Long story short, the page isn't cached in Google, but it does redirect - so odds are the actual link is gone. Your client's site content was probably scraped. In another example, whoever did this also scraped content from another site.

Scraping is pretty common, and it would result in backlinks if the scraper didn't totally remove all of the links. The scraper/hacker likely didn't choose sites strategically, rather they likely just targeted vulnerable sites.

If you run into live instances of your client's stolen content, there is always the option of a DMCA takedown.

Edit: I just revisited my response and found that even the Web Archive link redirects. I took a look at the source code after stopping the browser before the redirect, I haven't found anything in a timely manner. Suffice to say, that's odd.

This sounds like it might just do the trick. You'll need to have Ruby installed for it to work. If you have a Mac, it's already on there. If you have a Windows you'll need this. It's pretty easy, I installed Ruby on my Windows gaming rig. If you're running a Linux flavor, try this.

Just take your URLs from the site crawl and make a txt file. You can compare that with your CSS file. I've never tried it on a large site, let me know how it goes for you.

Found the site. I'm able to recreate the problem. Check the image attachment.

I ran it through tools.pingdom.com, a chrome extension called cast_sender.js isn't loading. But something makes me think there's an issue with the CSS that only crops up from time to time, like the JS blocks it every once in a while. There's both a Global.css and a Global.js in the head. There are also folder levels called /Script%20Library/ and /Style%20Library/.

There's a ton of JavaScript on the site, which I don't have time to get into. And honestly, I'm more of a WordPress guy. I managed to make the page load fail a few times out of a dozen or so tries. I think something in the JavaScript is causing the issue.

Kmk8hFj

You can use PHP redirects, and they'll do the same thing. Though it will be a little slower and the page still has to technically exist. If it's a very high traffic site, then it may eventually become an issue.

I second, or third?, the notion that you should more than likely only have a single WordPress installation. It definitely would increase the maintenance involved. Take everything you should do to maintain an installation, then double it. I'm certain everyone in your organization could do without that.

But if your organization is willing to endure the duplication of effort, there are other things to be concerned about. Not every theme is created equal. Some themes are faster than others, some are more secure than others and most themes will differ in every other way. So one theme could be a hindrance, while the other at least pulls it's weight.

In regard to the subdomain blog or subfolder blog question, there was a time in recent history where I would have said it didn't matter. Supposedly the link equity/juice flows just fine either way. However, someone in Moz Q&A made a very good point. To paraphrase EGOL; "Algorithms change, if you install your blog on a subfolder you will always be right."

I'm not sure when your company made the jump to WordPress, but WordPress has had the ability to display static pages for years. My first agency used to run a combination of CMS Made Simple and WordPress, I think it was due to the page handling issue. That was over six years ago. They later made the jump to full WordPress about five years ago.

So it sounds like the site isn't properly configured for your purposes. Here is how you should handle that, direct from the WordPress codex. From there you can setup your site's page structure through parent/child relationships. So if you're selling widgets, your structure may look like:

**Page Hierarchy **

site.com/widgets/

site.com/widgets/blue-widgets

site.com/widgets/red-widgets

Posts Hierarchy

site.com/blog-diggety/

site.com/blog-diggety/sweet-post

There are Pages and Posts. You bring the hierarchy. And speaking of which, should you change your site URL structure, you will definitely want to research 301 redirects.

To me, there's no question in my mind. You should stick with one WordPress install. Hopefully that helps.