Somebody pointing their domain to mine.

[Goanna1]

Someone, for some mysterious reason, is pointing his or her domain to my domain. Initially, I thought he/she had duplicated my content. Later I discovered that their domain was pointing to mine because any changes I made immediately appeared on their domain. Questions:

Could this get my domain penalized?

If so, what is to stop anybody from harming their competitors by doing the same?

[MHes]

I don't see a way it can harm your rankings, but if the domain name is something like www.reallybadwidgets.com then of course if it comes up in a search it will not reflect well on you!

I would be flattered and ignore.... though it would intrigue me as well. There are some strange people out there, and perhaps they have some strange motive.

You could ask google to remove it by going to their removal service. You have to put some code on your page..... but of course that will show on this other domain :)

Having said that, make sure you do it right and don't get your domain removed as well..... it's a risky tactic!

[Goanna1]

Thanks for that, MHes. My concern is that Google will treat it as duplicate content- or this not the case? Also, I thought about somehow selectively removing it by way of a robots.txt file but anything I do will affect me(unless there is a way to nominate domain names in robobts.txt files)

[Mike12345]

You could redirect all users referred from that domain to another page. couldnt you , or am i missing the point again? Also doesnt it depend on what the other guy/gal is using to point their domain at yours, because if it is virtual hosting doesnt it have a frameset style page with hardly any content on it, thus not likely to get picked up by the Se's could be wrong on that one though, juts thought it might be worth a mention. :)

[bcc1234]

If the pages on that domain happen to get higher PR than yours - your sites will be merged under his URL.

[Goanna1]

bcc123, I know that what you are describing is true when you have 2 identical pages on the same server, but does it also apply when you have 2 domains (on different servers) pointing the same files?

[Crazy_Fool]

maybe goanna - personally i wouldn't want to wait and see, i'd want to deal with it ASAP.

try and set up .htaccess so that the URL in any calls to www.otherdomain.com get replaced with www.yourdomain.com. i'm useless with .htaccess (i set it up then forget what i've done and how it works) so hopefully someone can post some code for it. if not, ask in the linux form here :
[webmasterworld.com...]

[Goanna1]

Thanks for that suggestion, Crazy-Fool. I 'll contact my host and ask them for assistance.

[nativenewyorker]

Goanna1,

Perhaps you can try this to stop your domain from getting hijacked.

Add a tag to the header that says:

<base href="http://www.widgetdomain.tld/" target="_top">

If all your internal pages are relative, ie. href="blue-widgets.html", href="green-widgets.html" and href="red-widgets.html", clicking on any links at the other domain will forward them from [imposterwidgetdomain.tld...] to [widgetdomain.tld...]

By doing so, the other domain can only display one of your pages.

HTH,
Ted

[luuna]

I have many domains that are framing other sites. The reasons for this are:
1. Domains with content will get return visitors, and might
even get linked to.
2. Google will index the domains (but not list them)
3. I get an idea of the number of type-ins the domain gets.

Being 'framed' by a domain will not get you in trouble with Google, if google detects that 2 domains are identical it will remove the one using frames.

[nativenewyorker]

Luuna,

Welcome to WebmasterWorld!

I have many domains that are framing other sites. The reasons for this are:
1. Domains with content will get return visitors, and might
even get linked to.

1) You should be looking to add original content to your website. This is what will keep visitors returning in the long run. If it is obvious that you are framing someone else's site, chances are they will go directly there down the road. The same goes with links. If it is not apparent that you are framing someone else's content, it would seem that you are crossing a fine line with abusing their content. FYI, most affiliate programs (if you plan on using them) have clauses in their agreements prohibiting you from opening links to the respective merchants in a framed window.

2. Google will index the domains (but not list them)

2) Google, like most search engines do not properly index sites in frames. Google states in their Webmasters Q&A that framed sites may not be indexed correctly.
[google.com...]

3. I get an idea of the number of type-ins the domain gets.

3) Concentrate on building your own quality site as that will dictate the amount of traffic you generate in the long run.

Ted

[NickCoons]

Goanna1,

How are they redirecting to your site? Are they framing it, using JavaScript, a 301 or 302 redirect? There are many different possibilities, and knowing which one is the first step to trying to make it stop.

[Gorufu]

Later I discovered that their domain was pointing to mine because any changes I made immediately appeared on their domain.

Hi Goanna1,

It could be a DNS issue where someone has made a typo and the domain in question is pointing to your IP address, or it could have been deliberate. Updates and changes will appear immediately in these cases.

Definately take Crazy_Fool's advice and try to get it sorted out ASAP.

I could do some digging around the DNS records to see what is going on if your sticky mail me your domain and the domain linked to your site.

Also do you know what Operating System and your site is hosted on?

[bobmark]

I find luuna's comments interesting as they are from one of the main 2 or 3 different perspectives that you see on webmasterworld (i.e. 1) the people who are in the widget business and use websites as a sales & promotion vehicle, 2) the web consultants producing sites for clients and 3) the people like luuna who are in the "web business" - kind of making money from the web irrespective of the type of business or site).
Rather than lecture luuna on the merits of original content (no offence meant, nativenewyorker), I would be a lot more interested to hear the point and results of this type of approach - partially for selfish reasons as I am a "type 1" site operator so I worry about the effects of luuna's type of operation and partially because I don't fully understand the point of it given the minimal advertising revenue currently available.

[luuna]

bobmark,
If you are concerned about being framed there are javascripts available that will break out of the frames. I would not worry about it in the short term - I estimate that search engine traffic is currently 20-40 times bigger than type-in traffic so the number of visitors is minimal, hopefully this will change in the future.
I don't make any money from framing sites I just do it because of the benefits mentioned before and because it takes no time to do, while I develop other domains.