Mirror sites? Effective? Illegal?

mirror sites, seo, traffic generating, ppc

[robyn_99]

My company was on the receiving end of the following sales pitch - I'm wondering if anyone has insight into whether or not an approach like this can be effective? Also, is it frowned upon by the engines to take tactics like the ones described below (mirror site)?

-------------------------------------

<Company> wishes to provide you with an industry specific proposal pertaining to the delivery of targeted search engine traffic.

We will build an optimized site based on your keywords and site content. There is no charge for the optimized site.

The optimized site is prominently positioned on all the major search engines. We pay all submission fees.

The traffic generated is delivered to your site at a negotiated, flat rate. Only "unique visitors" are charged for. Unique visitors are defined as potential clients that visit your site and are charged for, once! All other visitations the potential client makes within the month are delivered free of charge. Should it be required, we provide a third party tracking URL, enabling you to substantiate the traffic's origin and relevance.

Monthly site maintenance is provided free of charge. Maintenance is defined as any reasonable change that benefits the optimized site.

Should you wish to forward your site's URL and relevant keywords, I will respond with an initial proposal for discussion.

[Shak]

robyn,

trick very common in 2001/2002 basically looks like doorway/spam type of stuff.

Do NOT touch with a bargepole in my opinion.

Any emails like that I get go staright in the "deleted" items folder.

Shak

[heini]

Well, it does not sound like a mirror site, rather a doorway site. Very likely they build a keyword loaden domain which is part of some crosslinked network.

Effective? Not sure about the quality of the traffic.
More important: it does nothing longterm for your site. It's one competitor more in the serps for your site, you get no branding, your site will be associated with that crappy doorway site in your customers minds, and finally: when the arrangement ends you will be where you started from.

If you want to pay for your traffic, do PPC, IMO.

[seoRank]

Where does it say that they will create a mirror or 'identical content' site? If they are not actually doing that, there does not seem to be a major harm in the proposal except that (like heidi says)- It is not a long-term (or low cost) solution, you do not have control of the 'quality' of visitors; just the 'number' of unique visitors and your traffic will drop the day you terminate the arrangement.

It appears that a SEO expert who is confident of ranking results, wishes to create a micro site optimized for your product and wants to sell you its traffic. Essentially, he wants to sell you the 'results' of his SEO rather than the 'SEO service' itself.

Most of the affiliate networks work on similar concept. You signup with them, create your own product site and send them 'sales'.

If you plan to use them, be very very wary of the small print and what they can or cannot do without your express written permission.