Hello, kenas, thanks for asking.
It appears that at some point, you've fallen victim to dicey advice
about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Let's see what can be done to
identify and overcome the difficulties that have arisen.
You've asked if registration of several similar domain names is
considered spamming of Google. No, that practice, in itself, is not
considered search engine spam. However, duplicate, identical content
across a number of different domain websites is identified as a
practice to avoid in Google's Quality Guidelines.
A search for the phrase "helpful web hosting service since 1998" turns
up 16 identical website results, in addition to internetters.com and
internetters.co.uk:
Google Search "helpful web hosting service since 1998"
://www.google.com/search?q=%22helpful+UK+web+hosting+service+since+1998%22
uk-domain-names.co.uk
internet-service-provider.com
register-domain-name.co.uk
internetters.net (**)
your-own-name.co.uk
domain-name-registration.co.uk
internetters.org.uk
example-website.com
inaninstant.com *
danray.co.uk
names.org.uk
uk-domain-name-registration.co.uk
register-domain.co.uk
netbusiness.org.uk
uk-domain-names.com
* - Redirects to internetters.co.uk
** - 2 subdomains, www and ns2
Google's Quality Guidelines specifically name this practice as one
that can adversely affect your PageRank, and even result in banning of
websites from the index.
"Quality Guidelines - Specific recommendations:
-- Don't create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with
substantially duplicate content."
Google Webmaster Guidelines
://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
Since the first quarter of 2003, Google has been enforcing their
Guidelines more strictly than ever before. Many sites that use
practices named by Guidelines as undesirable have been identified,
penalized, and/or excluded from the index. That exclusion process
continues with every crawl and Google Dance. This appears to be the
result of Google's deliberate refinement of their complex PageRank
algorithm and an aggressive stance toward search engine spam.
"According to a recent Search Engine Watch interview of Google
engineer Matt Cutts, Google has been testing among other things, new
spam filters. The article implies that these tests may explain some of
the anomalies that webmasters are seeing. While Google remains fairly
tight-lipped about the new filters, Cutts admitted that they are
trying to crack down on hidden text and hidden links on Web sites."
Sticky Eyes - GoogleDance Causes Widespread Confusion
http://www.stickyeyes.com/news_june_03.htm#1
Rebranding
----------
We had considered rebranding ourselves exclusively as .CO.UK or .COM
but this is not very practical bearing in mind our many customers and
other contacts - and it should really not be necessary?
--
That's a tough decision, I realize. As webmasters and site owners,
sometimes it comes down to hard choices. It would depend on how much
of your traffic originates from Google, and therefore, how valuable a
good relationship with Google is to your business. Google frowns on
duplicate content in their index. If you wish to have different
website names and domains, AND have each of them well listed with
Google, each domain and website must have substantially different
content. "Cookie Cutter" websites are on Google's list of no-no's.
To maximize your Google PageRank and positioning, I believe you'd be
well served by concentrating your energies on a single domain name,
and using Google-recommended strategies to promote that domain and
website.
If you choose to concentrate on a single domain, you'd need to remove
the duplicate content and auto-redirects from the non-selected
domains, and place a manual/auto redirect on the domain index page.
This sort of redirect can offer a meta-refresh 5 or 10 second redirect
for browsers that recognize such, and also offers a standard text link
for search engines and human users without "smart" browser clients.
These type of redirects are something you can point to as an indicator
of your willingness to adhere to Google Quality Guidelines.
Inbound Linkage
---------------
Looking at Alexa shows:
internetters.com other sites that link to this site - 103
internetters.co.uk other sites that link to this site - 334
--
I ran the link searches in Google:
link: internetters.com/ - 50 links
://www.google.com/search?q=link%3A+internetters.com%2F
links: internetters.com - 191
://www.google.com/search?q=links%3A+internetters.com%2F
Google states that they don't display every inbound link: "Please
note: we do not serve link queries for all of the sites in our index,
so this may not produce any results for your site."
Google Webmaster Guidelines
://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
Among members of a number of the well-regarded search engine
optimization forums, it is widely believed that Google does not
display inbound links for sites with less than PR4, and does not
display backward links from sites with PR3 or less. Links from
unranked pages, however, -are- found in the backwards link listings.
It is assumed that inclusion of these unranked pages in the Google
link: command is due to those site's overall rankings, however this
theory has not been confirmed.
Google Directory
----------------
In the Google Directory Category Computers Internet Domain Names I
Internetters is listed at the very bottom of the list with the url
www.internetters.co.uk.
--
The Google Directory uses the human-edited Open Directory Project data
for its Directory. Results are re-ordered using Google's own
algorithm. Sites can appear at the bottom of the listings for a number
of innocent reasons, but a couple of negative reasons have also been
noted.
-- The Google indexed URL differs from the ODP (dmoz.org) URL.
-- The page has a PR0 penalty
A search of dmoz.org shows that internetters.com is not included in
the ODP directory. Internetters.co.uk has four listings in dmoz,
however is not officially included in the Google index. This confusion
is likely the reason for the bottom listing.
Client Linkage
--------------
We host many thousands of clients domain names and websites on our
servers many of which carry a hosted by Internetters logo and hyper
link although it would appear these are not picked up.
--
The client logos link to internetters.co.uk, which as explained above,
is not included in the Google index.
Search for internetters.co.uk
://www.google.com/search?q=internetters.co.uk
For these links to show as linked to Internetters.com, they'd have to
link to that site. For them to show as linked to Internetters.co.uk,
Internetters.co.uk would have to be included in the Google index.
You can maximize the effect of these links by switching to text links.
