8 replies to this topic

[xyZed]

If I search for my site in Google, on the first page, around number 6 there is a result that claims to offer vouchers for my site, which of course do not exist and have nothing to do with me. The result is displayed as -

(I'll use "my site" instead of putting my url in case it's best that way)


My site name - MyVoucherCodes
www.myvouchercodes.co.uk/discounts/my site.co.uk

When I click this link the page that opens proclaims


my site name Voucher Codes 2012
Active my site name Promotional Voucher Codes & Discounts 2012

The entire page is then populated with adverts for all the affiliates related to my site's content including many I am affiliated to. This practice is in my opinion trying to hi-jack people looking for my site with a false promise they will find voucher codes. Once on the page they may well be tempted to use one of their affiliates instead of mine.

Bizarrely, right at the bottom they have a link to my site though it's a no follow and not a direct link.

My questions, which I hope to find an answer for, are, is this something I should complain to them about or something I should brush off as inconsequential? Is it something Google would frown upon?

Many thanks

Andy

[Michael_Martinez]

It's a common parasitical practice used by made-for-advertising Websites to draw traffic to their pages.

If you have established trademark value in your site name you can issue a cease-and-desist letter to the Website owner.  If they are unresponsive or you cannot find out how to contact them, you have the option of complaining to their hosting provider and/or to the advertising networks.

If you have NOT established trademark value, I'm not sure you can do anything.

Edited by Michael_Martinez, 28 March 2012 - 01:24 PM.

[bwelford]

Trademarks apply country by country so I see a potential problem here. I'm not sure the trademark process has caught up with the international nature of the Internet.

[xyZed]

Thanks, shouldn't you be able to report things like that to google? I get scraped a considerable amount of times, usually the sites just look like junk and its's hard to imagine many people using them so I've ignored it so far. This one is different in that it's a known site that advertises on TV.

My main concern is whether it could do any harm seo-wise. Maybe I should be flattered? I don't know how they come up on the first page for a search for my web site though?

[Michael_Martinez]

Google is not the Web police. They can only do so much.

Actually, the voucher site might be defaming you under UK law. You may have sufficient grounds to demand that the page be taken down.

[xyZed]

Thanks for your post Michael. Re Google, I was thinking purely from their point of view. Their continued success depends on them serving credible results. I would have thought they would want to be notified of serps that are basically scams trying to scrape users to their sites with promises of things they don't have.

[xyZed]

I just found this explanation, which seems a bit implausible?

http://support.myvou...-on-the-website

[DonnaFontenot]

Not implausible, just exactly what Panda was supposed to address (but clearly didn't). Try searching for any nonsense string of characters in the myvouchercodes search bar - something like "xlsoefijssoifj" - and you'll see that it will create a page for that search. That page didn't exist ahead of time. But it exists now that you've searched for it. Now that it exists, it can be found and indexed by the search engines. Of course, such pages shouldn't ever rank, but obviously they do.

Panda, oh Panda, how you lost your way.

[xyZed]

Thanks Donna: I wait with a smirk to see if BigBottoms voucher codes and large booby voucher codes emerge