Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
They have thousands of different domains, all with solid keywords relating to their business, all with the exact same information.
Is this something Google doesn't penalize for anymore?
If you take any text on their site and do a search, it will come up with the list of all those domains.
[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 6:32 pm (utc) on Oct. 22, 2009]
[edit reason] removed specifics [/edit]
If you take any text on their site...
If they are not ranking on BIG query terms, then ranking for exact phrases from their copy is no big deal. From what you describe they might well have some penalties, just not for the phrases you are checking.
I don't believe I'm able to post specifics about it. I'm not sure how long it has been going on for, but it looks to be working very well.
Since I can't be any more specific about the company or search phrases, I'll explain a little more about their tactic.
Let's say the keyword in question is "keyword1". They purchased every domain with their company name, keyword1, and the name of the state.
Such as texas-companyname-keyword1.com. Then setup sub domains for the various cities, such as austin.texas-companyname-keyword1.com and bedford.texas-companyname-keyword1.com
Every single website holds the same exact content. With links to their main website in certain areas.
Think of it as a phrase match on google adwords.
What percentage similar are they?
I doubt they are 100% you already said they use unique url's, unique domains and everyone recycles some copy to an extent.
that’s solid SEO, your competitor is savvy, adapt or fail.
Google seems to care a lot about the domain name, especially if there is a keyword in the domain.
Their master template has direct links to their main website scattered throughout the template.
The rest of the links keep yourself within whatever domain you are on.
The same exact content is displayed (since the domain is parked on top of the other domain). So there are hundreds of domains, all with direct links pointing to the same main site, with sub domains for each domain, that includes every city of the state used within the domain (shown in my previous post).
It seems to be VERY effective. Let's say they own 300-350 domains, that's around $2500-$3000 per YEAR for front page rankings. Some people spend that per day in PPC.
The thing is, each domain should only be showing up once on any given search - that is what you're seeing, correct?
The thing is, each domain should only be showing up once on any given search - that is what you're seeing, correct?
It seems like Google is treating it like separate websites, and then giving the main site highly valued backlinks.
I just did another search right now for <keyword> <city> and the main domain came up #2, and the duplicate website with the domain hollywood.california-keyword.com showed up in the #10 spot.
This idea is working amazingly. I can't imagine how much business this has brought in, for such a small price.
I'm sure Google will finally catch up, even if it takes a year or so, it is still a very good short term way of marketing.
Think of it like this... a new website pops off. Spend a few thousand on domain names, leave it up for 6-8 months, then take it down before Google fully penalizes you.
$3,000 for 6 months of position 1 on Google, is well worth it. Of course this won't last forever, it is still appears to be very effective.
I could care less if Google penalizes these guys, it's just very interesting to personally run across a new trick/method for gaining ranks.
That method I call the Fast G*bot Food, few weeks, or even months and a filter in place or even a penalty, why, I've been there, done it, regretted it with some sites of ours!
