I need some experienced eyes on this one

Competitor seems has over 500 backwards links

[bdstreet]

<snip> It shot up to #1 and #2 after the latest update. I checked its backwards links, and the majority of them are from different domains, but with almost identical content.

Help me out, peoples!

<edit>No spam reporting please. See Forum Charter [webmasterworld.com].</edit>

[edited by: ciml at 8:53 pm (utc) on Mar. 13, 2003]

[bdstreet]

Is it ok to buy a bunch of domain names, put identical content and links to each other on each of these names?

[netnerd]

Could be someone who either

a) Bought a lot of different domains and put content on them to boost the main site link popularity. Check the ips - if they are all the same then its a good suggestion that this is true. Also check whois to see if they are all owned by the same person, or are on the same nameservers.

b) Maybe the main site is a company who supplies free content to affiliates who have been lazy and just stuck it on their own sites then linked to him (unlikely though). Check for affiliate links, etc
(probably have?ref or something in the referral string)

Even if they are all on different ips with different nameservers and registered to different names, it is still possible that it is just one person with a lot of sites!

[netnerd]

bdstreet - NO!

This is spamming and if the engines find out (on their own or if your cometition reports you) then you might get your sites penalised or banned.

Just gona have to do original content!

[o0_cops_0o]

I checked its backwards links, and the majority of them are from different domains, but with almost identical content.

notice he said almost identical content! Do as netnerd said, check to see if there all from the same ip's. make sure they do have identical content. im not sure what he means by almost identical? same subjects or same page layout or phrases?

[hutcheson]

OK?

Google reserves the right to ban manually for it, and certainly spends a great deal of programming effort to improve their ability to detect and negate it automatically.

Think of it like robbing banks -- it may be good for a quick cash infusion. But in a few weeks you run out of money, and when you return for another withdrawal, the guards are waiting. All in all, not a clever career move if you have any other options.

[ciml]

bdstreet, if you think that a site is beyond Google's Quality Guidelines [google.com] (see the bottom half of the page), then Google may or may not consider it a priority for action.

There are many sites which competing Webmasters would consider spammy; it's up to Google to decide where their priorities lie in helping the searching public have a good experience.

[bdstreet]

I appreciate that, ciml. Although I'm a seasoned web programmer, I'm a bigtime newbie, and I'm curious others thought the site in question was in violation of Google's guidelines.

[bdstreet]

"newbie to search engine practices" is what I meant to say.. ha! :)

[ciml]

We can't deal with the site in question as 90% of the members have examples we could discuss, but we can look at the type of structure you describe.

Personally, if anyone I knew wanted a structure involving 500 pages with highly similar content linking together, I'd advise them against it.

netnerd's point about affiliate links is becomming a common problem for search engines, and especially for Webmasters who have affiliates.

[o0_cops_0o]

ok the reason why i posted are you sure its spam is because there is a website that takes up first 2 pages of google search on a keyword. i thought having diffrent domains with ALMOST same content was ligit. If your saying its not, than can i fill in a spam report for this site.