Category Archives: Internet

Google, Internet, SEO

SEO company uses spam websites to sell links under Google’s nose

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The process of selling links to people on your website for the purposes of SEO and passing PageRank has long been frowned upon by Google. It’s against their TOS and they even have a way in Google Webmaster Tools for you to report websites selling links.

However, it still goes on. Websites sell links direct to other websites and SEO companies buy links for their clients from link suppliers. I have even been penalised by Google for it. Some companies own hundreds, sometimes thousands, of websites just for the purpose of selling links.

One such SEO company owns the websites below. They make a point of creating hundreds of websites just to sell links on, and even buy up domains that have just expired so that they can offer links on domains with PageRank and IBLs (inbound links) for their clients.

This process, as I’ve already stated, is frowned upon by Google, yet Google seems to turn a blind eye to it. These websites, many of which are listed below, use the same template and consist of a small bit of text, followed by dozens of irrelevant links to client sites. One of these sites, agold.co.uk, features links to websites offering piano lessons, football tournaments, mouse mats… you name it. Whatever they can sell links for. All of the other sites, listed below, are the same. They’re devoid of unique, relevant content and exist purely to act as links to other websites. Just what Google wants to avoid.

How did I find this list of websites? Simple, whoever created them did so in a very amateurish way as they included the same intro line on every site. Simply Googling that line as an exact match showed up all of the other websites. However, I made the mistake of clicking on one of the results, which obviously then showed up on their stats, and they subsequently removed the line that was identical on all of the sites. Not before I copied the list though!

You’ll also notice that they’re all on the same IP address, on a server owned by Fasthosts… no surprise they’re involved somewhere.

Despite these websites being obvious spam links, they still carry PageRank and still rank within Google for competitive phrases. The question is, why does Google allow this when it’s so clearly against its TOS?

Have a look at the list of URLs and see what you think. Do these look like spam websites to you?

www.biojewelry.co.uk
www.butlerreview.org.uk
www.ctshow.co.uk
www.francealacarte.org.uk
www.agold.co.uk
www.amkdesign.co.uk
www.timerecords.co.uk
www.netstitch.co.uk
www.radio-active.co.uk
www.data-sphere.co.uk
www.lmal.org.uk
www.2cvchassis.co.uk
www.coasterkingdom.co.uk
www.craftybrides.co.uk
www.studentwatchout.co.uk
www.petitpoint.co.uk
www.big-print.co.uk
www.sewkits.co.uk
www.momag.co.uk
www.failsafe.org.uk
www.equinox-ebusiness.co.uk
www.bbsolutions.co.uk
www.hammondgallery.co.uk
www.400times.co.uk
www.en-gaged.co.uk
www.trafalgarweekend.co.uk
www.lpclassics.co.uk
www.toy-soldier.co.uk
www.alterkicks.co.uk
www.visonic.org.uk
www.livingincambridge.co.uk
www.revisingscbcd.co.uk
www.payableondeath.co.uk
www.movingmusic.co.uk
www.lifes4living.com
www.platinumart.co.uk
www.adverse-credit-remortgages.co.uk
www.bigrealestate.co.uk
www.bmx-race.co.uk
www.gazzettaonline.co.uk
www.mudbugz.org.uk
www.digital-arts.co.uk
www.efmag.co.uk
www.slimfit.co.uk
www.thepaternitycompany.co.uk
www.educationextra.org.uk
www.carimportsolutions.co.uk
www.kiltsandbagpipes.co.uk
www.swansfc.co.uk
www.visionsecurity.co.nz/Products++Solutions/CCTV+Systems.html
www.aviatorshades.co.uk
www.mcs-direct.co.uk
www.mousetrap-online.co.uk
www.strawberry-blondes.co.uk
www.smurfitinterlok.co.uk
www.photo-sense.co.uk
www.lsagency.org.uk
www.cellularrepairs.co.uk
www.vacuumcleaners4u.co.uk
www.fudoshin.co.uk
www.busbook.co.uk
www.madpaintball.co.uk
www.invincashield.co.uk
www.paulfrancispiano.co.uk
www.shrewsburyguide.co.uk
www.discountimports.co.uk
www.xlibris.co.uk
www.myvirtualreality.co.uk
www.breast-implant.co.uk
www.forbo.co.uk
www.freebies4u.co.uk
www.bluejuice.org.uk
www.herbalbody.co.uk
www.golf-properties-spain.co.uk
www.apis.org.uk
www.bodyorganic.co.uk
www.breast-reductions.co.uk
www.ilovegames.co.uk
www.website-banners.co.uk
www.cctv-city.co.uk
www.nwpr.org.uk
www.palmsource.co.uk
www.rugbysupporters.co.uk
www.malematters.co.uk
www.sweets-direct.co.uk
www.no-regrets.co.uk
www.shoesz.co.uk
www.sampleshack.co.uk
www.butterflyeffectthemovie.co.uk
www.auto-insurance-online.co.uk
www.topmoneymakers.co.uk
www.shopsafely.co.uk
www.dentistry.org.uk
www.divorcez.co.uk
www.romania.org.uk
ir.library.oregonstate.edu/dspace/bitstream/1957/9434/1/1988.pdf
www.medweb.co.uk
www.vivendi-universal-interactive.co.uk
www.find-uk.co.uk
www.smoke-house.co.uk
www.dancevinylfinder.co.uk
www.airport-secure-parking.co.uk
www.cam-orl.co.uk
www.elms-sc.co.uk
www.realholiday.co.uk
www.gemsnthings.co.uk
www.vampiremovies.co.uk
www.horse-traders.co.uk
www.sexysox.co.uk
www.ultimateseduction.co.uk
www.kostar.co.uk

Google, Internet, SEO

Why Google PageRank is meaningless

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I posted previously how Google had penalised this site for selling links by hitting me with a PageRank penalty. Now Google has completely stripped this site of PR (as you can see if you have the PR toolbar) for what I can only speculate is link selling.

