Someone else's url with my webpage - on the search results

What is going on here?

[mslina2002]

Something odd has been happening with my webpage. When I do a search for my keywords, my website pops up #1 with my title, company, etc. as it would normally would with the search results. But the url that shows up in Google is from another site. If I click on my link it does take me to my site.

I can not figure out what is happening but I suspect my PR has dropped one point because of this.

Can someone explain this to me?

[Alternative Future]

Have you done a whois on the domain/url?

And also a view-source:http://www.thedomaininquestion.com to see what sort of redirect might be in operation.

-George

[Macguru]

I bet it's a meta refresh.

[mslina2002]

The info on whois seems legit but what do I know. I am unable to find any redirect using the view-source method, either.

The site has me on a list of top 10 sites to visit. It is an informative site with lots of ads and not at all my competition. I think the link is the one giving the problem.

I have emailed them to take me off their site this morning but I don't know if they is anything else sneaky/funny that they are doing and what their response would be. I have also emailed Google about this problem.

Can I sticky anyone to take a look? I am by all means not techno-savvy so any help will be greatly greatly appreciated....

Lina

[mslina2002]

Macguru,

When you say it is a meta refresh, do you mean a redirect? If so, a redirect from www.the-other-site.com and not from me. What benefit would that do them

[Alternative Future]

>>The info on whois seems legit but what do I know. I am unable to find any redirect using the view-source method, either.

When you say legit - do you mean you own it? Or it is owned by another co-operation/individual?

>>I am unable to find any redirect using the view-source method, either

What is shown when you view the source - nothing - some Meta tags - or something else?

-George

[Macguru]

>>When you say it is a meta refresh, do you mean a redirect?

Yes, it is a kind of "on page" redirect. Some spiders will follow it and content of the destination page gets in the index. What I really consider a glitch is when it keeps the other URL with your content. No logic here.

I had one like this last month, I politely contacted the other end, and finally traded the redirect with a live link. They made it with no bad intention.

What bugs me is it's still live in the index...

[edited by: Macguru at 2:39 pm (utc) on May 19, 2004]

[mslina2002]

George,

The site is owned by an individual/company. It is also owned by another company who I have a link to and from my site.

I don't see any meta tags but I sent you a sticky

Lina

[Alternative Future]

Hi mslina2002,

When I viewed the source I found the following META in place:

<META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh" content="0;URL=http://www.yourdomain.com">

Like Macguru says:
>>What I really consider a glitch is when it keeps the ther URL with your content. No logic here.

Am open for what your next step would be...
Your probably aware that you are shown #14 in the same search query, it might just take a little time for you to move up the SERP's which will be the perfect result.
What I would watch out for is google penalizing your site for duplicate content, am not sure on their algorithm for doing this, but, I am sure someone with more knowledge in this area will suggest something.

-George

[Macguru]

I am not sure about this, but I think Google simply ignored the redirecting page to index only the destination page in the past.

I have saw weird things with redirects since 3 or 4 months. When search engines start to match your content with another URL, there is definetly a problem.

[Alternative Future]

It seems the site linking to this site in question uses CGI for all their listings rather than straight forward anchor tags (which is not uncommon). Don't know if that assists any further with the issue.

-George

[mslina2002]

Macguru,

I am seeing what you are saying, and I also thought it would be a mistake on their part. I have contacted them to take my link off only because I thought it would be easier (for me) instead of figuring out what the problem is. But a live link is a better option.

George,

Thank you so much for looking at the site. I knew I must have missed something or not looking in the right place. What are my options here? Is this an intentional or a mistake? I have contacted the site and hopefully she will have an answer for me.

Lina

[mslina2002]

What I would watch out for is google penalizing your site for duplicate content

That's my fear.

Is this a problem with Google or with the-other-site-in-question?

[Alternative Future]

>>Is this a problem with Google or with the-other-site-in-question?
The problem could be taken out with either your site or the other site; I think google is intelligent enough to figure out that the other site is linking to you so perhaps not that big of an issue.
In the meantime the other site is providing you with traffic, so the question is can you afford to loose this traffic till your site increases in the SERP's.
I am sure someone else can answer some of these outstanding questions you have.

-George

[mslina2002]

Actually I haven't seen much traffic from this site. The webmaster has taken down my link which is fine with me but I don't know if anything else that needs to be done to correct this with Google. I might have to wait for the next update and see.

Thanks again for all your help...

[Alternative Future]

Thanks again for all your help...

No problem...

I think you are right in saying its just a matter of waiting now and it should be removed from the SERP's soon enough.

-George