Multi Domains Crowding "Smart Spam" Is Defeating Google Webspam Team

[reseller]

I see part of SEO industry and Webmasters communities are impressed of the effectiveness of latest Panda and Penguin algo updates to kill "traditional" spam mentioned in Google quality Guidelines [support.google.com...] .

However I have noticed that Multi Domains Crowding "Smart Spam" has emerged victorious regardless Panda & Penguin.

Allow me to clarify what I mean by "Multiple Domains Crowding (which is something entirely different than "Google Domain Crowding problem").

Multiple Domains Crowding Spam: Its a specific spam technique to own more than one top position on first page of Google SERPs for the same search term by several different domains you own or lease.

I prefer not to talk about "How To" of the said spam method as its not my mission to teach how to spam Google.

For example a kind WebmasterWorld member has sent me some search queries related to niche "Assisted Living" which illustrated how at least 3 different domains of same owner are within top 10 results of first page of Google Serps for the same search query. Such spam method is pushing possible valuable sites of honest webmasters out of top ranking on Google Serps.

I wish to mention that Multiple Domains Crowding spam isn't something new. In fact it has been know among Black Hat SEOes for several years. It is sad and discouraging for White Hat SEOes and Webmasters to see Google Websapm Team unable to win the war against Multiple Domains Crowding Spam and neither Panda nor Penguin have been able to solve the said spam problem.

And I don't see any effect on Multiple Domains Crowding spam by current Google algo rollout which Matt Cutts has announced recently, unfortunately.

[diberry]

I don't see how this thread is irrelevant to the question of how to rank. When you see SERPs that do not make you happy as a *searcher*, you have to step back and answer a few questions: why are these sites ranking? Does other searchers actually like this, or is this just a glitch Google's going to fix eventually? Should I be doing what they're doing? Is that how to rank?

As a searcher, I get REALLY irritated when I see almost identical content from the first few pages in the SERPs - like, obviously copied, maybe re-worded just slightly. That does not help me achieve my goals. I can't believe any searchers like that, so I have to think it's not what Google intends, but something that's happening despite them.

I also agree with Editorial Guy that I don't need to see near dupe pages from Amazon's various tld's or 3-4 product pages from different vendors for the same product (came across that the other day and my reaction was, "Oh, right - why the heck am I searching Google instead of just using Amazon internal search? What a bunch of crap!"

In those situations, I can't imagine any searchers finding that useful, or Google thinking they would. And yet, they are ranking.

One other situation that's been brought up here: if one company produces three competing websites with DIFFERENT info/products/whatever and it's all quality, as a searcher I'm unlikely to notice it's all the same company. I don't care, because I still achieve my search goals.

I've started adding "-ehow" to the ends of many of my search queries. Seriously, it's that bad, LOL.

[frankleeceo]

The money question is...what can we do as webmasters to beat this spam technique in the current google testing environment. Hard to surface sites in a sea of similar contents. Unique or not.

Multi domain spam when coupled with burn and churn technique can be quite powerful.

I don't think it even has to be sites hosted by the same person or company. 10 competitors running against each other all with similar content can result in this phenomenon too? as with against the completed automated scrapers.

[atlrus]

One other situation that's been brought up here: if one company produces three competing websites with DIFFERENT info/products/whatever and it's all quality, as a searcher I'm unlikely to notice it's all the same company. I don't care, because I still achieve my search goals.

Fine, so the complaint here is nearly identical content ranking, not domain ownership, which is how this thread was started.
If you read the OP you will hear call to arms against people owning multiple domains and trying to rank them, when the problem is not domain ownership, but ranking of content.

The thread was started as pure rant. There is no question, for example, "Help me outrank these guys", or "what steps to take to improve ranking in these conditions", no, it was just a whine about how 3 websites from the same company were ranked in the top 10. Boo-Hoo. Any webmaster worth their salt would immediately realize that they were ranked NOT BECAUSE THEY ARE OWNED BY THE SAME COMPANY, but despite that. Calling on Google to classify multiple domain ownership as spam is not just ridiculous, but rather irresponsible in a webmaster forum!

Sure, when I search I may get frustrated if the top 3 websites were offering nearly identical content. But this issue has nothing to do with "domain crowding", but with how Google ranks the content, because each one of those websites was ranked individually on its own merit. They could be owned by 3 different companies or by one, it's irrelevant to both me (the user) and google.

Now, the original thread started with some guy complaining that he visited 3 websites about assisted living and filled 3 different forms only to find out that all three were owned by the same company. Obviously those websites were different enough for the OP not to realize that it is the same company. I agree that this is a legit user complaint, but what could google do about it? You, as a webmaster, do you want google to limit each person to just one website that is allowed to rank and if you register another domain - it should be banned by Google automatically?

