G Sitemaps - Host Affiliation Suicide?

[T0PS3O]

So you have a Google account and have set up these XML sitemaps of all your sites. Great! Google downloads them and crawls them regularly.

Because you're a kick-ass SEO you made sure you have all sites on separate IP C-class blocks and reduced interlinking to avoid the dreaded host affiliation filter. Some call it the 'same site penalty'.

But now your handing them over a list of all your sites in your Google Account. So they know exactly which sites are from the same host, which ones are affiliated and which links to discount.

What do you think? Reason to not dump all sitemaps into one account? Or do they know which site is by whom anyway (Whois etc.) so don't worry?

[Dominic]

I agree (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=6058) twas my first reaction (always slow to trust).

[Infiniterb]

Wouldn't that be pretty evil of them to do such a thing?

[T0PS3O]

Maybe. But pretty clever as well. Let people bring you data so you don't have to utilize any resources to go get them.

[SEbasic]

You'd have to be a complete f**king moron to give them a list of all your sites IMO.

[T0PS3O]

I was literally just about to key in all my other sitemaps when a big red light started flashing in my mind. Hang on a second!

I think I'll skip on adding the other sites. They're all well indexed anyway.

[SEbasic]

I was willing for you not to press the submit button mate ;)

[rustybrick]

Use separate accounts for each site... Am I missing something?

[sji2671]

I decided against using the service as I am crawled regularly anyway, it's certainly food for thought and IMO not worth the risk.

[mopacfan]

yea, I'm not making the connection here. What are they going to get from a sitemap they won't get otherwise?

[ziandra]

Lotsa freemail accounts out there so use separate ones if you are concerned. Also, be sure to use an anonomizer service so they can't track it back to your computer. That and wipe your cookies between submissions.

Oh, and don't forget the tinfoil hat. :eek:

[pilky]

Does an adsense account not link sites anyway?

[stephfoster]

I would think so, but not everyone runs AdSense.

[T0PS3O]

Use separate accounts for each site... Am I missing something?

I thought they weren't too happy about us doing that.

[T0PS3O]

Does an adsense account not link sites anyway?

Yeah if you show your AdSense with same Pub-ID on all your sites then you've linked them up for them as well.

[mizt]

Good point.

[Googles76]

yea, I'm not making the connection here. What are they going to get from a sitemap they won't get otherwise?

Yeh, same here, I don't understand the problem here? Maybe someone can explain without the SEO mambo-jambo? Are you saying you have sites so similar that they would stop crawling some of them if they found out the sites are owned by the same person?:confused:

[SEbasic]

The point for me, is that this is just about the easiest way for google to get confirmation that you are the owner/webmaster of every one of these sites...

I don't always use 100% "white hat" (I hate that phrase) seo tactics....

I can't risk a network of sites being flagged - and this just makes it easier for google to know that the sites are part of the same network...

Hey, this is just the way I do things - By all means, open 100 google accounts and submit site maps using each one... :rolleyes:

[T0PS3O]

But then they'll noticed 100 accounts opened by the same IP/User Profile (I mean GeoLocation+IP+UserAgent+Browser etc.).

Googles76, we're not talking duplicates here. Just the fact that Google finds out you are the webmaster of that group of N sites. In the relevant whitepapers they already mentioned discounting linking between host affiliated sites like that. That's what we're trying to prevent.

Some people also try and rank for the same KW with multiple sites. Once both sites are flagged as affiliated by host, only one can rank for that phrase, they are pretty much regarded as 1 document then.

[SEbasic]

But then they'll noticed 100 accounts opened by the same IP/User Profile (I mean GeoLocation+IP+UserAgent+Browser etc.). I wish sarcasm was easier to portray on forums...

I'll add a rolleyes....

[TooHappy]

Kind of like the whole Gmail thing. Pass it on to those you know and they have a great record of who's linked to who.

[lingeriediva]

I did a sitemap of one site and tanked in the SERPS the month after.

However, if you use adsense this is all availible anyway unless you are running accounts in violation or structure using incorporation - which still may not save you from an affiliation penalty.

My own sense is that using site maps for a new, unaffiliated, site makes sense...otherwise you are taking too much risk for an unknown return.

[TooHappy]

using site maps for a new, unaffiliated, site makes sense...otherwise you are taking too much risk for an unknown return.


Well said!

[nddb]

If you are feeling extra paranoid, why not just make separate sitemaps accounts from separate IPs? (look into the tor network, heh!)

[KingSEO]

Really guys, you need a reality check. Sitemaps is used to help google find all urls on your site, so you dont have to bloat your pages with links to old pages etc.

I'm not saying that they definatly isnt doing something bad here, but if they are linking my sites togheter thru this program, and giving me a penalty for it, that would seriously piss me off.

Pissed off people in large groups are bad for any company. Especially if they're the group generating said companies revenues. So please, why dont you guys stop spreading fud and rumors?

[nevetS]

I don't think there is anybody crying about the sky falling here. I think it's a legitimate concern for those with large networks who prefer to keep ownership affiliations anonymous. I think that people sometimes give corporations too much credit though. interdepartmental communication and cooperation are difficult in the best of companies, so I doubt if this was their goal that it would even be implemented in the first phase of release.

[john_loch]

Hi ppl,

FYI: You don't actually need a G/sitemap acct.

Just generate your maps and ping G.

It's that simple. ( You lot had me worried there for a sec.. :) )

Cheers,

JL

[Lyle]

Hi ppl,

FYI: You don't actually need a G/sitemap acct.

Just generate your maps and ping G.

It's that simple. ( You lot had me worried there for a sec.. :) )

Cheers,

JL

Could you explain this process in more depth please...I dont understand what you saying..

Thanx

[nevetS]

There's a ping mechanism?!?

[SEbasic]

Does it use XML-RPC (http://www.threadwatch.org/node/3048)?

[T0PS3O]

That's a good suggestion John.

An automated script builds my xml maps, I guess I could just add a little ping at the bottom and forget about the accounts.

[T0PS3O]

PS See http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/docs/en/faq.html#account for more info.

And http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/docs/en/faq.html#account about pinging.

A simple curl request is enough, no fancy stuff required.

[crew]

I just started with G sitemaps and as soon as I make sure the first one goes through without errors, I will start using the ping mechanism. There's no way I'm going to let google know which sites I own.

(I've had the same worries about using the API for regular updates. If they record every query made by my API key, it wouldn't be that hard to figure out which sites are mine. I bet 90% of my API calls are "site: oneofmysites.com")