Dumb SEO Questions

(Entry was posted by Craig Gregoire on this post in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 03/04/2021).

The domain for that landing page is not mine

I hired a co to do some help with some SEO/marketing for my business.One of the tings they did is update my info across various sites like yelp, merchant circle, etc. They also created a mini site from my website; something more like a landing page. But the domain for that landing page is not mine and all the various business listing sites (including Goggle my business) have this other domian listed for my business... is this negatively taking away form my actual business domain?business: blueridgetermite dot comlanding/mini page: pestcontrolservicenc dot com
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YOUR ANSWERS

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

  • E Dieter Martin: What happens with the listing entries and the mini-page domain if you decide to separate ties with the SEO company?

  • Craig Gregoire: I really don`t know. My main concern at the moment is that as far as the world is concerned my domain is something other than what I`ve been using for over a decade

  • Perry Bernard: If you don’t own the domain, you have been robbed.

  • Perry Bernard: Seen this before. If you part ways, your actual website still has no SEO done. That’s what you get to keep. The SEO company could sell the other page and assets to your competitor.

  • Perry Bernard: I have been involved in helping support a client who had this happen to him. He lost all the work and investment, and the SEO company actually set up a new business themselves as the competitor.

  • Michael Martinez: You need to get ownership of those business listings and update the information to point to your domain. Don`t threaten the provider or let them know what you`re doing until there is no way to keep them from finding out.

  • Bruno Souza: Michael Martinez Craig Gregoire No you don`t Craig. You just need to own that domain where the links are being built to.

  • Michael Martinez: Bruno Souza His chances of seizing the domain, even through a digital rights lawsuit, are slim.

  • Bolaplay Us: Every domain related with landing page, micro web, etc., should owned by you. And make sure on that landing page have anchor pointing to your main website.

  • Paul David: They did this to ensure you stay with them...they now own you...

  • Bill Hartzer: Make sure you own the domain name for any site about your company. Especially in this case.

    At DNProtect, we are currently dealing with several stolen domain name cases where the web designer or SEO company transferred the domain or owns the domain or on behalf of the company, their client.

    So often it doesn’t go well, and the company then has to hire us to get their domain back.

  • Bruno Souza: 1. Take ownership of that site. If you don`t, they basically own all of the SEO work, and can pull the plug on you. This completely destroys your investment.

    2. Their strategy so far, based on what you`ve said, is solid! (Just seriously, you need to OWN that domain).

  • Raajul Sharma: There is concept of something called as the NAP info

    N - NameA - AddressP - Phone

    This NAP across the internet should remain the same. This is taken into consideration when a search engine evaluates your consistency across different websites.

    In your case, your business name is different from the mini site/ landing page which is essentially violating the NAP consistency.

  • Jk Dove: It`s great they did a NAP audit and got things up to snuff. As to them owning a landing page site, that`s a serious red flag. The second you piss them off or they feel like they`re on short time, they can up and screw you nine ways from Sunday and there`s not a damn thing you`ll be able to do about it. They can basically shut you down in the rankings within seconds. That should rightly concern/scare the crap out of you.

    They may even attempt to sell it to you, something for which you did not contract/request in the first place.

    To answer your question: Yes, it CAN take away via cannibalism, though that method of spreading the net can be either a good or bad thing depending on the redirection scheme AND yes, based on who owns it.

  • David Rosam: I`d not like to have another domain and a separate site involved in my SEO. I`d focus 100% of the activities on your original site. As other people have said, if you are going down the separate landing page route, make sure you own its domain. There are some serious warning signs if your SEO has registered it in their name.

View original question in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 03/04/2021).