When discussing a site’s PageRank, talk usually focuses on ways of increasing it; “How can I go from a PR 3 to a PR 7” or “If I exchange a link that has a higher PR site, will my site benefit”. Because of the public perception of Google/Stanford’s formula, rarely do you come across an individual looking for ways to lower PageRank.

In a discussion I noticed on Cre8site titled “wiping page rank,” a poster was seeking advice on how to actually reduce a site’s PageRank. Tazg101 describes his predicament as follows:

“I work for a company's website and it looks like the domain is going with someone who worked for the company and is now leaving, [and because he] paid for it with his card, he is digging his heels on the situation. I spent months getting a good page [rank from Google] but I don't believe he should benefit from this. How can I wipe the page rating on this site?”

This kind of situation presents a unique circumstance. Can anyone besides Google immediately reduce someone’s PageRank? The answer appears to be no. There are a number of domain-related avenues that can be pursued, but there isn’t much that can be done to immediately affect PR.

Concerning the domain that recently changed hands, several Cre8site members offered Tazg101 advice on how to contest the issue. Forum moderator Diane V suggested, “If you cannot come to an agreement about the domain name and if you cannot sort it out to the company's benefit with the domain name registrar (or ICANN), then my guess is you may have to get another domain name. But, considering that you were successful with the rankings in the first place, you'll be able to do it again.”

Bragadocchio also provided some domain related information that supported Diane’s, “A company should be able to rely upon the fact that someone purchasing a domain name on the company's behalf was authorized to do that for the company, and that the company is the owner of the name... There's a value to the domain name, and all of the effort you put into creating links and optimizing a site and so on. It might be good to see if that value can be preserved rather than trying to destroy it.”

If reducing PageRank is the goal, just do the opposite of what “the rules” dictate to improve it. With relevant linking you can change an internal link structure and request other sites pointing to you to remove those links. Another Cre8site mod (Tim) suggests, “You could also ask anyone who's linking to the site to stop linking, if possible. If enough people stop linking, it'll probably decrease the PageRank by the next update.” If updates are being done on a quarterly basis (as has been suggested) you may not see any results from this strategy for a few months.

You could try Adrian’s (also a CS mod) approach: “I'd get a new domain set-up ASAP get the site back up there, and stick 301 redirects on the old one. Then as they are crawling around, the SE's should see that the site as moved and start picking up the new one.”

Basically, aside from ICANN and registrar appeals, your options are extremely limited if an unscrupulous party has acquired your domain. If the domain you’ve been toiling over changes hands, all that hard work may have been for nothing, unless of course, you can convince Google to directly penalize the domain which is probably a long shot.

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Former WebProWorld Admin

Aside from it being morally incorect, what would stop someone from doing this to sites outside the scope of the discussion - for instance "competitors". Once again, I see another flaw in the precious google algo??

Don't kid yourself! All kinds of things could be done from the inside to decrease PR! What kind of question is that?

Start with low keyphrase concentration, spammy Title Tags, linking to bad neighborhoods, engaging softwares like "Web Position Gold", javascript Redirects to renamed pages....

The list goes on!

Simply pull up the GOOGLE, YAHOO and MSN Search Webmaster recommendations and blatantly abuse every rule!

IMO - That's really a "no brainer". Otherwise the "Guidelines" from all the top SEs really mean nothing.

Problem is thought, that it would be easy to prove in a court of law!

Ken

I don't think you really want to decrease your PR if you can avoid it.

Since PR is directly related to quality content, number of inbound links etc., only the inbound links will be affected by this unscrupulous move.

Use one of the commonly available tools to find out who is linking to your site - before the domain gets pulled. I won't mention any directly here, but a Google search for "link analysis software" will bring up a bunch of quality products.

Once you have that list, it should be a fairly simple matter of setting up the site under a new domain and asking all sites who link to the old domain to link to the new site. In theory, if the content is remaining the same, the site is still important enough to merit a good PR IF the inbound links can be re-established.

Good luck!

Just give Traffic Power a call - they know all about it!

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Simon - Biogas, Rauchgasanalysator and Rauchgasanalysegerät

I understand the concept of Page Rank, it is broken, it does not work. The results are from another time that has gone by.

Google and for that matter Alexa reports backward/inbound links that do not even mean anything.

I think the real issue is domain ownership. Companies need to be very careful about the process of registering domain names.

This person, since he now controls the domain can switch DNS, host elsewhere and would be in full control.

