The recent Watchdog programme on BBC1 showed a great number of students in Leeds who were unable to get their deposits back on lettings they’d taken out with Providence Properties and Tariq Zaman. We’ve received a great many comments and emails on the subject, with some people suggesting that Providence Properties had setup under a new website, Myhomez.co.uk.

In the Watchdog programme, Providence Properties stated that the deposits paid by students were paid to a company called Providence Lets, who they said were nothing to do with them, which is why students were unable to get their deposits back.

This all sounds fair enough; Providence Properties, Providence Lets and My Homez are all separate companies.

However, if you’re a bit of an expert online you can find out certain things that many people wouldn’t be able to. For example, Providence Properties domain name, providenceproperties.co.uk, is registered to Mohammed Ishaq. According to the Whois database, the registered address for Mohammed Ishaq is: 72, Victoria Road, Leeds, LS6 1DL, GB.

Nothing strange there.

Myhomez.co.uk however, is registered to Mohamed Ishaq, with the registrant’s address of: 72, Victoria Road, Leeds, LS6 1DL, GB.

The same person, with the same address. If you think back to the BBC Watchdog programme, where Providence Properties distanced themselves from Providence Lets, you might wonder if there is a website for Providence Lets as well. There isn’t, but there is a domain name: providencelets.co.uk.

Have a guess who that’s registered to… that’s right, Mohamed Ishaq. The registered address for providencelets.co.uk is 72, Victoria Road, Leeds, LS6 1DL, GB.

Incidentally, the website for Providence Properties, providenceproperties.co.uk, is hosted with 1and1 Internet, on the server with the IP address 87.106.210.120. An IP address for a server signifies the specific web server that the website is hosted on. If it’s a shared server there could be dozens of websites on there, if it’s a dedicated server there might only be one or two.

Domain Tools shows that there is one other website hosted on the same server as providencelets.co.uk… care to hazard a guess at what that website is?

That’s right; myhomez.co.uk is also hosted with 1and1 Internet, on the server with the IP 87.106.210.120.

They are the only two websites on that server.

If you look at the source code for the website providenceproperties.co.uk, you’ll see that the meta tags for the Keywords and Description form thus:

<meta name=”description” content=”Leeds student and professional letting estate agents providing student & professional accommodation and commercial property in Leeds City Centre, Headingley, Burley, Hyde Park and the surrounding areas.”>
<meta name=”keywords” content=”providence, properties, providence properties, letting agents in leeds, estate agents in leeds, student lettings, professional lettings, commercial lettings, professional accommodation, student accommodation, commercial property, corporate property, property for sale, sales, leeds, headingley, burley, hyde park, city centre, west yorkshire, uk”>

Nothing strange there, a letting agent in Leeds would have keywords like that. I wonder if the meta tags for myhomez.co.uk are very different. What do you think?

<meta name=”description” content=”Leeds student and professional letting estate agents providing student &amp; professional accommodation and commercial property in Leeds City Centre, Headingley, Burley, Hyde Park and the surrounding areas.” />
<meta name=”keywords” content=”MyHomez, properties, myhomez properties, my homez, letting agents in leeds, estate agents in leeds, student lettings, professional lettings, commercial lettings, professional accommodation, student accommodation, commercial property, corporate property, property for sale, sales, leeds, headingley, burley, hyde park, city centre, west yorkshire, uk” />

That’s pretty similar. It’s almost as if they were the same company, but of course they’re not.

In my industry, SEO, it’s very important that if you want two websites to appear unrelated from each other that you register them with different Whois details, with different registrars, host them with different hosting companies and on different servers. Otherwise it’s very easy for someone, or indeed Google, to identify that the websites are owned by the same person.

I’m not suggesting that that’s what Providence Properties and My Homez have done. I’m sure they’re completely unrelated websites, unrelated companies and have just been unlucky to end up on the same server, at the same host, registered to the same person, with the same meta tags.

Just unlucky I guess.

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