Can I Review the Same Company on Multiple Websites

This YouMoz entry was submitted by one of our community members. The author'due south views are entirely his or her ain (excluding an unlikely instance of hypnosis) and may not reverberate the views of Moz.

Google has a lot of spam to battle and some acting against The Guidelines get away with hogging multiple page one spots with their multiple sites. I'm sick of it. How aroused would you lot exist if your customer with their single site is going upward confronting four sites getting the dear from Google merely they're all endemic by the same company?

In that location are HUGE flags that requite these kinds of jokesters abroad. Later on seeing multiple clients going up confronting this kind of spam, I wanted everyone to be able to discover if you're getting beat out on the first folio past 10 companies or by 1 visitor owning several sites. Beneath is how to find them AND what y'all can exercise near it.

Beginning, allow's look at what Google has to say about the issue:

Alright, Google dislikes pages, subdomains, and domains with substantially duplicated content. Got it.

The next item taken right from Google Support is that users should "Avoid tricks intended to meliorate search engine rankings. A practiced rule of thumb is whether y'all'd feel comfortable explaining what you lot've done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to inquire, "Does this help my users? Would I practice this if search engines didn't exist?"

COOL. Now that we've got Google's have on things, lets starting earthworks into how to uncover competitors using multiple sites & getting away with it.

i. URL Construction

Easy mode nosotros constitute someone doing this in the health industry was looking to see their production identification numbers. If there are two results that accept the same product number in the URL, it could be coincidence. If there are four results in the elevation ten results that take the same number, your competitors are eating your lunch. If yous see something like to the URLs below coming upwardly for your acme products, I'd start raising that ruby-red flag.

http://world wide web.samplesite1.com/contacts/lens-406.asp
http://www.samplesite2.com/contact-lenses/lens406.asp
http://www.samplesite3.com/lenses/lens-id406.asp
http://www.samplesite4.com/contacts/product406.asp

While this should exist piece of cake to catch, nosotros're still seeing multiple companies become away with it.

2. On Page Duplication

Whether information technology'south championship tags, meta descriptions or folio content, it's easy to spot competitors using duplicated textile. I'd prepare upwards a Google Alert with a lengthy sentence from competitor privacy policies to see if other sites start showing up. You can besides grab the bottom disclaimer that goes on every page to go along rails of when they launch new pages/products.

3. Bank check MajesticSEO

Sites that are controlled by the same company typically have a similar backlink profile. When looking at the nearly recent company screwing with rankings in my client's industry and encounter the chart below, this is a dead giveaway.

4. Gratuitous Reviews of Identical Numbers

Do some of your competitors have the aforementioned number of reviews for the same product? Ii competitors having the same number of reviews (over x) can absolutely be coincidence, but when 4 sites have the same number of reviews (say...xv each) and they're all painstakingly positive, you lot know what's going on.

I checked Amazon & eBay to see the last reviews I left said "Came in on time & as described. Would do business with once more. Thanks!" and "Came in great status & packaged actually securely. Thanks!" These were positive reviews where I gave realistic feedback. Some of the reviews I read recently had review titles that said things similar:

"Product is Awesome!"
"...aught like it!"
"WOW!!!"
"Simply Amazing"

...and my favorite, "MAGICAL! Best Thing SINCE MICROWAVEABLE POPCORN."

You'd exit (or shout in all caps) those kinds of reviews for eyewear, correct? No?

5. Indistinguishable Credit Builders

Having VeriSign, McAfee & Money Back Guarantee badges on your site can help build confidence in the site, increase conversion rates, etc. But if all of your competitors happen to have all of the same confidence builders, in the same club, that say the aforementioned affair, I'd selection that out as one competitor with multiple sites. Difficult to believe? Images below.

Site A:

Site B:

Site C:

Site D:

Slightly similar? Endeavour identical. Sites are still getting abroad with this type of laziness when creating multiple sites. This is possibly the easiest fashion to figure it out.

vi. Identical Commented-Out Text In Lawmaking

Instead of taking out seasonal links every year, an easy manner to get rid of them is to just comment them out, then make them alive once more when the season rolls around. If your competitors take the same commented out text across 4 sites with the aforementioned URL structure, Google's turning a bullheaded eye to that single competitor beating you upwards later on school.

vii. Duplicate Prototype URLs

Just every bit the first check was the URL for the product, competitors tin get lazy & use the same URL construction for their images including calling them all the identical proper noun.

http://world wide web.samplesite1.com/heels/assets/ProdStandard/J09.JPG
http://www.samplesite2.com/heels/assets/ProdStandard/J09.JPG
http://www.samplesite3.com/heels/assets/ProdStandard/J09.JPG
http://world wide web.samplesite4.com/heels/assets/ProdStandard/J09.JPG

Something fishy going on here or did the ever-and then-common J09 name jump into the minds of multiple people at multiple companies?

8. Breadcrumb Structure

If production pages four levels deep all accept the same linked breadcrumb structure discussion for give-and-take, either in that location is no room for naming errors (which could really happen in some industries) or your competitors speedily set upwards indistinguishable sites.

OK! Enough! Yous've told me eight means to find my competitors chirapsia me up. What do I do well-nigh it?!?

Google provides one elementary affair to do when you find spam in their results.

Google Spam Report

I've used the form with very little success. Information technology's 1 form for the entire internet, then there'southward a practiced chance things are backed upwards or filtered into a priority listing. Pretty poor single solution.

You can attempt hit Matt Cutts on Twitter. Checking right now, he'due south @ responded to twenty+ people inside the last 24 hours. Not sure how many people he'due south DM'd or emailed, but if your business concern is in survival mode, this is certainly a possibility.

Would you post nigh the violator in Google's webmaster forums?

Beyond that, there are some very debatable tactics in terms of "snitching" on a website. Is it appropriate to out a site using multiple sites on an industry forum? Anonymously do it through a tumblr business relationship? Resort to blackhat tactics or try to spam/hack a site (non condoning this at all, karma is a killer & so is a legal mess)? Many of these items were discussed recently in a back & forth twitter chat betwixt Rand & Aaron Wall.

There is no set process, merely if your biggest win tin be achieved by ousting a competitor violating Google's guidelines, you'll discover the right manner to go the violator in front of the right people who brand the decision. Are y'all loyal to your clients or some unwritten spam silence lawmaking of the SEO globe? I don't know about you, simply I know it'due south clients that pay our bills & that's where my loyalty stays.What would you lot do?

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Source: https://moz.com/blog/uncover-competitors-using-multiple-sites-for-multiple-first-page-rankings

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