12 replies to this topic

[ScottCO]

Hi:

I just know just enough about SEO to be terribly dangerous ... so hold with me on this question...

I have a relatively new site I'm building content, and when looking at site logs (referrer data) I noticed that about 25% of my traffic was coming from google mexico (google.com.mx -- or whatever).

My content is based on US (English) content -- so I thought this was odd.

I contacted my host provider about this (after doing some research and finding on google cache that the referring searches were coming from folks who were looking up telephone numbers for residents in Mexico).

The host provider told me that the telephone look-up site that used to have my numeric URL has some old scripts on their site (apparently they are on a new numeric URL at this same host provider now) -- the old scripts some how are directing site traffic to me.

I'm not sure if this makes sense -- the host provider said they were going to contact the other site to have them change these scripts -- we'll see (it's really screwing up my ability to track traffic!)

Anyway -- my question is -- somewhat of analogy of getting a new phone number at your house, where the former folks who had it didn't pay their bills and you now are getting all their billing collection phone calls.

Question: if this site that used to ahve my numeric URL (ex., ###.##.####) -- and if they had any bad SEO practices or were banned from any search engines, could that affect me? I ask because google appears to have my site in the "sandbox" now (ugh) - ( my site was hosted via another provider earler for months and wasn't in the sandbox until I moved to this new host about 2 months ago) -- and was wondering if maybe some bad stuff from the site that used to have this number is making google not spider/index me now?. MSN and Yahoo are indexing me, though.

I've tried to be as brief as I can here, and hope this makes sense.

Any tips/advice regarding my concern are appreciated.

Thanks,
Scott

[Jill]

Something definitely sounds fishy with that host. It's unlikely that it's causing a problem, but I wouldn't rule it out.

[redsonia!]

ScottCo:

You can look up an archived copy of the domain from when it was owned by the previous owner. Go to www.archive.org and type in the domain name. There should be archived copies of the site from when the previous owner had the domain. You can then look and see if anything is obviously wrong with it.

Hope this helps.

[Jill]

Redsonia, I don't think we're talking about a previous site, just a webhost and previous IP address.

[Randy]

Having the IP number of the other site shouldn't cause you any problems, but like Jill I think something smells a little fishy with your hosting. I'm having trouble believing that the other site would use the IP number in links. It just makes no sense. Which makes me wonder if there are some other issues.

I think I would first do a bit of research into the DNS setup of your site. The best place to get a quick overview is DNS Report. Another decent one, though harder for the average person to use, is DNS Stuff.

[ACpeter]

The alternative....

Move the site. It's just that simple.

Consider this.... if YOU had stuff on your site that the host wanted down, how long do you think it would take them to do that? A week? A Day? A minute?

Chalk it up to experience and cut your losses. Don't walk... RUN to a new host!

[ScottCO]

Having the IP number of the other site shouldn't cause you any problems, but like Jill I think something smells a little fishy with your hosting.  I'm having trouble believing that the other site would use the IP number in links.  It just makes no sense.  Which makes me wonder if there are some other issues.

I think I would first do a bit of research into the DNS setup of your site.  The best place to get a quick overview is DNS Report.  Another decent one, though harder for the average person to use, is DNS Stuff.

Thanks for the pointers. I did check the DNS report -- but it's pretty all greek to me as I'm low tech here -- there is one fail on the report that says it's an open DNS server.

I guess I'm going to need to give my host a call...

[Randy]

The Open DNS error does leave the server open to being manipulated, but the chances of this being a factor in your trouble are pretty remote. It could certainly cause issues with server load though.

FWIW, don't feel bad. That gobbly gook is greek to most hosts too!

If you would like a fresh pair of eyes to take a look, feel free to PM the domain info over to me. And remind me what I'm supposed to be looking for.

[ScottCO]

I'm getting no where with the host to fix this, so I may have to change.

Evidently the site that used to have my IP still has some scripts on their new IP running towards mine. It's really screwing up my traffic stats

If I do change hosts (and therefore have a different IP) -- does that change to a different IP have any negative effects on search rankings (ie., would google see it now as a brand new site, etc.?)

[Jill]

If I do change hosts (and therefore have a different IP) -- does that change to a different IP have any negative effects on search rankings (ie., would google see it now as a brand new site, etc.?)

Nope.

[ScottCO]

OK, my continuing saga with a former site that had my IP address (which I'm getting traffic from google searches -- and google seems to be indexing pages on the other site at my IP) -- yes, strange.

Yes I know I can change hosts and/or IPs at the same host, but I"m trying to give them a chance to correct this (and have escalated it to the final level before I do.

Below is a snippet of the response I got from the host support (who is trying to make the other site update their stuff)

I'm low-tech on this stuff.

My question: can (see below) this kind of thing be making Google not index my pages? The reason I ask is my site is about marketing in English -- and this other site is about real estate (and in Spanish) -- totally irrelevant sites.

(PS -- I signed up with this host, because the content mgmt. system I use <a good one> suggested it, and most of it's sites are hosted here) -- I can change hosts, but am trying to hang with this issue, because I'm low-tech, and I think moving to a host that the CMS doesn't work with as much might make any tech issues in the future I have be harder for me.. But is it worth it?

Any advice and pointers on how to deal with this. Not expecting folks here to give me super-duper tech advice, but any pointers are helpful to me. I try to work kindly with vendors, and give them time -- but wonder if this is really hurting me, or whether I can hang a few days and see what happens.

Scott
(see below for "support" text I got from the host -- I wiped out the specific IP addresses, of course )

note: "other site" = Spanish language real estate site.

"C:\>host <my IP>

<other sites's IP>.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer crawl-<my IP>.googlebot.com

I am guessing that <other site> has signed up for Google services (I see many referrals about their Media services and Images), and that either they have not removed the old IP from their cache, or <other site> needs to update his profile/information with them. I will contact <other site> and ask him to work with Google to get them pointing to his new IP, and this should resolve Scott’s problems."

[Randy]

It sounds remarkably like a DNS issue to me ScottCO. Like something in the server setup, nameservers or both is still pointing at their old IP number. Sad to say that these sorts of problems are exceedingly easy to run into. One typo or one mistake in not updating something can cause issues like you're seening.

You can check with DNSReport.com and/or DNSstuff.com in an attempt to spot any potential DNS issues. Of course it may all be greek to you if you don't work with DNS every day.

Feel free to PM over the details if you want a fresh pair of eyes to take a look at it all. 9 times out of 10 it's something that is easily corrected.

[ScottCO]

ok, one short update -- SUCCESS.

My host moved me to a new IP, and after propagation, etc.

Here's what happened (keep in mind, my site had been put in some sort of google "sandbox" when I moved to this new host).

1. within 24 hours, my site was getting a google PR of 3, rather than 0 (I know, I know PR ranking doesn't *really* mean much -- but I got a sigh of relief, nonetheless
2. within 24 hours, most of my pages were showing up in google's index after not being indexed when I moved to the new host. Prior to the new IP address, google was spidering daily (and I was adding new content nearly daily) -- but only the home page was being indexed prior to the new IP address.

Perhaps coincidence?

I don't know. But I think all the unrelated content that was being indexed from the other site to my IP had something to do with this. Google seemed to not like it.

Thanks for all the help, encouragement on this forum.

I appreciate it.