Hi all, my first question as a DP user, please have a look and see if you can offer some input! The competitor of a site I am optimising is #1 in Google for the main keyphrase, but on closer inspection a lot of their incoming links are actually duplicates of their site, on seperate domains. At first I thought they were different instances of the site, but then realised that each domain just has a frame - with the original site inside. Most of these duplicate sites only have one or two inbound links. Some have n/a in the toolbar for PR, but some have up to a PR4. I'm confused. Can anyone tell me if this is a common SEO practice, as it seems a bit strange to me - I thought Google didn't like frames, and I thought Google didn't like duplicate content.. though obviously if the secondary domains don't actually HAVE any spiderable content, I guess they can't be duplicates. Anyone else employ this tactic? Is it a good idea? Any thoughts, experiences, advice etc greatly appreciated
nope.. i haven't encounter that one... though using frames is not that advisable.. its still possible to have good rankings... depends on the structure...
By using frames we are encouraging the duplicate content, so I'm of the opinion that we should stay away from the frames.
This is the first time I hear anyone talk about using frames as a SEO tactic. If it's working I guess it's a valid solution, who knows.
I'm stil not sure.. how can you consider duplicate content as link backs ? .. that way a person can register 1000 domains and achieve a pr 9
I guess that's the point, although I really doubt he will ever get PR9. Can one of you please send me a link to a site that employs such techniques, I would like to take a look.
Ok. That's a violation of most search engines' terms of use (Google especially). I strongly suggest you file a complaint against them with the search engines if you haven't done so already. Don't be. They're black-hatters. Treat them as such. Furthermore, don't worry so much about what they're doing wrong. Just focus on developing and maintaing your client's site so it can be as good as possible. It's not a common practice, as I've already said. Google doens't like frames for one reason and one reason only - it's hard to get to the content that is inside them. If a search engine cannot easily access the content on a framed site, what makes you think a person would have an easier time? It's all about accessibility here, and Google knows it. I haven't seen anyone employ this dirty underhanded trick, but it is a bad idea all around to do so anyway. You're best off avoiding it. As for advice, the free Search Engine Optimization FAQ over at SitePoint might have further information and answers to your questions.
Thanks for sending those sites, they look exactly the same. Like Dan Schulz said who cares what they're doing, just concentrate on your sites and using respectable solutions for beating your competitors.
I have seen this before and it is very annoying. You can report, but that may not get it resolved. It might be worth considering other keywords or going full tilt at your optimisation.
No problem, cheers for the advice guys, confirmed my own thinking really. To the person that said have I reported it, where would I go about doing so? On Google's support pages all I could see was where to report duplicate content in the context of copyright breach, not black-hat SEO.
mind sending me a link to these sites you're talking about? im pretty sure i understand what you're saying, but would like to see it first hand. as for reporting it, your guess is as good as mine, sorry :/