Hello! I don't want to make a big deal of this but would love some thoughts or ideas from DP members... I have had my online company for about 3 years now and outsourced the on-site SEO work to a company in Canada. There were a few techniques they used when doing on-site SEO that I wasn't happy with (hiding links to their other clients websites on my website) ... But I figured I would move onwards and upwards... We then hired another company to help with our on-site work and off site link building campaign and they have been great... So i thought all the bad stuff was behind me... I just logged on to my Google Webmasters Tools and see that there were several attempts made by someone to verify themselves as the owner of my website... This was done about 9 months after we finished working with the first company and I decided to Google the email address that was used... It turns out it's someone that works at the first SEO company we hired and am puzzled as to why they would do this... At first I was going to post their name/company etc. but have decided to hold back. He's a member here and has written a lot for seochat.com and other SEO websites... Is it worth following up on or should I just let it go? Can I report this to Google? Thoughts would be great. Jeff
If someone can verify that he is the owner of your website, he may even sell it to someone by showing the buyer his ownership of your website! Btw, the person doing SEO work for your website may want to manage your site via his own Webmasters Tools account. I also have other's websites in my webmasters tools account for which I am doing SEO work etc. But, there is no need to do this when someone has finished or stopped working on your site! You should sort out why someone has done this!
Thanks Momi, Yes, I'm confused why they have tried to get access to it 9 months after they finished their work...
That's the best bit of advice. Next, find out what ISP they made the hack attempt from, and report them. Get their ISP on the case.
not only should he change his passwords, he should also place a lock on any domains he has..and if he does get any domain transfer requests then ignore them, do not respond.
its normal verifying you site as owner will not benefit him in any way only what he can see is that how much the work worth he did in past however ask him why he tried to do so if gives you sensible response help him may be getting hired for another company he showed your site as a customer and the client requested to proof that as a freelancer several time my clients ask to verify the claimed work usually big networks 3 years ago some one hired me for DP recently i applied to a job involved in forum posting and i claimed DP they shocked and asked me to proof that as my that account is still under email user@DP sister site dot com they hired me on a rate more then i accepting i dont know who is he but as a fellow freelancer i prefer to clear his side may be i am wrong
Wajid_pk: To verify they worked on my site they should have asked me for a letter or reference... hacking into my account to prove they worked on my site is unacceptable...
yes agree to that and also this is not the way to prove there work or experience etc so be careful what comes in my mind may be s/he planned to sell your site LOL before buying usually buyer ask to verify ownership so after getting paid he may disappear and create problems for you ownership really can put you in trouble basically if i am a worker on a project and claim ownership is really dangerous specially for a business