SEO Q&A: Domain Kidnapped by Hosting Company, Ranking for Your Name
October 23, 2008
My dad just emailed me as he is helping a friend who had a website that was ranking for a given keyword, but the friend’s sketchy web host is now holding the domain hostage. I imagine this is not the first time this has happened to someone, which is a shame. I thought it would be worthwhile to share my response, hoping it will benefit another person or two in a similar situation. I’ve left out a name or two, and also added a few sentences to my response versus what I sent via email, but its pretty much the same deal.
Question:
…Helping out a friend with a problem. Her website was suspended by an unethical webhost and they are holding her domain name for ransom. (name removed – google them, lots of issues) I set her up with .info and .org and we are going to try and work with ICAAN to get .net back.
She was well ranked in a google search on her name. Are there any [tactics] I can employ to get a search on her name to quickly offer up the .info and .org (points to .info) web pages?
Thanks for any advice you can offer.
My Response:
The domain is everything. If the web host is holding her domain for ransom than that tells me they probably technically own the domain, which means they have all the power unless she has something that can legally dispute that. ICANN is probably who you’d need to go through.
The only way to “get your rankings back” completely is to 301 redirect the old domain to the new domain. You’d need either be able to log in to the registrar or access the website via FTP (using the .htaccess file) to implement this. If they have the hosting account and domain on lockdown then you are basically helpless. Technically they control (own) the website… or at least the domain which is what Google uses as your unique ID.
Think of it as your website’s Social Security Number. You can dye your hair, buy new clothes, get a tan and change your accent to make yourself appear different – but you are still the same person with the same SSN. Once you change your SSN then you have no credit history, etc. You are basically a new person and start again from scratch. Such it is with domains.
How competitive of a search was she ranking for? If its just her name or her company’s name than its probably not very hard to rank for that search phrase even with a brand new site. I would definitely go with a .com, .net or .org version of the domain and avoid using a .info like the plague. .info is often associated with spam, and those domains fight an uphill battle in Google. This won’t help you rank for all sorts of other keywords, but the company or personal name shouldn’t be that tough. You can also try creating accounts on some other sites such as LinkedIn to get rankings for your name fairly quickly.
Example – Google search on “jon payne“. I am the guy featured on sites ranking #1, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, and 15 out of the top 20. That changes all the time just a bit, in fact most days I have 3 or 4 in the top 5. My associate “tim staines” has sites 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, and 8 from the top 10. I’m bitter about that, so I’ll argue that his name is a bit less common and there isn’t a PhD at Stanford sharing his name.
Note: there are a few “black hat” types of tactics that could be implemented here, such as 302 domain hijacking. I’m a little too “white hat” in my approach to actually recommend that, and probably couldn’t even provide details on how to successfully execute that if I wanted to since I never have (I swear!). In this case though, if the objective is ranking for a person’s name that isn’t terribly common I think some basic white hat SEO techniques on a handful of sites should be able to meet the objective here without much difficulty. If the friend’s name happens to be something like “Sarah Palin” or “Britney Spears” or something than this could prove more difficult.
Deadlines in SEO – No Real Crisis?
April 18, 2008
Certain professions – even certain segments of marketing – necessitate fast turn-around, instant response, and an on-call expectancy.
SEO doesn’t. At least it shouldn’t.
PR – yes, most definitely. If you have a crisis on your hands the media will determine just how big or small a story it becomes within 24-48 hours. By 72 hours its too late. Most any crisis management expert will tell you that you need to do three things to make the best of the situation.
- (over) fix the problem
- (over) apologize, sincerely
- do it immediately, yesterday even
Note number three. If you are in a PR role you should get used to this. The same may be true if you combine SEO with PR, in what is apparently termed SEO PR.
But what if you are into SEO for Lead Generation? This is basically what my firm does – utilizes SEO, PPC and other online marketing activities to generate leads for service firms. Day in, day out. Month in, month out. Its a long-term strategy, not an emergency-driven or crisis-mode type of game.
Let’s not make arbitrary deadlines in lead-generation SEO. Further, let’s not get worried about one day early or one day late. 10 days, fine. 1 day, silly. Organic SEO for lead generation is a long term strategy.
So the impetus of this post was this… A contractor I work with was doing some copywriting for a project we have. She completed 90% of it on time (early by my count) and a few days went by and I had not seen the other 10%. I sent her an email, and she replied basically saying “hey sorry I got sidetracked, I’ll have this to you later today”. I told her to take her time and she got it to me the next day, making a note to thank me for my flexibility:
Give these a try–let me know if there are any changes you need me to make.
Thanks again for your flexibility!
Simple note, but it got me to thinking. Why is everyone on such a deadline mode? Maybe its just my vantage point, but I think we’re all too stressed out and too focused on later today and tomorrow that we miss the big picture. Sacrifice long term success for short term gains? Silly.
My reply:
Thanks! And no problem. I try not to be one of those “the sky is falling and we’ll all die if we don’t have this page tomorrow” types of people. SEO takes so damn long to show results anyhow that one day either way seems rather trivial.
I’d rather have you not think of me as a thorn in your side so that the one time I actually do need something quickly I don’t look like I’m crying wolf!
I think its important to have your contractors like working with you. Sure you pay them money. Some people view this as a license to be demanding and push around their contractors. I think that is short-sighted. You have to remember that your contractors typically work with several other firms besides just yours. This means they have choice. Especially with SEO – its in such demand. Its better to be their favorite partner than their least, because then they are more likely to help you out and go the extra mile when you really need it.
How to get your contractors to love you
These are a few things I try to do:
- Send a small gift card to them every once in a while
- Don’t always try to negotiate down their price
- Every once in a while tell them to add 10% to their price b/c you want to make sure they are getting taken care of
- Pay their invoices within a day or two of receiving them
That last one is easy… unless you are talking about a ridiculous cash-flow issue, I think its something simple you can do. Still the same cost, but it helps make their lives easier. People like getting paid quickly. Instant gratification.
I’m not just being soft here, if your contractors think of you as their best client, than you’ll find that they quote you better prices (b/c you are less of a pain in the ass factor). They’ll do your work first b/c they know they’ll get paid more quickly. In general, a better all-around relationship and it really doesn’t cost you anything more monetarily.
