Forum Moderators: open
Kind of confused that www.widgetscatchy.com site had a PR5 so checked the incoming links and for some reason when I check the links to this site is shows www.widgets.com's links instead of it's own. Even when listing the site Google states 'Searched for pages linking to AYdabadfa:www.widgets.com/' instead of 'Searched for pages linking to AY4cSZStU-0J:www.widgetscatchy.com/'
The sites are using the same hosting company but they're both two completely seperate accounts and have completely different content.
Why has Google amalgamated these two sites links? I'm just slightly worried that Googlebot will drop the pair of the sites from the index if it decides that the two sites are the same.
Any ideas guys?
Cheers
Chris Holgate
Same Hosting Company.
Not sure if Google is supposed to be doing this or not but here is an example you can all try at home.
Search for www.microsoft.co.uk in Google and it when you click on 'show sites linking to', it will instead show sites linking to www.microsoft.com/uk which is the site that the .co.uk automatically redirects too.
Sorry to use site specifics but I can't really show this example any other way
The main site is hosted by one of the largest hosting companies (Interland) and we've had these parked domains for years. I don't understand the mechanics of the parking service. Google was always very good at identifing them however some change has occurred and they are not picking up the fact that they are parked domains.
Any suggestions?
Never had this problem before Florida even though the domains were there for years.
How they got the URL's beats me. There is no way I had those links exposed to a spider. My guess is the whois.
What I have done is set up one (parking) page on an outside domain, and placed links to my travel sites. All domains are now directed to that one site.
As soon as I can, I will put up a page listing those 236 domains and get google to re-spider them. When all of the domains reflect the parking page and not my travel site, I will put a no-index tag on the parking page.
Just what I needed!
I just implemented it for my 10 or so parked domains and they all vanished from the SERPS in about 2 days. I also got a nice PR boost this month which I think was related as I had established no new backlinks.
Paul
added: Sorry, I've been a bit naive here:
I now have 236 websites with the same content as the index page of my travel site.
What the hell are you doing with 236 parked websites? - I hope you are being well and properly stuffed in the rankings.
Why is anyone in the least bit concerned about parked domains?
Duplicate content penalties can hurt.
There are ways of re-writing the parked domain name in .htaccess to stop this happening and you can also transfer any inbound links aimed at the parked domains to the main account.
What the hell are you doing with 236 parked websites? - I hope you are being well and properly stuffed in the rankings.
Why would you hope for that?
What the hell are you doing with 236 parked websites? - I hope you are being well and properly stuffed in the rankings.
Welcome to WebmasterWorld, dasboot. I don't think the intention was to create 236 duplicate sites in Google; I'd assume the parked domains are alternate spellings of the primary domain as well as other domains being used to catch type-in traffic while the owner is deciding how to use them.
Now we hear complaints / concerns from someone with over 200 parked domains, who is worrying about their status.
Beggars belief.
As if we bl*ody care. Sounds like major spamming in the making.
added: there is scant respect for the Internet on these boards - the parking of multiple domains - even hundreds - is regarded as legitimate, even by 'moderators'
Who appoints these 'moderators'?
[edited by: dasboot at 8:27 pm (utc) on Dec. 29, 2003]
[edited by: engine at 8:05 am (utc) on April 7, 2004]
First
one is a site with a catchy name that automatically diverts to www.widget.com, we'll call this site www.widgetscatchy.com
Then
they're both two completely seperate accounts and have completely different content.
Emphasis added
I think that until the exact situation is cleared up it's tough to guess at anything.
So, does widgetscatchy redirect to widgets as stated first or, are they separate domains with separate content as stated second?
Whats your issue?
Parked domains are a legitimate part of running a succesful website, there is nothing wrong with catching more visitors by buying a domain name they are likely to type into the address bar (either a mis-spelling of the main domain name or a commonly used word).
You are crooked and biased WW - through and through.
What possible value are parked domains to Internet users
For one, when they can't spell
and why is a WW moderator showing any interest in them at all?
To help diffuse a rude response to a genuine question.
But what you are describing now sounds like a set of multiple doorways - please expand. Have we all been so naive?
added: do we need over 200 doorways to overcome spelling mistakes - in a SE that automatically corrects them. Are you guys - with your 200+ URLs the reason so many have suffered in Florida. And you're even moaning about them not being indexed, although they're only parked.
[edited by: dasboot at 8:47 pm (utc) on Dec. 29, 2003]
But what you are describing now sounds like a set of multiple doorways
Not in the slightest, you are re-writing the URL using .htaccess so that the parked domain does not show in the SERPS at all. Also the URL would change in the address bar.
i.e.
typed as:
www.webmasterwold.com
re-written automatically to:
www.webmasterworld.com
You are spammers
No, you are just not getting it.
Parking 200+ domains is one thing, tacit support from a WW moderator is another, but measly spammer complaints about them not being indexed really takes the biscuit.
You wrote
I just implemented it for my 10 or so parked domains and they all vanished from the SERPS in about 2 days
Now is this a Webmaster Forum - or a spam forum? If you have a legit content site - why worry about your parked domains?
And why would a Mod show interest in a guy who is worried about his 200+ parked domains?
It's spam - legitimised by this forum.
Vanish from the SERPS so as to avoid a duplicate content penalty (or spamming as you call it).
This is the result of an .htaccess redirect, we are trying to avoid penalties associated with spamming and also just get one domain, not multiple domains listed in the SERPS.
It's spam - legitimised by this forum.
How would you ever define this as spam?
And why would a Mod show interest in a guy who is worried about his 200+ parked domains?
----
I think the moderator was just trying clue you in about the post that I made, I sure it was not his intention to promote or condone spam. Nor is it mine.
If you would read this thread in sequence, it should be clear to you that in no way were the 236 domains intended to be indexed. I was only stating that they were indexed in response to others that have posted about that issue.
These are a part of our 5000 or so domains that we manage purley for type-in traffic and all 236 of them are travel related.
It was never intended for google to index the 236 domains. The fact that they have been indexed just goes to support the reality that google travels in places they are not invited or welcomed.
Most likley google got the URL's through the whois, or a whois service.
I hope this helps you, no-one here is promoting or condoning spam.
Dasboot has completely misunderstood the circumstances of these parked domains.
They are indeed mispellings and other domains that we are holding for future use. Nothing spammy about it. Our hosting company offers a service for $20 that parks and aims these domains to our main site. If someone mistypes the name they automatically go to the main site.
What has happenned is that for the mispelling of our regional name our main site is there as well as two of the parked domains - all in the top 10.
I don't want this which is the opposite of spam! I also do not want to be penalized.
Can someone with knowledge about this tell me how I can get Interland to change the parking code so that Google will know these are parked domains and not index them. The problem may be happening because I am showing them as "future sites" on one of our design pages however Google should know they are parked.
>>why would there be anything wrong with having parked domains?
Theres not. There is no shady practice at all if you have a domain without a site. Pointing alternate spellings is done even by google ( [gooogle.com...] ), so it is not an issue as long as it is not a doorway with one page. If you don't try and rank with a parked domain then it will not fly for the definition of spam which is trying to trick the engines. Not in the engine = not spam.
