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We own a website which, through google search results, we determined is either being linked to improperly or for spam purposes by another completely random source.

They recently registered a domain and are pointing that domain to our site (though looks to be a 303 redirect given their URL stays in tact). As a result, their domain is now showing in google search results as OUR site.

How can we prevent this from occurring?

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  • Complain to their registrar.
    – Dave Newton
    Oct 21, 2011 at 19:44
  • Would you be able to post the URL in question, unlinked? If we saw it we may be able to check exactly what is happening. In the meantime you can check exactly what headers the site is returning (303 etc) using various tools on the net.
    – DisgruntledGoat
    Oct 22, 2011 at 12:07
  • The site is cashconnectrx.com. If you do a google search for CashConnectRX, you will see the results from the site: m2designint.com
    – JM4
    Oct 25, 2011 at 16:14

4 Answers 4

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If they're not using frames, and they might be, Canonical URLs should work as a quick fix.

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  • thanks for the suggestion. Do you know if there are any good scripts or executables to build out canonical URLs on an existing site? Manually doing this for several pages seems like a heavy burden (though one that may be necessary).
    – JM4
    Oct 25, 2011 at 16:17
  • Unfortunately I do not know of existing scripts for doing this but, then again, I've never looked. Is your site static? Or dynamic? If it's static search and replace might be helpful. If it's dynamic you shouldn't have any issues adding a snippet to create the for you.
    – John Conde ♦
    Oct 25, 2011 at 20:17
  • it is static. I'll test it out but thank you for your suggestion.
    – JM4
    Oct 26, 2011 at 20:31
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With a little investigation it appears that the m2designint.com domain is outputting the same raw HTML as cashconnectrx.com (except using their domain in place of yours) so they are not using frames or anything like that. Did you check if changing a word on your page changes the word on their site, either instantly or with a delay?

It's likely that this is a phishing site, set up to trick users into entering passwords or other personal information. In which case the SEO aspect is less important. I'm not sure of the best exact recourse, but legal action (or threat of legal action) would probably be the quickest and most effective method to be honest.

Interestingly, the domain owner's details are listed in the domain's whois record so you could email or call and ask (politely, of course) for an explanation.

Otherwise, since they are replacing your domain with theirs in the HTML code, using a canonical tag or something similar won't work (it would just get replaced with their domain). You may be able to create some obfuscated Javascript to redirect the user if they are not on your domain, something like:

<script>
if (document.domain != "cas"+"hcon"+"nectrx.c"+"om" && document.domain != "www.cas"+"hcon"+"nectrx.c"+"om")
    window.location = "www.cas"+"hcon"+"nectrx.c"+"om";
</script>

EDIT: Actually it seems both domains resolve to the same IP address, and https://70.32.80.88/ also displays your site - in which case this should be easy to solve! I think you've set up your Apache Virtual Server incorrectly. You need to check your settings to only allow connections on your actual domain name, not a wildcard domain/IP.

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  • thanks for the edit. I'll check this out. They are using our pages without a question (I know because of that way content is generated). I'll test your apache suggestion.
    – JM4
    Oct 26, 2011 at 20:32
  • @JM4 do you know why the links are outputted with the requested domain instead of your domain? At the least, explicitly putting cashconnectrx.com in the links should fix the issue. Also just to note, if they are simply pointing the domain to your server's IP then they would not be able to steal any login info or anything, in fact it's probably just an honest mistake on their part.
    – DisgruntledGoat
    Oct 27, 2011 at 9:21
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Is your domain registered through a commercial registrar, if so they most likely provide some sort of offshoot of a domain locking service that can prevent this from happening. I would check first with them.

Also you can add a line to your .htacess file, so that all calls from this referer get a "fail" response preventing them from masking your url. This will not prevent future sites from doing the same thing but should work on an individual as needed basis

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  • 2
    Confused: What does locking have to do with this? (Unless you're using the term to refer to something else. Provide a reference link?) The only domain being modified is the third party's not JM4's. Locking the original domain won't do anything.
    – Su'
    Oct 21, 2011 at 19:55
  • I was going to ask the same thing.
    – JM4
    Oct 21, 2011 at 20:01
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One way you can use is to use a base definition in your headers. This will fix any relative links on your page.

I believe you can add your Google site id to your headers and Google will record your site appropriately.

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