Forum Moderators: buckworks
We’ve done a lot and have been fairly successful at obtaining our ‘Good’ ranking through ONE Relevant Domain. At one time we subscribed to a ‘link farm’, in an effort to broaden our base, which did nothing but quickly move us to be banned and dropped from Google. We also had multiple active domains selling the same thing, which we've stopped long ago. This is definitely a practice we do not subscribe to or push in any form shape or fashion since. Our position is that if you design a Good and Relevant site, then the rankings will come.
In talking with customers and potential customers on the phone and through analyzing our logs I know the core customer’s whom purchase the type of luxury items we sell, do their research. Which in turn, means they search deep and they search long.
What is troubling to us is the fact that there are people out there who are running purely a virtual business with no VALUE to the leisure industry. This is definitely not a new concept.
Lately, the owner has been discussing how many more players there are in the Leisure Industry today who are actively participating on the Internet. And we have no problem with that, if they’re really MORE participants.
When these players have multiple sites under different domains its not more players, it’s just a shotgun approach to search engine ranking, which is devaluing Search. I wonder if this is why we get the feedback we do about the depth of search people do.
The Search Industry is extremely important to our business as Internet sales have far outgrown our local sales. We want to help make search better, so we don’t feel we should sit by on the sidelines and have our business and both our industries devalued by the keystrokes of some want-to-be(s).
Additionally several of these sites are using ‘link farms’, which we got banned for. There are even some single domain competitors who use this practice. I thought this was a major NO-NO in the Search Engine Industry.
Am I wrong in presuming this?
Am I incorrect in thinking that if you have multiple domains but sell the same thing you'll get banned?
We have no problem competing against the competition; provided we are all playing by the same rules.
It sure would be nice if the SE's crawled and used a common credible domain where someone can go to alert the SE's about the possibility of this going on.
And Your Thoughts on Multiple Domains, Link Farms, Scaping, Etc. are? Let's put an end to this and level the playing field.
[edited by: lorax at 8:54 pm (utc) on Aug. 25, 2005]
[edit reason] removed URLs and edited for paragraphs [/edit]
Another good thing about having multiple domains is that, people have different tastes on the domain names itself.
hab
Additionally several of these sites are using ‘link farms’, which we got banned for. There are even some single domain competitors who use this practice. I thought this was a major NO-NO in the Search Engine Industry.
The short answer is yes. The long answer is that it's quite likely they'll get away with it for at least the short term. In the long run it will depend upon the quality of the links from those link farms. They may not get banned from having them and they may not to see much benefit from them either. Each SE will evaluate them differently.
Am I incorrect in thinking that if you have multiple domains but sell the same thing you'll get banned?
I know I wouldn't make this assumption. I've know of people who have more than one site selling the same products on both. Their sites look totally different and the products are not exactly the same. They chose to split their total product line so they could emphasize one section. There is some overlap on the more popular products about 20% but those products are also highly profitable.
In the long run, you may be trying to level the playing field over a pit of quicksand.
If you're competing against ecomm sites that are playing the short-term high profit game then you're likely not to be able to compete against them. The reasons are that they don't care if their website gets banned today. They'll simply put it up in another form with a new domain tomorrow. They can burn through hundreds of them without flinching.
You on the otherhand have a flagship. It's your primary income generator. Are you willing to risk it using questionable tactics? I wouldn't be. You sound like you have already grasped the concept of content is king. Keep to the tried and true and you'll be better off in the long run.
Of course, that's not to say you couldn't play a little bit in the realm of the blackhats with an expendable domain that has no identifiable connection to your business identity or anyone who works there. But for gawd sakes, do you homework on playing this game before you do and realize you will burn up domains and time but it could prove to be profitable.