[diberry]

atlrus, I read it a little differently. I assume if you NOTICE as a searcher 3 results going to the same company, spam is occurring. If you don't notice it, then it's not.

You're right - if the results all have different, quality articles and the only connection is that the forms are all going to one owner, I don't know how the bot can detect that and do anything about it.

[reseller]

@reseler there is nothing to be done about "owners of many domains" everyone can register domains using A,B, or C company name (and BTW how about the thousands of offshore phantom companies gaming in the stock exchange?)

Keeping in mind the huge resources available for Google's teams, I'm sure it wouldn't be that difficult for Google Search Quality Team including Google Webspam Team to identify those Multiple Domains Crowding spammers.

If you take a close look at the "whole operation" of Multiple Domains Crowding spamming, you would see very clear the profile of the operation, for example:

- company owns a main domain.

- Company might owns several other domains of just slightly different content than content of the main domain.

- Company might owns several mini sites containing only few pages of similar or very thin content linking back to the company main domain.

- Company might owns one or several "thin" blogs linking back to the main domain.

- Company might be leasing one or several sites to display the company ads which link back to the company main domain.

- etc...

So we are not talking here about just any company which owns several domains of unique contents for the purpose of marketing and sales of different products or services; widgets-1, widgets-2, widgets-3 etc..

We are talking about companies running a whole spam operation aiming at occupying most of Google's Top 10 search results. Thus killing diversity and competition on Google's Top 10 search results. Thus denying Google's users their rights to choose!

[seoskunk]

Multiple Domains Crowding spammers.

If you manage to rank 3 sites in the top ten for a keyword then your not a spammer. Just a very good seo.

[diberry]

Reseller, I dunno. It's that kind of "profiling that also leads to false positives or "collateral damage." Patterns are almost always what they appear to be, but NOT ALWAYS.

[reseller]

@diberry

Hopefully the folks at Google's Websmap Team would kill those sites of Multiple Domains Crowding spammers with as little as possible collateral damage.

[CaptainSalad2]

@seoskunk

true that

[reseller]

A simple question!

Would consumers benefit of Google's Top 10 search results of same search query, if those Top 10 search results are occupied by:

- Sites 1-5 owned by supplier-1 containing just about same content offering same widget-1 product or service. When consumers click any of those 5 sites they would end up buying from same supplier-1.

Plus

- Sites 6-10 owned by supplier-2 of just about same content offering same widget-2 product or service. When consumers click any of those 5 sites they would end up buying from same supplier-2.

As such there would be very limited diversity and very limited competition on Google's Top 10 search results of same search query. Accordingly consumers right to choose would be very limited!

For the sake of further discussion, I wish to recall the following few lines:

Consumer Bill of Rights - The Right to Choose

"The right to free choice among product offerings states that consumers should have a variety of options provided by different companies from which to choose. The federal government has taken many steps to ensure the availability of a healthy environment open to competition through legislation including limits on concept ownership through Patent Law, prevention of monopolistic business practices through anti-trust legislation, and the outlaw of price cutting and gouging." [en.wikipedia.org...]

[atlrus]

Consumer Bill of Rights - The Right to Choose

Yup, you have the right to go search on Bing, if Google's not to your liking.

[besnette]

Diberry, well put.

I always come back to: If I were trying to get bids for a product or service, and submitted bids with what I thought were 3 different companies, only to find out after the fact that it was the same company (not having made it obvious or clear on their multiple websites), I would be miffed. I would have to think that any reasonable person out there would feel deceived too, and what is ultimately not good for the user is not good for the system as a whole, and should be considered a short-sighted strategy.

One other variable that seems to be becoming more popular, at least in my industry - is companies (and individuals) buying and using more ".org" domains, which, by the extension, immediately implies trust to a lot of users - even though the site is definitely not a 'not-for-profit' as was the original intent of the extension - instead, they are completely 100% commercial. Anyone else notice this?

Agree with Diberry again - if it is different info, different products, all quality...that's a different story. Sort of like Wal Mart and Sams Club - same company, entirely different stuff. That I can understand completely.

[reseller]

At the moment, the European Commission is not satisfied over the way Google displays search results:

"Google told to find new solution for European search antitrust row" [guardian.co.uk...]

I think lack of diversity, lack of competition and very limited consumers right to choose on Google's Top 10 search results might add more tension to current issue among European Antitrust commission and Google which has about 90% of the European search market.

[Lorel]

The site(s) owner I mentioned earlier is/are not only populating the Serps with Multiple Domain Crowding but has also been involved in scraping content and other dishonest tactics which resulted in several of his throw away sites being removed via DMCA through the years -- to the point that his main money site is no longer ranking well -- and thus he is now Crowding the SERPs with multiple domains. I would think Google would be wise to his tactics by now and demote his Trust Rank on every site he is connected with (his name or some other contact info is on all of them).