Stopping a spammy/con site ranking

[thindenim]

Hi,

There is a website in my niche, which I've known about for a while. Without going into the fine details it is retailing fakes of a high end electrical brand directly from China.

The fakes are not CE tested and dangerous, and are being advertised as genuine products at a fraction of the retail price. Unfortunately a lot of people are falling for the scam and it has had an impact on sales.

Until recently the site had been using adwords and had no natural search results, but today I noticed that from nowhere it was now sitting at number 3 on a google UK search for the brand in question. For information this is a very competitive term.

I checked their link profile on yahoo site explorer and they have over 40,000 inbound links, which again have come from nowhere. I clicked through about 50 of the links and each time they are contained within a layer, which is set with it's x index at -300px, i.e. the layer is not visible on the page ,and are mixed in with about 10 links to other sites selling fakes of other leading brands in the same layer.

I have filled out a google spam report, with links to a small selection of the sites containing the spammy links and also mentioning that the products were fake and infringing trade marks.

The question is will this have any effect? Is there anything else I can do?

It's incredibly frustrating when you spend all your time building links and content organically and extoling the virtues of ethical SEO/increasing rankings over time and then you see a site just bulldoze its way into the top spots with a barrage of spam. If this was a genuine competitor, selling genuine products I would be unhappy, but the fact it is retailing fake products below what I can buy them at wholesale leaves me asking if it is all worthwhile.

Any advice greatly appreciated.


Thanks,
David

[wige]

A spam report is a first step, but is not likely to get much immediate results - generally Google uses the reports to fine tune the detection algorithms, rather than outright penalizing the spammy site.

The next step I can think of would be to alert the actual manufacturer of the product being knocked off. They may be able to file something with Google to knock the site out, or block it.

[morestar]

You could also put a notice on your website indicating that that site is selling knock off products.

[thindenim]

Thanks for the responses.

The manufacturer is currently locked in a legal battle to try and get the site(s) taken down, however, as they are based in china, trademark law out there is a little woolly.

I have written a number of articles, both on my site and externally mentioning how to spot fakes and to be wary, however, people unfortunately often just don't seem to be able to resist what they perceive to be a fantastic deal.

[williamc]

Originally Posted by wige

A spam report is a first step, but is not likely to get much immediate results - generally Google uses the reports to fine tune the detection algorithms, rather than outright penalizing the spammy site.

Very true, however, if you OUT the site on matt cutts blog itself, it will get looked at pretty quickly

[wige]

Oh this is nothing. My new favorite are the spam sites that show up in adwords when you search for avg antivirus or any of the other free antivirus applications. The sites have a tiny little disclaimer at the bottom of the page, "This website has no affiliation whatsoever with the owner of this software program, and provides ONLY a link to the software program. Always Download Legally." then asks for your e-mail address so they can spam you. Then the next screen lets you select how you want to pay. The yearly option is 11.95. Remember, this is to recieve a link to download a free software program... Then the next page, where you enter your credit card information, shows buried in the text the phrase "The total charge on your account today will be 45.82 USD"

GRRR. I want to fill out a spam report, but where is the checkbox for "Every single last ad for this search term"?

DISCLAIMER: This website has no affiliation whatsoever with the owner or manufacturer of this software program, and provides ONLY a link to the FREE version . This website does NOT sell any software. Your MEMBERSHIP to our website entitles you to: (1) links to freely available software, (2) tutorials, (3) videos, and (4) technical support. The product names used in this web site are for identification purposes only. All trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. This website contains NO SpyWare, and NO AdWare. New computer users should find our services valuable, and a time saver. If you are an advanced computer user, you may not need our services.

NO MEMBERSHIP IS REQUIRED TO DOWNLOAD AND USE AVG SOFTWARE
AVG is FREE Software and may be obtained FREE from www.grisoft.com 
Support AVG and Upgrade to their paid version – Paid Version

Copyright 2009, Anti-Virus-Link.org. All rights reserved - Always Download Legally.

[thindenim]

Originally Posted by williamc

Very true, however, if you OUT the site on matt cutts blog itself, it will get looked at pretty quickly

Is this something you would actually suggest doing...?

[danlefree]

It may be worthwhile to bring up a business development opportunity with the manufacturer - do they have an "authorized resellers" page on their site?

If they do (or if you can convince them they need one), that page would be an excellent place to have a link out to your site...

[thindenim]

Hi Dan,

They do have an authorised retailers page (and badge), which we are part of. Problem is the scammer site has cloned the look of the official site and indeed the authorised retailers page

Good advice though, thanks.

[williamc]

Originally Posted by thindenim

Is this something you would actually suggest doing...?

As an SEO, I don't feel the need to out competitors, as I prefer to be able to say I outranked them right. But as a consumer or a site affected by this sort of dangerous thing, yeh, I would.

[thindenim]

Originally Posted by williamc

As an SEO, I don't feel the need to out competitors, as I prefer to be able to say I outranked them right. But as a consumer or a site affected by this sort of dangerous thing, yeh, I would.

I agree, that normally I wouldn't 'out' a competitor and concentrate on what my own site is doing, I'm all for competition. This site however is dangerous for a number of reasons, both literally and commercially and needs to be stopped: -

1) It is selling dangerous, substandard goods
2) It is both misleading and ripping off the consumer
3) It will (and is) harm(ing) consumer confidence in buying online (it's a big brand, certainly in the UK)
4) The spam SEO it is using appears to be working

[Final Expense Leads]

It might be useful to examine where the site is hosted. Due to distance and response issues you may get lucky and find that rather than China it is in the EU, America or other copyright-friendly jurisdiction.

Pressure on the ISP could be more effective than on the company itself. Certainly here in Texas, where a surprising number of international sites are hosted, threats to involve the State Attorney General have proven effective in a few cases.

[thindenim]

Well this just gets worse...

They now have 3 sites (all the same) in the top 10 for this phrase. All the sites are using the same sledgehammer spam hidden links tactic. At this rate they are going to dominate the top 10.

Filed a spam report a few weeks ago and nothing.

So much for not being able to manipulate google rankings!!! What a joke.

[Peter]

Apart from the other suggestions you could try media and govenment agencies, pressure might then be put on Google to stop displaying this crap.

Try Watchdog, HMRC, OFT etc

[williamc]

Originally Posted by thindenim

So much for not being able to manipulate google rankings!!! What a joke.

If the ranking could not be manipulated, there would be no use for true SEO's.