my site is listed with Google, but with the wrong Domain Name

can I ask Google to fix the listing?

[SkinnyJoe]

Google has had my site listed for months, but after the Cassandra update, Google started listing my home page with the wrong domain name.

There are another 7 or 8 pages on the same site that are listed correctly in Google.

There are several domain names pointed at my site (the domains are parked and forwarded by GoDaddy). The pointed names are not promoted in any way, and I do not think they have any backlinks. But somehow Google picked up one of these names.

So far, my site does not appear at all in the Dominic update.

Could this have caused me to get banned from the Dominic update?

Is there a way to ask Google to fix the listing? Or should I just wait to see if it gets fixed by Dominic?

Thanks!
-SkinnyJoe

[pageoneresults]

Hello SkinnyJoe! It sounds like GoDaddy is using a status 200 redirect which in my mind is not a good thing. A competitor could easily link to one of your parked domains and you may end up with duplicate content.

Check the status of one of your parked domains here by using the Server Header Checker [searchengineworld.com]. If the parked domain returns a 200 status code, there may be some problems. If that is the case, I would unpark those domains until you can figure out a way to do a 301 permanent redirect.

[SkinnyJoe]

pageoneresults,

Thanks for the info.
Here is what I got:

--------------------------------------------
Server Response: [my-parked-domain.net...]
Status: HTTP/1.0 302 Found
Date: Thu, 08 May 2003 17:11:01 GMT
Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
Server: Apache/1.3.27 (Unix) PHP/4.3.1
Location: [my-real-domain.com...]
Via: 1.1 netcache01 (NetCache NetApp/5.4R1)
--------------------------------------------

Is this a status 302 redirect or what?

GoDaddy forwards a parked domain for free. It would be a bummer to have to pay to host a domain just to get a 301 redirect.

[pageoneresults]

I'm not too certain that is going to be acceptable. A 302 status is temporarily moved. It does not tell the indexer that the resource has been permanently moved 301.

Status Code Definitions [w3.org]

Since my experience in this particular area is limited, I'm going to wait until someone with more experience chimes in with a correct answer. From my perspective, a 301 is the only way to park and redirect a domain. From past experience with a 302, I believe there will be problems, I'm not 100% sure.

[SkinnyJoe]

Thank you for all the info, pageoneresults.

This is certainly a big issue for Google, since GoDaddy offers the redirect/forwarding for free with domain registration and since GoDaddy is one of the biggest registrars.

Thousands of listings in Google must have the same problem.

By the way, Dominic did not fix the listing for my site. It just put in another incorrect domain.

If this situation leads to a Google penalty, a lot of innocent GoDaddy customers will be punished.

Does anyone else have any thoughts on the matter?

Maybe Google and GoDaddy could get together over lunch. :)

-SkinnyJoe

[rfgdxm1]

Have you contacted GoDaddy to see if they can do a 301 redirect? A 302 is all wrong.

[eWhisper]

After reading this, I just checked all my parked domains (also with Go Daddy) and I got the exact same results as SkinnyJoe posted above, all 302 redirects.

Did you have any luck with GoDaddy changing your domain to a 301? I'd like to fix this before I run into problems.

[windows22]

SkinnyJoe, same thing happend to one of my websites. I also found my redirected "godaddy domain" taking over the google listing with a huge drop in rankings.

This have never been a problem before the last update.

[SkinnyJoe]

rfgdxm1,

I have not contacted GoDaddy yet.

Does everyone concur that a 301 is the correct way for GoDaddy to do a redirect?

If so, then I will ask them to do so.

GoDaddy might have to use the same setting for all their customers, and they may not be convinced that I know more about it than they do.

Think it will work just to tell them that the people at webmasterworld said so? :)

[RodFarrell]

I am having a similar problem. My web site has been up since January this year and although Google has indexed the content it is showing the URL of a totally unrelated and now defunct site. Is there any way to track down the reason for this?

[TomWaits]

I have definitely seen an increase of this type of problem on Google, both with webmasters I talk to and with searches I've done. It's much easier to screw with sites now in Google, and I've seen it increasingly done.

[RodFarrell]

Is it possible that Google is indexing by IP addresses and not cross checking the URL? There are a lot of defunct URLs out there now and reuse of IP addresses is becoming more common.

[SkinnyJoe]

GoDaddy does not sympathize with their customers whose domains are goofed up in Google by GoDaddy's 302 redirects.

Here is what they said:

Thank you for your patience in this matter. I have talked with the proper department about this and unfortunately we will not be changing the way we redirect/forward domain names at this time. We do apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and I have given your suggestion to the appropriate department for consideration in the future.

Please let us know if we can help you in any other way.

Sincerely,
Go Daddy Software

It is a lot easier for them to ignore the problem than to fix it. :(