The Google PageRank algorithm doesn't attach as much importance to
image links as it does to text links. If you do decide that image
links are more appropriate for your purpose, consider a change to the
ALT text that includes the domain name, i.e. Internetters.com or
Internetters.co.uk.
Any advice welcomed, please
---------------------------
The best advice I can offer in regard to your Google search result
ranking is that you select one domain name and direct all visitors to
that one website/domain name, and make sure all content is directed at
site visitors, rather than search engines. In the latter category,
your site already has very high marks. Place clear notifications that
your extra domains are closed, and being redirected to your one chosen
domain name and website. Contact all sites that link to you, and offer
them standardized link text or graphics and URLs.
Once you've made all your modifications, you'd need to write to
Google, and ask for reconsideration, based upon the changes you've
made.
A sample e-mail to help@google.com:
Dear Google,
I am the owner of < your site >.
I was unaware than having multiple websites with duplicate content was
contrary to Google Guidelines and might cause problems with Google
rankings.
I have now recognized my mistake, and I sincerely apologize. I have
closed duplicate domains. I promise our site will adhere to the Google
Quality Guidelines from this point forward.
Please consider removing PageRank penalties (or: consider
reinstatement of internetters.co.uk - if that's the domain you decide
to focus on).
Sincerely,
< your name >
Bear in mind that there's no guarantee of reinstatement, nor any
indication of how long it might take for a domain to be reinstated or
other penalties lifted.
Familiarize yourself with Google's Webmaster Guidelines.
://www.google.com/webmasters/
://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
://www.google.com/webmasters/1.html
://www.google.com/webmasters/2.html
://www.google.com/webmasters/3.html
://www.google.com/webmasters/4.html
://www.google.com/webmasters/facts.html
://www.google.com/webmasters/seo.html
://www.google.com/webmasters/faq.html
Learn the basics of obtaining good ranking.
Learning Sites:
RankWrite Roundtable
http://www.rankwrite.com
High Rankings Advisor
http://www.highrankings.com/advisor.htm
Forums:
WebmasterWorld Forums
http://www.webmasterworld.com
SEO Forums
http://www.searchengineforums.com
PageRank
Phil Craven - Google's PageRank and how to make the most of it
http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:erCtQDz9GaIJ:www.webworkshop.net/pagerank.pdf
Ian Rogers - PageRank Explained Correctly With Examples
http://www.iprcom.com/papers/pagerank/
Answer Strategy
----------------------------------------------------------------------
My answer was compiled from site research of Internetters.com, Google
link searches, from my own bookmarks, and from knowledge of and
experience with search engine optimization, earned as webmaster and
web developer, working with SEO specialists on website development.
Google Search Terms:
google "duplicate content"
://www.google.com/search?q=google+%22duplicate+content%22
google "identical websites"
://www.google.com/search?q=google+%22identical+websites%22
search engine spam "duplicate websites"
://www.google.com/search?q=search+engine+spam+%22duplicate+websites%22
I realize that this information and advice are not necessarily what
you'd hoped to hear. With nothing on the line except our reputation
for honesty and the quality of our research, Answers Researchers tend
to offer straight talk.
If you have any questions about the information or links, please, do
feel free to ask. I'll be happy to answer questions or provide
additional assistance.
---larre |
Clarification of Answer by
larre-ga
on
09 Aug 2003 17:33 PDT
Hiding Duplicate Content with Robots.txt
----------------------------------------
In the matter of using the robots.txt file to hide duplicate content,
you may wish to further explore cautions about this method:
"... [The] robots.txt approach is used successfully by many to avoid
spamming a search engine with near duplicate content. However, others
will argue that a safer method is to avoid any near duplicate content
on your Web site altogether. While in theory a properly set up
robots.txt could prevent a search engine from indexing two pages that
had similar content, it is not foolproof. For example, you could make
a mistake in setting up the file, inadvertently introducing similar
content to an engine. The Robogen product or one like it can certainly
help you in this regard, but no product can prevent every error you
might conceivably make.
In addition, some Webmasters believe that the engines do not always
honor the robots.txt and could bypass it either because of a glitch in
their system, or in a conscious hunt for duplicate pages. To be fair,
the majority of Web marketers believe that search engines do not care
if you have files residing on your site that are similar, or designed
for different engines, so long as those extra pages do not clutter and
degrade their index. With billions of pages on the Web, engines have
enough content to index without ignoring the robots.txt protocol and
indexing pages not intended for them. Lastly, to ignore the robots.txt
protocol puts an engine at risk of being sued based on trespassing or
copyright laws, a situation most engines wish to avoid."
The full article is available from:
Market Position Monthly - June 2003
http://www.marketposition.com/mp-0603.htm
The article about the full technique begins about halfway down the
page. The Market Position editors caution, quoted above, is given at
the end of the article.
My goal is to assist you in obtaining the best Google positioning
possible without any worry of falling afoul of guidelines. I have
numerous logs of client websites that demonstrate that search engine
spiders -do- go prowling by ignoring the robots.txt file.
Parked Domains
--------------
Parked domains (i.e. domain names without separate content, pointed to
the same IP address) are still acceptable.
"There's absolutely no penalty having two domains pointing to the same
IP as long as you're not trying to gain *extra* rankings with the
various domains."
- and -
"In cases of duplicate content under different domain names at the
same
IP address, it appears that Google assigns the most popular domain
name to the IP address, but also keeps a record of other domains
associated with the IP address so it can do "site:" lookups on those
other domains. If you look at the "cache:" results of a less popular
domain, it always uses the most popular name in the cache page header.
RankWrite #78
Successful Online Copywriting & Search Engine Optimization
http://www.rankwrite.com/archives/issue078.htm
---l
|