This is a bit of an annoyance to be honest because this site hasn’t sold any links except for the TextLinkAds widget on the right, which has been there for a few years now and only has one link.

What’s worse is that many other sites continue to sell links, right under Google’s nose, without any kind of penalty, though I’ll be blogging more on these in due time, and about how I’ve reported these sites to Google and Google has done nothing about it.

Still, as the title of this post suggests, PR is meaningless. It doesn’t affect your traffic or your rankings within the SERPs. The only advantage to PageRank is that advertisers can see how popular site is more easily. Anyone who looked at this site without paying too much attention could assume it didn’t get any traffic… which would be something of a mistake.

Google, Internet, Just Search, SEO

Just Search comment on reputation management

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Reputation management is one of the hottest topics in SEO right now, as with the immediacy of the Internet it’s easy to fall foul of an angry blogger or find your reputation questioned on review websites. With that in mind I commented for Just Search on Net Imperative on how to manage your brand reputation online.

The article only scratched the surface of what is a mine field of information (I don’t use the phrase ‘mine field’ lightly either, one wrong step and your efforts in reputation management can explode in your face).

Still, the basics are touched upon for someone to get an understanding of what reputation management is all about.

I may do a more in-depth piece on the Just Search blog at some point, as it’s definitely something worth exploring further.

Internet, Michael Jackson

How to tell when a website selling concert tickets is a scam

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I was watching Watchdog again last night (I really should stop that) and I saw a report on scam websites that were selling, or pretending to sell, tickets for concerts and festivals (including Michael Jackson tickets for his O2 concerts).

This sort of thing is really dodgy, causes a great deal of hurt for people who buy the tickets, and sadly even easier to guard against.

For example, one website outed on Watchdog was this website claiming to sell Cliff Richard tickets.

cliff richard

As you can see the website looks genuine, it has a gallery and offers tickets for dates on Cliff’s tour. However, the website is a scam. How can you tell?

Well firstly there is no contact phone number or address on the website. If there are no contact details, NEVER buy anything from the website.

Secondly, any website hosted in the USA or UK is likely to genuine. There aren’t many hosts in the UK, and they’re all traceable, so if you know a site is hosted in the UK you can be fairly certain it’s genuine. When a website is hosted in Eastern Europe or Russia though, you should be more guarded.

This website is hosted in Slovakia, as the Netcraft toolbar will tell you. If you don’t have the Netcraft toolbar, download it now.

The toolbar shows a flag from the country where the website is hosted, as you can see from the graphic below.

netcraft

The toolbar also tells you a website’s age, and this site is just 3 months old – another telltale sign that this site is a con.

Just be careful where you enter your credit card details, any site selling tickets for concerts will have a UK address, a phone number and will most likely be hosted in the UK or USA.

Internet

Sky News quotes me on why Friends Reunited failed

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I was asked by Sky News yesterday morning for my views on why the social networking website Friends Reunited failed, when sites like Facebook and MySpace prospered. The reason for the question was the news yesterday that ITV had to sack 600 people after they announced they’d lost billions of pounds, some of which was on their poorly researched purchase of Friends Reunited in 2005 for £120 million.

What were they thinking?

I told Sky News how Friends Reunited was eclipsed by other, better, social networking sites because Friends Reunited tried to rely on the subscription model to provide access to your friends, whereas better competitors were offering more for free. Friends Reunited failed to act when the likes of Facebook cropped up, insisting their subscription model would work, while their members left in their droves.

Now Friends Reunited is worthless, which is considerably less than the £125 million ITV were duped out of for it.

I do wonder just who makes these decisions, and how they’re able to get £125 million to play with on an obviously bad investment.

I hope someone lost their job over that one.

Internet

Hotmail error

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I’ve had the misfortune of using Microsoft’s Hotmail lately (I rarely use it normally) and wondered if it’s normal that Hotmail constantly errors and blames its errors on some crap about updating?

I mean, who do Microsoft think they’re kidding? Every few seconds I’m getting an error when trying to send an email, with the following message appearing:

We’ve updated Windows Live Hotmail, so please refresh your browser or close it and sign in again. If you are composing a message, make sure you save it as a draft.

Yeah right Microsoft, I bet you’re updating Hotmail constantly causing it to error. Is it not more likely that your bug ridden system is so poor that it just can’t function without breaking?

Sort it out Bill!

Google, Internet, Michael Jackson

MJ coffee scale creates quite a buzz

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When I invented the Michael Jackson coffee scale, I knew it would prove quite popular. However I wasn’t quite prepared for the level of links I’ve picked up, and other websites that have run the story. The response has been staggering. Just look at the results in Google when you search for it.

I guess everyone needed a uniform way of requesting their coffee.

MJ coffee scale with stolen brandingHowever, I’m a bit pissed off at one thieving twat who’s taken the MJ coffee scale I created, and added his own domain name to it. This knob sack here is trying to pass it off as his own work.

Sure mate, keep kidding yourself.

You can see the original Michael Jackson Coffee Scale, by MrDaz, here.

Internet, Rants

Trading Standards investigating the Student Property Shop for possible fraud

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The Leeds letting agent, the Student Property Shop, was featured on BBC News this week in a news report that is also available on the BBC website. Students have been lobbying outside of the office of the Student Property Shop, trying to get their deposits back from the previous occupants of the premises.

When asked, the Student Property Shop denied any connection with the previous occupants of their office, Providence Properties.

Watch the video and see what you think. The report closes with the narrator stating that Trading Standards are now investigating the Student Property Shop for a possible fraud concerning the £70,000 in deposits that the students have yet to be returned.