I see this a lot - small businesses hire a web person who registers the domain in his own name instead of the client's name. Then, when things go sour, he's holding all the marbles.

People need to be more aware that while it may be convenient to have their web person listed as technical contact, the billing and admin contacts need to be the owners of the business.

There really needs to be a law to protect clients and employers from unscrupulous web people.

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- Hank Castello
www.CompuSolver.com
www.SmBizHosting.com
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All the guy owns is the domain name, not the content of the website. So he will be left with a domain name without any content. (and if he keeps the content, every judge will decide he has to take the content down right now)

The company sets up a new domain and contacts the known backlink providers. Simply tell them to link to the new domain.

PageRank will fall automatically when this happens. Of course it won't happen over night, but that is normal.

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Otimização de Sites (SEO in Brazil)

i understand how to decrease your own PR, but that wasn't what i was asking. the question refers to what do you do when the domain you've worked hard for a decent PR is usurped? how do you stop that person from benefiting? will Google step in and penalize the domain-grabber (probably not)...

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Former WebProWorld Admin

Hi, I hope you have tried to at least gain the domain yourself. We run a web company from Dubai and the UK and register ALL domains initially in our name (as customers can be unscrupulous too!) BUT we always assist in reassigning them if our clients request this. We only want customers who WANT to be customers (it is REAL bad to steal someones "name" we think)!!

Anyway, my point is we have several clients come to us who's name is held/"owned" by someone else. Whilst it is always a fight when we request a transfer (we use GoDaddy - www.godaddy.com - the best!) and send the necessary letters, passport copy, trade licence, letter head, demonstrate that the web site has content relevant to our CUSTOMER we have ALWAYS eventually managed the transfer.

Why not at least try to get the domain transferred to you and keep the ranking (and all that hard work)?

May not work but surely worth a try? (I apologise if you have already tried the above, but just worth a thought!)

As Peter said, the ownership belongs to the company paying the bills - unless specified elsewhere in an employment contract. All work done on the site belongs to the company. If the company reimbursed this guy for the domain name, the company owns the Domain name too. These records should be easy to produce and you will win in court. However, if the employee owns the domain and was letting the company *borrow* it, this should have been spelled out many months ago. If your company choses not to fight about ownership move the content to a new domain and claim copyright violations if the employee tries to steal it. This is basic contract or employment law. If you are a contractor and want to keep rights to your work make sure your contracts spell this out.
Good Luck

Remember that the company doesn't have any access to the domain anymore, so they cannot do anything "from the inside". And Traffic Power is no help here because again, there's no access to "the inside" of the domain. (If something could be done from the outside then you could do harm to your competitors' sites.)

If the company still has access to the domain, then the content of the site would be at issue. If the content of the site was created when that employee was employed, the company owns the content. If the domain does not have any content then it's just a domain name--and the company can put the content up on another domain name and start on the time-consuming task of getting links to the site updated.

The true issue here is domain ownership, and the domain would reside with the company as previously suggested:

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Bill Hartzer's Blog

I also get my clients domain names through my own wholsale account. I make no bones about it, and if they balk I just send them to GoDaddy. It would be unethical to hold someones domain hostage. It's only ever happened once, but when a client wanted his domain transferred we just did it. I even offered to redirect his DNS before the transfer took place so he could get his new site up ASAP. He declined, but he wasn't the brightest bulb on the street.

This is not the case with my biggest competitor. They charge a $50 transfer fee to get your domain back. I find this type of behavior just plain dishonest, but inevitable.

Companies with a significant web presence MUST start taking more responsibility for understanding these procedures. If your company has a website and you don't know what a "who is" registry is, or have the company listed as the registrant, or an officer's Email listed as the administrative contact, you're just begging for trouble. If you have a web business and you aren't sure exactly what I'm talking about go to www.betterwhois.com RIGHT NOW and make sure you either actually own your domain, or trust the person who does.

If someone tried to run a bar without understanding the liscensing procedures for selling food and alcohol how surprised would you be when they went out of business? In the end this type of SNAFU lands right on the shoulders of the management.

Hi,

Can't agree with you more.. we also offer to point to new dns if they want so they can get new site up quickly, but as you say "they" don't normally know what this means really.

We have had several people "move away" but that is because "down here" (i.e the Middle East/Dubai) many people eventually try (and fail) to produce/maintain their sites "in house" or "have a friend" or just someone simply offers sites for almost nothing (and you guessed it.. those people get what they pay for... "pay peanuts get ......").

