Domain using our content with iFrame - owned by our SEO company?!

gord

gord

gord

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2003
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Location
Midlands
Hello all,

I don't really know what to make of this and would like to garner some consensus.

We employ an SEO consultancy that perform various activities for us. Our site performs quite nicely.

The other day we were asked for a link exchange from our website, which wasn't our domain. So I checked it out and this domain is using an iframe to pull through our content, with a noscript tag containing a load of links and information related to the false domain.

So, then I looked up the strange domain owner, and it appears to be our SEO consultants.

Anyone have any idea of what's going on here? I can't post links/details at the moment as this could be a sensitive corporate issue. As far as I can tell, this could be some underhand ranking mechanic, but it's duplicating our content, so when Google indexes it, it's going to be similar to ours! That won't be good..

Any help is much appreciated.
 
Your consultancy aren't called Search First Direct are they?

I've heard a lots of stories about them and their black hat techniques, and even had to fix a couple of their client's sites.
 
Nope, it's not them. I need to analyse the severity of this before I reveal who it is.
 
So they have your website in an iframe? Or... they have a second domain which isn't you, which is loading your content server-side, passing it through with extra tags, and displaying it for the world to see on this second domain, and then they're displaying this second domain in an iframe?

This is a new one on me. Never heard of anything like it, and I do try to keep up with the darker sort of headgear, in general. The dupe content issue would definitely have me concerned.

P.S. If there's only an iframe, and your content is still only accessible from your own domain name, I wouldn't worry. www.domainA.com having an iframe in its html which loads www.domainB.com doesn't confer any ownership of the content in domainB to domainA nor count as duping because it still had to be accessed from your own (domainB) domain. Only if they're pulling it through server-side will it be an issue.
 
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Aye, it is an iFrame so there is no duplicate content issue. Basically the iFrame pulls our site through, and then they've used scripting to change the page title to various keywords when someone hits the site.

It's definitely not white hat.
 
Take some screencaps and dump come copies of the html/js so you've a copy and then ask them what they're doing? Come across like you have no idea about internets and see what they try and blag you with, then have your "knowledgeable friend" ask them some questions see how they cope with actual tech questions. That'd be my approach.
 
I already contacted my man there. He said "It brings in relevant traffic and also has inbound [& relevant] links. If you don’t want the links in we can remove them – it’s your choice."

We would lose some traffic from this, but it's not even that relevant, the stuffed keywords aren't really relevant to the market sector for the department. The inbound links are disappointing though. Link building is one of the things I just don't have time to invest in, so we asked them to do it.. they've probably been building links to their own domain so that if we ever leave they will take this domain with them... cheeky tactic...

Either way, it wouldn't be my decision to drop them from that side of the business, which is why we are still using them. Ultimately this just adds to my cause though. I don't like trying to trick the search engines... its usually more trouble than it's worth, even if this appears to be a subtle new way.
 
Can't you just put some javascript on your website to prevent them?

Code: 
if (top.location != self.location) top.location = self.location
 
Yeah a framebuster would work. They could get around it by grabbing your site server-side and stripping it, but I doubt they would.

So... for "link building" they count links which they point at their own domain. So, sure, the traffic lands on your site (in a fashion) but the links sure as hell don't pass any value to you, or if they do it's very diminished. If I'd contracted an "SEO" consultancy to do a link building campaign for me and found the "links" they'd "built" weren't even pointing at my site I'd be refusing any further payment and demanding a refund.
 
Tell them to do some actual work on SEO instead of something you could do on your own in a few minutes.
 
Thinking about this a little more, they're basically building themselves an insurance policy, in a very naughty way. Let's say your site's in a specific vertical, say mobile phones. So they get a generic mobile phone domain and buy some links from places and point at this, iframing to you. You eventually leave. They get a new client in the same vertical, and hey presto, they have zero work to do and can still show their new client links to "his" site that they've "built", and charge him for it.
 
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