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  1. #1

    web server and SERP problem

    Hi, I'm hoping someone here can help shed some light on a problem I'm having with a clients website.

    Website sits on its own on an xserve server and is set as the primary/default site. last week at some point, someone mistakenly pointed another domain name at the server. Google then ranked this domain using our site and effectivlely took over our search rankings.

    search results still showed our copy/tags but listed the url as the wrong website. i.e. wrongwebsite/home

    We had made no changes to our site or server.

    Does anyone have an idea of why this could happen?

    Many thanks in advance

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Indiana, USA
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    19,196
    Unless your server is improperly configured it should only respond to domains configured to be served by it... If it is improperly configured and it did respond for this other domain that isn't yours then you probably just lost your SERPs and rankings.

    The only thing I would suggest is 1) making sure the server is properly configured and 2) submitting your site/sitemap to Google to see if they can't maybe switch back to you.
    Michael Denney - MDDHosting.com - Proudly hosting more than 37,700 websites since 2007.
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  3. #3
    Hi Michael

    Thank you for getting back to me.

    As I understand it, the server was configured to direct any traffic to the clients site, so that some dormant domain names that the client has automatically put the user infront of their live website - this has been the situation for a number of years.

    The issue has only cropped up as someone has pointed an 'unknown' domain at the server.

    When you say improperly configured, does that refer to simply telling the server not to serve other domains or something deeper within the server settings?

    Interesting that google then chose to rank this 'new' domain above the established and correct one?!

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Maryville Tennessee
    Posts
    1,904
    Quote Originally Posted by MikeDVB View Post
    Unless your server is improperly configured it should only respond to domains configured to be served by it... If it is improperly configured and it did respond for this other domain that isn't yours then you probably just lost your SERPs and rankings.

    The only thing I would suggest is 1) making sure the server is properly configured and 2) submitting your site/sitemap to Google to see if they can't maybe switch back to you.
    You might want to contact Google, doubt it will do much good, and as Mike said, resumbit your sitemap. Your server SHOULD only respond to domains located locally on your server, so that could, again as Mike stated, be a misconfiguration.

  5. #5
    We have contacted google and explained whats happened. To their credit the SERP have seemingly reverted back/ammended today.

    Now need to review whats happened and ensure it can't doesnt happen again.

    Are their specific xserve configurations that would ensure this doesn't happen or moving the clients domain off as the default domain name for the server sufficent?

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Indiana, USA
    Posts
    19,196
    I don't know anything about xserve (and I've never heard of it)... I would suggest contacting your provider to discuss the issue with them.
    Michael Denney - MDDHosting.com - Proudly hosting more than 37,700 websites since 2007.
    Ultra-Fast Cloud Shared and Pay-By-Use Reseller Hosting Powered by LiteSpeed!
    cPanel • Free SSL • 100% Uptime SLA • 24/7 Support
    Class-leading support that responds in minutes, not days.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    New Jersey, USA
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    613
    Quote Originally Posted by MikeDVB View Post
    I don't know anything about xserve (and I've never heard of it)
    Apple http://www.apple.com/xserve/
    Tula Networking
    Quality Affordable Shared web hosting, Dedicated servers and Domain names since 2001
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