But whatever the case to hold someones domain name to ransom is holding their business to ransom and is despicable!! As urknighterrent says.. please, please check who owns your domain, if you don't you'd better REALLY trust the guys who do.

An alternative i use to www.betterwhois.com is www.allwhois.com. Sometimes these just don't manage to look at every registrar so sometimes you might HAVe to use www.register.com or even (Lord forbid) www.netsol.com - in case choose their "Whois" option.

Cheers

Midnight Owl... (3:18 am here!!)

Hi Crich,

Lets not get to wild about reducing the rankings.

Lets look at facts.

The person in question was working for the company, was he under contract, freelance etc. What made him purchase the domain name. Expenses? etc.

I would recommend getting in a lawyer as my understanding is that unless specifically agreed between the company and individual that the individual has rights to works he does for or on behalf of his employers all work whether under contract, freelance, temporary is the property of the company that has employed him/her. He or she was basically employed by the company at that time and therefore all work whether voluntary or ordered is the property of the company unless otherwise agreed.

The amount of work and time that you would have to undertake to re-establish the same presence would make this well worth thinking about.

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Keimos - Always learning something new each day
www.keimos.co.uk , www.keimos.net , www.selfpacedit.co.uk

There should be no option other than working out the domain name with the legal owner....

Anyone would hope that it should be extreamly difficult to reduce the PR - otherwise your competitors are able to sabatoge you....

I'd say that it's going to have to be chauked up as a un educated decision to have someone handle something without your full understanding of the legalities and procedure.... Unless the circumstances are in your favor....

Depending on the situation - If your pepsi cola and you had your webmaster register pepsi.com you'll easily win in court....

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Long Island's Largest Online Publication
Long Island Exchange ® - by Searchen Networks Inc.

We had a similar problem with a site that had been set up by us in collaboration with a well-known Stately Home in the UK. The site did not sell much, despite having reasonable pagerank, and a couple of years later we parted company with the Stately Home and were obliged to stop using the domain name since it included their name as part of the domain name.

We wanted to continue trading, but with a new site name, so we setup a new domain ASAP and stuck 301 redirects in the old site. It did not take long (a couple of weeks) before Google picked up the fact the the site was permanently redirected, and indexed the pages under the new domain name.

More of a problem was the 100-or-so sites out there on the web that had inbound links to our old domain. It took a lot of work to contact them all and get the links changed....in fact, I know that even a year later there are still old links out there.

Andy Rigby
my main site: www.christianbits.co.uk

What an interesting topic!

I don't have anything to add unfortunately. The suggestions already made seem very good ones to me.

Good luck with getting the domain back.

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Regards,
Larke
Cattery-Index.com

Yes, it takes some time but it is surtainly a way to bring Google's pagerank down:
- register a site with the same name but for another coutry e.g. .de .gr .au
- register your site at Google, Yahoo, MSN and more
- copy the index and as much files as possible to your site.
- copy much of the pages with another name
- link to the original site, some 50 times
Within 2 or 3 months the original site will loose some pagerankings, maybe earlier

The way I read the article was that the person who lost their domain name was the person who did all the hard work of establishing PR. To me that means backlinks. Relevancy in SERPs is about content, but PR is a democratic system scored by backlinks.

That said, the owner, who claims to have done all the hard work of aquiring substantial PR, would be the contact person for all the sites providing the backlinks. So he/she should still have all the contact information, the passwords for directory accounts, etc. He/she should simply start a 'PR re-routing' campaign. Contact all the sites with an email, or sign in to each of the accounts, and inform the sites that the company is changing its name and request all links point to the new address.

Wow. Sorry about that. I was so busy ranting about this guy being responsible for his own mess I completely failed to address the post.

No. There is no way to reduce the page rank on that site, and there shouldn't be. If the company really did build the link network it should be no trouble getting it back, and I don't doubt they own the content. NP using that. But lay some kind of sour grapes on the domain name?

Nope. And so it SHOULD be. Like clasione said. Would you want your competitors to be able to sabotage your page rank?

I dont see as that would work, james123. Is this a duplicate content thing?

In a duplicate content conflict it's supposedly only the new site that get's penalized.

I'm not going to ask if you deliberately and unethically plagerised and sabotaged a competitors site (I'm just going to go ahead and assume you did), but I'm inclined to wonder if this was a one time occurence where the page rank dropped because of an algorythm change and you're pulling a Reagan on us taking credit for the sun coming up, or if this is something you do regularly.