "t' icons.

Based on your question I am not clear if the site is deleted prior to your gaining control over the site.

If you are trying to copy a site before you have control over it, all you can do is download the HTML of the various web pages. If you spend a bit more time, you may be able to figure out file names on the server and download them, but that is moving down a path of internet security and hacking.

If you are trying to copy a site after you have control over it, the easiest method to capture everything would be a cPanel backup. cPanel is the most popular software used to administrate Apache web servers. That is the most likely hosting environment for counterfeit sites. A single cPanel backup will capture everything.

Otherwise you can go through and copy the public_html folder (or whatever the main folder is called, it will vary based on server setup) along with the database and other settings you wish to retain such as e-mail.

Understand the old site owner will still have all the passwords and an understanding of the code. While it is unlikely, they could leave themselves backdoors into the site as well. This is one reason why maintaining their site is not likely to be a good idea.

Once you began running these sites from your server, what is the plan? You would place a "counterfeit" notice and then ??? that's it? Or would you redirect them to your site? If you redirect them to your site and maintain these sites up on an ongoing basis, it can be seen as a network of doorway sites.

I understand what you are doing and why. The issue is you are taking actions purely based on search engine rankings. To do such for a short period such as 30-60 days is likely fine. To do it on a more permanent basis will likely lead you to a penalty.

Most sites are database driven. The public does not have direct access to the database. Accordingly you cannot download the full functioning website in the manner you desire.

If it is a very basic pure html/css site, you can pretty much achieve your goal.

Do you obtain control over just the domain? Or do you have access to their hosting account? If you gain access to the hosting account, you can request the host restore the site from a backup.

Even if you gain access to the full site, you really need to be careful. Your goal is purely to manipulate search engine results which makes these activities black hat and subject to penalty. I understand your intentions are good, but the method is not complaint with Google's Guidelines.

If you own the brand, and you have a trademark, you can build quality sites promoting the brand. You can use every social media page, etc. If you put in the time and effort, these pages will rank very well in SERPs.

Some great legal victories are being won in the US to help with these types of issues. Coach recently won a similar case. It's great to hear the good guys are gaining some ground.

The separation between black hat and white hat tactics is generally a clear line. The simple question is, does the code exist for the benefit of your site's visitors or solely to manipulate search engines?

DIV tags are used to apply CSS rules to specific pieces of code. If you have a link contained in a DIV and the display set to none, that link would clearly never be seen by the site's visitors. It is apparent the link exists solely to manipulate search engine results, and therefore is a black hat tactic.

When Google and other search engines discover black hat tactics being used on a site, they will take action. The action can be relatively minor such as ignoring the link. The action could be mid-range such as removing the page containing the link from the index. At the extreme end, they can remove the entire site from the index.

Each search engine has their own internal guidelines on how to handle these issues. Some issues are handled automatically via algorithms, while other issues are handled by manual review. There are no published standards on exactly which punishments will be handed out for a given violation. It is simply best to completely avoid anything black hat.

What you are referring to is link triangles. It's black hat, and punishable.

You clearly want to perform a link exchange, but you know the links would be discounted. In order to manipulate the system, you link to another site to avoid the link exchange.

The bottom line, it is a search engine's job to determine which web pages are the most relevant and reliable for a user. Links are a large part of their calculations. Anything you do to muddy the waters and make it difficult to determine whether a link occurs naturally, or it is paid for / exchanged, it black hat and would be subject to consequences upon discovery.

Very information reply as always EGOL. Any rough estimates on how long for the full link's effects to be in place? 4 weeks?

I believe Sha's answer drills down to the root issue and addresses the original question best.

I wouldn't go so far as to call the extra links spam. They are not helpful to SEO. They just add extra links to your page.

If you sincerely believe they are helpful for users, then leave them. Otherwise, I would recommend removing them.