Multiple Domains - Is this SPAM

Sites that have widget-widget1.biz

[chompy]

A competitor has registered and is using similar registerd site addresses to boost their PR

they register
www.widget-shops.biz
www.widget-travel.biz
www.widget-camping.biz
www.widget-taxis.biz

all the pages are different and have content although many are very lacking in content, they are all the same site - crosslinking.
They are trying to acheive the the top places and then sell their site to the people they want to list on the back of their positioning in the SE.
Surely this is not correct? or should i go and register seperate domains for each of my pages, which rank well as part of my site in search results for the topics they cover?
Unfortunately i feel the results in the SE (google that is) reflecting this company are skewed favourably to them at present. They popped in and out of the search engine recently obver the last two months before that they were not a factor in the results.

views please?

[jeremy goodrich]

It's not spam, it's a clever marketing tactic (but then, I'm a marketer - not a search engine representative).

Any time you are on top -> it's spam, to your competitor's.

What's the *best* site for your keywords? The site you own the site you promote and unless it's on the top of the SERP then somebody *must* be cheating, because your site is the best for widgets.

Lol, concentrate on how you are doing - make your site better, convert better, add more content, get more links, etc.

If you open a shop down the street from another bloke - can you complain that they were there first, and they are in the 'heart of downtown' when you picked your location 2nd? Nope, you can't.

What you do, then, in real life - is offer value, and a unique reason for people to shop at your store.

What you DON'T do, in real life, is to go to the local chamber of commerce & say that the other company that opened first, is in a better spot than you are, so the downtown needs to be rearranged, because you have a better shop than they do. :)

I am 100% sure that, if your shop *is* better, customers will find it, and believe you when you say you are the best. Best doesn't mean top in the search engines, best simply means best to the customer.

[bcc1234]

Well said.

[miles]

Its only spam if its not your site. hint hint wink wink. Its been working for the 3 years I have used it.

[chompy]

I am don't mind if this is a genuine SEO technique to do the same thing i am all for emulating the technique that works. As long as it's fair as in not going to get me slapped by the SE.

So in effect are you saying i sould register seperate sites for each of the sub topics within my site at present, remove this particular content from my site as it is currently and then link each of these seperate sites to each other and to the main site?

[jeremy goodrich]

I'm saying: This is business.

In business, you do what you need to do to make more money, & fulfill your business goals. That is the way to look at it, not *just* in terms of search engine rankings & traffic, but in business terms.

If you decide to limit your thinking to one keyword, one set of results, one search engine - your vision isn't far reaching enough to out-think, outlast, & outsmart your competition - who might just be doing a whole lot more than buying five domains & interlinking them. ;)

[pageoneresults]

chompy, there are two ways to go about this. You can use the multiple domain strategy which may or may not be applicable in your case. Or, you can use one domain and plan your sub-directories and themes carefully.

Logical vs. Physical Domains [webmasterworld.com]

[chompy]

I understand what you are saying, and no i am not limiting the optimisation to one term one search engine only or a blinkered aproach- well i hope not.

And in buisness i agree It's a matter of keeping up with or one step ahead of the competition. What i thought was that it didn't seem right to me this particular method of SEO but if its ok then why not use it also along with the host of other efforts to build a site of value and itnerest to those users one hopes to attract.

Google uses the links from other sites as one form of the basis for determining site position the results in this SE are particularly marked because of this technique.

As google is a key player some thought must be given to results from this SE. Yes I agree the need for positioning under a variety of key words and phrases, for links from relevant sites, well written html, content and newsletters etc, etc, and to have relevant results from other search engines.

One thing i am not clear on though;

my site www.widget/subwidget/widgeta.htm
links to www.widget.com and others in the site. For a term relevant to that it has a pr of 1 would this give the same pr back to www.widget.com as it would if that sub domain was www.subwidget.com?

[chompy]

thanks pageone will read that. and thanks for everyone else who answered.

[skipfactor]

Here's my simple take on it chompy:

My favorite field is riddled with folks who think duplicate & quasi-duplicate domains are the way to go.

Instead of filing useless, so-called SPAM reports or creating additional domains, everytime I bump into one of their new ideas/throwaway domains, I create a new page on my solid domain to target them--they've really given me some good ideas.

It's taken me months of compulsively adding backlinks & pages, but I'm typically topping them all in the SERPs or I'm right in the middle, shining like a beacon in the midst of a storm of gibberish.

Furthermore, I figure SEs will eventually filter this junk or the site owners will become entrenched enough that they either neglect most of these domains, or are forced to focus on one.

It takes months of hard work, but the most popular answer on this board applies yet again:

...concentrate on how you are doing - make your site better, convert better, add more content, get more links, etc.