Company name hijacked in new changes

Any help or advice appreciated

[phantombookman]

Hi
the new changes have seen the homepage of one of my sites replaced by someone else.
The search 'my company name' used to return me #3
for the homepage plus various other pages.
I have now been replaced by another company that is using the company name for a links page.

All they seem to have done is used my-company-name in the URL also in <h1> tags and twice in <h3>
My 2 problems are
how could they seemingly spam Google so easily and
What can I effectively do about it
Thanks fo rany help
Regards
Rod

[kaled]

If your company name is unique certain avenues may be open to you but if is something like Ice Cold Tea Inc. basically you'll have to out SEO them.

Assuming it us unique and registered as a trademark, you could try emailing the host (if there is one). You could also try emailing Google, beyond that, if you can't afford a lawyer, SEO may be your best bet. Look at what they've done and do it better. If your PR is higher, this should be possible.

There are also options using cloaking and redirects, but that's another story.

Kaled.

[phantombookman]

Hi Kaled
thanks for that, what has surprised me (apart from their audacity) is that they did it so easily.
My homepage has external backlinks with the company name as anchor text, they show none.
It's PR4 (was PR5) they are PR2. etc
I am #4 with an internal page but I am amazed that they seem to have literally taken the place of my homepage

They seem to just show Google based sponsor listings on the page so I guess it may be some click through links thing ( I know nothing about paid listings and adwords etc I am afraid)

Interestingly none of the other search engines seem to have fallen for this.
I am lucky normally because there is none of this sort of thing in my area usually - hugely frustrating and very annoying - not to mention embarrassing when people look me up.

Regards
Rod :(

[kaled]

If this is a new page, bear in mind that Google often ranks new pages well. A month from now the problem may have passed.

Fingers crossed ....

Kaled.

[hdpt00]

Do they still rank them well? Isn't there the prevailing theme that sites are now being sandboxed for a couple of months and possibly even longer? Are you referring to ranking well after crawling out of the sand?

-Brandon

[kaled]

I was not referring to Sandbox effects.

Kaled.

[CathyM]

They have done it to me as well. I still rank #1 for my company name but they are right behind me as #2. They have created company-name.html with <title>, keywords, and description all using company name plus 2 prominent keyword phrases on my site.

And their slogan is "Find out how you can prevent Internet abuse"

Yuck.

[phantombookman]

Hi
just thought I ought to give an update, amazingly the company responded to my email, I presumed it would be a waste of time sending it but...
My email below followed by their reply.

Dear Sir
I am emailing you in respect of your manipulation of my registered
company name. You have constructed webpages based on my unique company
name '********* Rare Books' without my express permission.
This is an initial and informal request that you cease and desist from
this practice.
The name is fully registered so this is both a copyright and VERO issue.
I look forward to news of your prompt action
*.*. *******
Owner of ********* Rare Books

<b>Their Reply</b>
Dear Sir,

Any reference to ****** Rare Books will be removed from our database in the next 48 hours. It may take a month or so for search engines to update their index, removing this particular page from their search results. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Sincerely,
--.com

[Swash]

an ethical spammer.
will wonders ever cease?