Linkfarm discovered - Should I notify Google ?

I have discovered that my competitor make use of a linkfarm, the whole network is more then a hundred Internet sites. They use several hosts and servers, every server has another ipadres.

This is the organisation

http://www.neoplus.org

They have 73 members according to their Internet site.


Examples of the Internet sites

http://www.centerweb.nl
http://www.heidebloempje.nl
http://www.zoekspot.nl
http://www.woonkamers.be
http://www.whatsnewonline.org
http://www.linktraders.be
http://www.zoekpagina.biz
http://www.spaceleader.net
http://www.spaceleader.nl
http://www.online-overzicht.nl
etc. etc. etc. etc.

How can I report this to Google.

 

If you have a webmaster account with Google, it'll be taken more seriously than their report-spam link, as far as I know.

 

I did not quite get what they were doing.

Any clues please?

Thanks

 

Davert thx, I'll make an webmaster account.


Does Google take action after a Spam report ?

 

stock_post:

Go to www . centerweb.nl and look for the links with the menu's. They are paid links.

Go to www . heidebloempje.nl the same sites are there. The paid links are the ones with a quicklink menu's.

etc.

Every website is different.

 

Google will find site sooner or later and decide what to do about it.

 

of course, you must resport it to google

you can use google webmaster tools or http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html to report it

 

Just a suggestion folks. If you're going to rat out a competitor, it's probably not wise to announce it on a public forum.

 

I didn't know what to do about it.

At this point I didnt't report it to google. I'm still not sure what to do.

 

What would youg get in return if you do it? Getting those said sites removed from the index then you'll have lesser competitors? Welp, why don't just mind your own business full-time and let google do their job?

Ignore them and do more worthful activities than being a spamhunter. Webmasters should get used to these things. Let these alleged link farms serve as challenge to Google's capability.

How if the owner of this linkfarm was your brother or your friend? Yes it's unethical I know but you won't get anything by wasting your time. IMO

 

The last week I lost 30% of my traffic because of them. What should you do ?

 

Ditto. You're wasting your time, and frankly my time with this thread.

 

If I were you, I would report Google.

It is not fair.

 

Business isn't fair. The internet isn't fair and Google isn't fair. Life isn't fair.

This isn't a morality play, obviously there is a financial incentive to dominate this SERP.

You can report a competitor, but it won't keep him from coming back, reporting you or someone else coming into the field to compete with you.

IMO, the best thing you can do is try to use him as benchmark to overcome. Beat him by improving your own SERP results, so that even if he is removed, you are that much stronger against his next attempt, or the attempt of a new competitor.

At least then you will be bolstering your SERP position and building equity in your site by performing additional SEO. Increase the value of your asset instead of looking to decrease the value of your competitor's.

You have to think about one more thing as well. What is to stop him from pointing all of those domains at you, and then reporting you to Google? It's a good question, isn't it?

 

lol.... I agree with you.

Instead of wasting your time doing the research,
why don't you build your own site

 

I would take out a full page ad in the New York Times and perhaps a prime time TV advert on NBC.

I would not rat out to Google though

 

So if you lose 30% of your traffic your not going to report him? I don't know what I would do.

 

yeh report it if you can mate. the faster we can close sites such as these down, and not encourage them, the better place the internet will become.

 

So I report him. Then someone else comes along and takes 30% of my traffic. And I report him. Then someone else comes along and takes 30% of my traffic. And so on.

Before anyone ever, ever reports a competitor, it would probably be wise to do a backlink analysis, get a count on links in the 3 SEs. Check out his anchor text, his keyword density and perform an appraisal of his on page SEO.

You can report this guy, and his network collapses, you might never learn how he took 30% of your traffic, and then you are susceptible to someone else coming along and doing the same.

What I am saying is, instead of freaking out and trying to report someone when trouble arrives, use it as a learning experience and a means to protect yourself in the future. You can't count on Google to police their SERPs for you.

 

i am not sure how his paid links on multiple sites (a common practice) is taking your traffic. You have failed to prove that he is 'stealing' your users. How do you know he is selling the links? How do you know he is not selling all sites for one price? and how is selling links taking your traffic?

Ever heard of a little thing called 'text link ads?

There are over 2 billion people online. Stop crying and make your site better.