What's up with all these results? (Long due to examples)

[CraigAllen]

I've had two clients now call me, upset with Google results when they have looked up their own websites. In one case, my client ended up having me remove his website due to what he feels is slandering his good name and displaying his private personal information (see http://www.webproworld.com/webmaster-forum/threads/113202-Skeptive-com-has-client-seeing-red) resulting in my losing him as a client; in the other, my client wants to know what they can do about all these spurious listings in Google. I can't come up with a satisfactory answer to that question nor to what this is all about.

I don't know what to expect by posting it here, but it is at least a way for me to vent my frustration and see if others are experiencing these kinds of issues and maybe could advise me if there is something that can be done about them -- maybe something that my server is serving is inviting all these other websites to wheeze on my clients' websites?

For purposes of example, I am copying and pasting below the first two pages of results I got when, like my client, I typed in their domain name without the .com into Google. I have changed their domain name where it appears in the results to "myclientsdomain" and removed the hyperlinks as well as any other descriptive info that might show up.

The first and third results are my client's actual websites. The second result is a competitor who has named one of their pages with my client's domain name (without the .com). The 5th result is a forum in which someone has posted a link to my client's website.

None of the others have any relation to my client's website, yet seem to be "authoritative" sites that give information about the domain, its value, its "legitimacy" and so forth (except for #6, which is some totally unrelated thing when my client is in California and has nothing to do with boating).

Results from searching Google for myclientsdomain (without the .com):


1. My Client’s Site Title: myclientsdomain.com
myclientsdomain.com/
Description from my client’s website

2. The Name of My Client’s Website
www.acompetitorofmyclient.com/myclientsdomain.aspx
Description of my client’s competitor’s web page using several key words that match the name and business of my client ...

3. Another Web Site Owned by My Client
www.anotherofmyclientsdomains.com/
Be sure to visit our other sites: Site in Question: http://www.myclientsdomain.com. Another site they own: http://www.yetanotherofmyclientsdomains.com....

4. *.myclientsdomain.com
www.robtex.com/dns/*.myclientsdomain.com.html
myclientsdomain.com has one IP number (xx.xxx.xxx.xx), which is the same as myclientsdomain.com, but the reverse is...

5. myclientsdomain - ATVConnection.com ATV Enthusiast Community ...
forums.atvconnection.com › Tags
Aug 15, 2009 – Threads Tagged with myclientsdomain. Thread / Thread Starter, Last Post, Replies, Views, Forum. 25, 2500, ...

6. myclientsdomain.com - Fast Response Boat Towing
fastresponseboattowing.com/tag/myclientsdomain-com/
... Dangerous Combination, Virginia Personal Injury Law Firm Warns. Boating Safety: Boating and Drinking is a Dangerous Combination, Virginia Personal Injury ...

7. myclientsdomain.com Review
www.webutation.net/go/review/myclientsdomain.com
Feb 28, 2012 – Is myclientsdomain.com safe and reliable? Read current user-experience and reviews of My Client’s Web Page Title .

8. Myclientsdomain.com has been valued $72 | Estimation by Stimator ...
stimator.com/mycliensdomain-com
myclientsdomain.com is worth $72. This makes it the 4835657 most valuable site on Stimator.com. myclientsdomain.com scored 11 for Page Rank, ...

9. www.myclientsdomain.com
www.empiritag.com/site/www.myclientsdomain.com
Results 1 - 10 – Myclientsdomain.com: Name of My Client’s Business: myclientsdomain.com. Description of what my client offers in goods and services ...

10. Myclientsdomain.com | Similar Websites
www.similarsites.com/site/myclientsdomain.com
20 Best Websites that are similar to Myclientsdomain – description from my client’s website: myclientsdomain.com. Find sites in topics like …

11. myclientsdomain.com - Keyword Tool
www.keywordspy.com/overview/domain.aspx?q=myclientsdomain...
Name of My Client’s Company: myclientsdomain.com. Name of My Client’s Company – Name Of My Client’s Company description from my client’s website ...

