101 Articles Shadow Domains / Falsified WHOIS Information
SHADOW DOMAINS/FALSIFIED WHOIS INFORMATION
Shadow domains are essentially website specifically created for search engine spiders rather than humans. It is a deliberate attempt practiced to improve a particular website's rankings and make it list among the top 10 results sets produced by search engines pertaining to a search phrase. Shadow domains are indexed by search engine spiders just like all the other genuine websites except for the fact that it is not meant for human visitors and its contents are mostly gibberish. The shadow domain is created after analyzing the search phrases related to some information, keywords assigned and the contents are stuffed with those respective keywords to make it look like a top-notch content which influences the spiders to index it and rank it higher in the search engine result sets. Though the content appears to be top-notch stuffed with enormous amounts of keywords, the contents actually doesn't make any sense and is rather considered to be garbage. This kind of a website created with shadow domain is also known as cloaked site. The pages that represent such a site are known as phantom pages.
The effectiveness of a shadow domain relies upon its ability to redirect human visitors to a real webpage upon arriving on any of the phantom pages while letting the search engine spiders scan the page.
How the whole system works: (How careful you ought to be while choosing a SEO firm)
Shadow domains are nothing but small, optimized, supplementary websites designed specifically for driving traffic to a particular website. This helps that particular website to gain more traffic, boost its business and manipulate search engine algorithms to be ranked better. It's like a supplement website that compliments the original website and helps it to be developed successfully. This system works tremendously 9 out of 10 times and most websites created upon this optimization technique are quite successful.
However, this technique is considered to be a blackhat technique followed by certain SEO firms to boost their client's business as well as their business in turn. One of the keys to the development of a website largely depends upon its link building abilities. Usually websites engages in the act of link building in reputable sites which also provides similar services and products as that of this particular site. This technique is otherwise also known as external links creation. External link creation is pretty much an ethical optimization strategy and no website owner or search engine would complain about such practices. This shadow domain concept is somewhat similar to external creation, but only that those supplementary websites are not considered to be real website. It is rather an additional boosting factor which works to the advantages of original website at the cost of other genuine websites. It is certainly an unfair strategy followed by certain SEO firms and thus eventually considered as blackhat technique.
The way this system works is that an SEO company will design and optimize a website that acts as supplementary to your original website. Things will certainly turn out to be fine if everything goes accordingly and smoothly. However, you are not the owner of this particular website. It is owned by the SEO firm. This means that if there are cracks on the wall in the relationship you maintain with your SEO firm, they may choose to redirect this site's traffic to whomsoever they choose. They can sell the site to your competitors.
You have to be very careful while choosing your SEO firm and they should be highly trustworthy. This technique is not followed by all SEO firms but as an SEO expert I have come across certain firms following this technique and you ought to be careful while choosing your SEO firm. It is very easy to figure whether a SEO firm is lying or following these kinds of blackhat techniques. All you need to do is listen carefully while negotiating business. If a company promises or guarantees you top ranking for your website then it is either lying or using one of these blackhat techniques. You can never guarantee number 1 result within (unpaid) search results. You have to be comfortable with the SEO firm you are choosing and above all they should be trustworthy. This website marketing strategy is highly complicated and requires immense knowledge regarding how the system works, guidelines and principles in optimizing strategies, do's and don'ts etc.
You have to be familiar with the concepts to practice it well and survive in the market. One single mistake knowingly or unknowingly can blow away everything. So you need the help of a SEO firm to handle your website unless you are good in search engine optimizing strategies. In the case of former all you need to do is be highly wise while choosing a SEO firm.
Shadow Domains and Search Engine Optimization:
Shadow domains are used to quickly fabricate false rankings for a website so that it may be listed among the top 10 result sets displayed by search engines pertaining to a search phrase. Search engines are pretty aware of these malpractices after several similar incidents employing unethical manipulation strategies. It considers shadow domain practice to be another spamming technique and thus it is highly recommended that one doesn't associate themselves in such practices.
Shadow domains are used to create various URL's or web addresses that redirect visitors to the real website or the target website located on a primary domain. These domains have loads of pages optimized with stuffed search phrases and keywords pertaining to the target website. The pages are said to be cloaked from human viewing by redirecting them transparently to the real website instead. These pages need not be user friendly as they are not intended to be viewed by the viewers and contain extremely optimized contents designed to get optimal results from search engine crawlers. While users are transferred to a highly user friendly environment providing useful information related to what they seek, they manipulate search engine by making the crawlers scan through the shadow domain enriched with keywords and backlinks to boost the target website. As a result the target website reaps more benefits and has the unfair opportunity to make more business and be listed among the top 10 of result sets displayed by search engines pertaining to a search phrase.
Now that search engines are aware of such malpractices, so they eventually end up terminating both the primary domains as well as shadow domains when such a practice is discovered to be followed by any particular website.
Recently as an SEO expert I encountered a situation where a variation of this technique was used as a part of a cyber attack against a domain which possessed a high level organic ranking in the search engines. Content scrapping was performed onto multiple websites with different web addresses which used shadow domains. The website transparently redirected the visitors to the target website being involved in the cyber attack. The shadow domains were crawled by search engines, the malpractice was discovered and all the domains including the target domain were dropped from the search engine results. All the efforts, years of hard work and time dedicated by the SEO firm was all wiped off within a short span of time. You don't want your website to be put through such measures and that's certainly the last thing any website owner would want.
However, in future if your website is targeted for such practices and eventually the end result happens to be the same, it is advisable for you as a website owner to immediately report the attack to the technical support teams of the organizational bodies involved. The attack can be identified in your website's referrer entries in reports and log files. The stats can be used to identify where the traffic is coming from and whether it is valid or not. You can also find domains using keywords important to your website which would be listed in your website's keyword Meta tags. It is advisable to take all precautionary measures before search engines identifies such practices being followed in your website and resulting a ban to your website.
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Images |
In the above image, it is seen that widget1.com is a shadow domain of widget.com. The shadow domain contains spammy backlinks and stuffed keywords. Shadow domains are penalized by search engines.
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Screen Shots |
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Working Examples |
The below mentioned screen shot is an extract from Google group which discusses shadow domains and mentions an example of two sites that are shadow domains.
Example of a cloaked site:
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References |
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Other sites that refer to the same manipulation tactic are as follows |