Using DNS & 301 redirects to gain control over a rogue site
-
I'd appreciate peoples' views on the following please.
We have been approached by a client whose website does not rank # 1 for their own distinctive brand name due to this position being taken by a site they had developed for them by an affiliate some years back. The affiliate's site is clearly seen by Google as the definitive site for the brand - being older, having more links & in both Yahoo & DMOZ.
The relationship has soured with the affiliate & the client wants to take control of the affiliate site & have it 301 redirect to the 'real' brand site. The affiliate won't cooperate (funny that). However whilst the client doesn't have control over the affiliate's website, they do own the domain.
Given this, it seems that an option is to temporarily create a 1 page website on another server, change the affiliate website domain DNS settings to point to this, & in turn have that 301 re-direct to the client's website.
This is a bit of a round about approach, but necessary because the affiliate won't directly 301 the site they control - despite the client owning it. (As I say the relationship has soured).
If you think there's a better alternative approach to this problem (aside from litigation), I'd appreciate hearing it please.
Thanks.
-
Hi Ryan
Thanks for those useful comments & alternative ideas. I think we'll stick with the original idea & use the 301 approach rather than remove the listing if possible so the link juice can be directed to the client site.
Cheers
-
If you own the domain and the brand name trademark, you have many options.
As you suggested, you can take control over the domain, point it to a server you have control over and 301 it to your site. You don't actually have to put up a web page at all. Just add a redirect from the "old" domain to the new one.
You can also cancel the affiliation. The affiliate should be dependent upon getting his product from your client. Without the product there isn't a business.
You can contact Google and inform them there is a trademark dispute. Upon validating the product is your trademark, they can remove the listing.
Another option would be to take control over the domain, point it to a web server you control, then claim the domain in Google Webmaster Tools by uploading a file to your web server. Then you can point the domain back to the affiliate's website. In Google WMT, you can submit a request to remove the listing(s). The idea behind this method is it offers the least confrontational approach. Your issue is the listing, and this process would remove it.
I am not an attorney and the above information is being shared strictly as actions you could take to achieve the result you requested. Your client should speak with an attorney before taking any action as there may be legal consequences.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
404 to 301 redirects is there a limit?
Hi We've just updated our website and have binned out alot of old thin content which has no value even if re written. We have a lot of 404 error on WMT and I am in the process of doing 301 redirects on them. Is there a limit to the number of 301 the site should have?
Technical SEO | | Cocoonfxmedia0 -
Existing content & 301 redirects
Hi All, I will try to keep this to the point. One of our websites was hit by penguin for unnatural linking. We are building a new site (same business, different domain), but we would like to take some of the pages/content off the old website and use it on our new site. Is it just a case of copying each page onto our new site and 301 redirect the old URL? Or should I just be completely rewording/recreating the old content so it is unique? Any help on this would be great, but I am also open to alternate methods too. Thanks Lewis
Technical SEO | | SO_UK0 -
Can I 301 Re-Direct within the same site?
I have a magento site and would like to do a 301 redirect from page A to page B. Page B was created after Page A but contains the same products. I want page A to be replaced in the search engines with page B while carrying the link juice from page A. Is this possible? Am I better off just blocking page A through the robots .txt file? Thanks
Technical SEO | | Prime850 -
Need Help writing 301 redirects in .htaccess file
SEOmoz tool shows me 2 errors for duplicate content pages (www.abc.com and www.abc.com/index.html). I believe, the solution to this is writing 301 redirects I need two 301 redirects 1. abc.com to www.abc.com 2. /index.html to / (which is www.abc.com/index.html to www.abc.com) The code that I currently have is ................................................... RewriteEngine On
Technical SEO | | WebsiteEditor
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^abc.com
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.abc.com/$1 [R=301,L] Redirect 301 http://www.abc.com/index.html http://www.abc.com ...................................................... but this does not redirect /index.html to abc.com. What is wrong here? Please help.0 -
Is this a safe 301 redirect?
We are moving our site from one platform to another. Currently on our site we have two homepages. "www.homepage.com" and "www.homepage.com/Index" Both pages have some high quality links pointing in on them. The problem: We are going to be doing a 301 redirect from "www.homepage.com/Index" page to "www.homepage.com" as we are moving platforms at this time we weren't going to create a "www.homepage.com/Index" page all. This leaves this page as an empty URL. With this webpage disappearing all together will we lose traction as we are redirecting an empty URL? Or is it better to recreate this "www.homepage.com/Index" on our new platform redirect it and wait for google to deIndex this page for us? As well is there a tutorial for how to implement 301 redirects or is this something worth looking for a developer and pay someone to do?
Technical SEO | | HCGDiet0 -
301 Redirects Change?
Hi, Mozzers- I've noticed pages that are getting 301 redirected are staying out there longer. It used to be that you would implement a 301 redirect and then after a couple of months the old page would disappear out of Google's index. Over the last couple of months I've noticed pages lingering, popping up.... What gives? Thanks in advance! LHC
Technical SEO | | lhc670 -
301 redirect .htaccess problem
Can anyone explain to me why this doesn't work? Redirect 301 /category/diamond-pendants/nstart/1/start/(.*) http://www.povada.com/category/pendants/nstart/1/start/$1 Im trying to replace everything after /start/ and insert it into the new url. Thanks in advance.
Technical SEO | | 13375auc30 -
301 redirect while keeping OLD domain for branding
Say you have CharityName.com. They use a dedicated domain name CharityNameEvent.com to advertise their main event. They use this domain on posters, flyers,etc and want to keep using it because it's easier to remember. CharityNameEvent.com has far, far more inbound links than CharityName.com (about 8 times more). Current problem: their current web developer has put the SAME content on both websites instead of setting up a redirect from CharityNameEvent.com (easy to remember) to CharityName.com/Event which would have made more sense. My intention is to consolidate the 2 websites and make sure CharityName.com benefits from links to the Event. I plan to move and 301 redirect CharityNameEvent.com to CharityName.com/Event. I know this would keep links and PR intact but I have a couple of questions: 1. Is it enough to set up the 301 redirect or would they have to ask websites to ACTUALLY change the links to CharityName.com/Event? 2. They plan and need to keep using CharityNameEvent.com for its ease of use on posters, flyers, etc. The 301 redirect would be in place. Would this cause any problems with search engines, especially when/if some people STILL link to CharityNameEvent.com instead of CharityName.com/Event? Basically, my understanding of 301 redirects is that they're used when a website permanently moves. In this case, the OLD DOMAIN name would still be used for reasons mentioned above but would be 301 redirected to CharityName.com/Event. Any chance this might not maximise the potential of new/old links? Any other way to go about it? Anything I'm missing with this scenario? Thanks
Technical SEO | | carmenmardiros0