12. myclientsdomain.com - Keyword Tool
www.keywordspy.com/organic/domain.aspx?q=myclientsdomain.com
Results 1 - 10 of 352 – Domain: myclientsdomain.com ... 1. Key word, 3, 49500, $0.89, 17.50, 22.07, 82, 22600000, http://myclientsdomain.com/. 2. Key word ...

13. www.myclientsdomain.com
www.websitelooker.com/www/myclientsdomain.com
Rating: 7.8/10 - 12 votes
myclientsdomain.com statistics and information. The perfect place to evaluate your site, website analyze, worth value.

14. mail.myclientsdomain.com
www.robtex.com/dns/mail.myclientsdomain.com.html
Dec 30, 2011 – mail.myclientsdomain.com has one IP number (xx.xxx.xxx.x), via cname to xxx.xxxxxx.com, but the reverse is xxx.xxxxxx.com

15. win.myclientsdomain.com
www.robtex.com/dns/win.myclientsdomain.com.html
Dec 30, 2011 – win.myclientsdomain.com has one IP number (xx.xxx.xxx.xx), which is the same as for myclientsdomain.com. Win.myclientsdomain.com also.

16. myclientsdomain.com - Link Stats, Website Analysis & SEO Report ...
www.wsadirectory.com/view/myclientsdomain.com
Website Statistics, Traffic Estimations and SEO Report for the domainmyclientsdomain.com.

17. Name Of My Client’s Business myclientsdomain.com Website Reviews and ...
www.xomreviews.com/myclientsdomain.com
Post or Read reviews and testimonials for MYCLIENTSDOMAIN.COM and other websites, submitted by users just like you.

18. myclientsdomain.com - SiteTrail
www.sitetrail.com/myclientsdomain.com
Aug 3, 2011 – Myclientsdomain.com analysis, stats and news. Name of my client’s business – Name of my client’s business description from my client’s website ...

19. myclientsdomain.com - Domain Stats
www.webstatschecker.com/stats/domain/myclientsdomain.com
Click here to view: myclientsdomain.com. Google PageRank ... Backlinks: Backlinks to myclientsdomain.com ... dc.3000, myclientsdomain.com, 27, 2011-09-18 ...

20. Myclientsdomain.com - AboutUs Wiki Page
www.aboutus.org/Myclientsdomain.com
Find detailed information about Myclientsdomain.com - like contact info, an SEO analysis and more - on AboutUs.org.

[SteveGerencser]

This is not uncommon at all.. It happens most often in competitive markets where your client doesn't want to spend the money to actually be competitive and every one else does.. Or, it is incredible non-competitive making it super easy for any website to rank for their name based on nothing more than a little on page content..

We deal with this type of 'reputation management issue' all the time. And most people simply don't want to spend the money to resolve it.

skype steve.gerencser is you want to talk in private about this with real data.

[CraigAllen]

client doesn't want to spend the money to actually be competitive and every one else does..
And most people simply don't want to spend the money to resolve it.

You've pretty much described this client in a nutshell. The other client didn't want to have his website found except by those to whom he gave his business card ... had I known that to begin with I would have done things differently with his site.

[SteveGerencser]

You've pretty much described this client in a nutshell. The other client didn't want to have his website found except by those to whom he gave his business card ... had I known that to begin with I would have done things differently with his site.

Then why even have a website? Print out a flier and hand it to them. Would have been easy enough to not let the site be indexed if you had known that at the start.

[CraigAllen]

Yes, and he's still calling me about all the "websites that appear to 'smear'" his name.


Just for clarification, I should point out that these results are not only like this in Google, but in Yahoo and Bing as well.

[claybutler]

Yes, and he's still calling me about all the "websites that appear to 'smear'" his name.

Just for clarification, I should point out that these results are not only like this in Google, but in Yahoo and Bing as well.

You are actually lucky that this client fired you. He did you a favor. Working with people who have no interest in learning anything and ask for profoundly stupid things like "I don't want anyone to find my website" and then complain that one, it's still found (well duh, it is a hosted domain) and two, other competitors are taking SERPs positions that he somehow thinks are rightfully his even though he doesn't want his website found. WTF?

Seriously, he did you a big favor by firing you.

[dgswilson]

What's the result, positive or negative, of being listed at these site review sites? Does it mean anything? To who? Who looks at site reviews?