Question

SEO client 301 redirected 39, 000 unique domains to their site and didn’t tell me ahead of time. Yes, 39, 000 domain names. I discovered it, as the site started ranking for some odd keywords. Each domain redirects to a unique landing page on the site. The landing page then links to the home page of the site. Over the long run (it’s only been a few days), what do you think will happen?  

Answer 1

I think the smart thing to do would have been to redirect just as much necessary for those pages to jump up in ranking. that way, the other good domains could have further built up authority. and if needed, some amount of relevant interlinking could have been done. But 39K domains and that many good ones among them is amazing! They must be a big client/team

Answer 2

Meanwhile I'm worried that two 301 redirects to my website is too many. Damn!  

Answer 3

I think you'll become a Fiverr Pro seller simply by selling backlinks

Answer 4

Definitely Penalty if the referring domains/links are not relevant and not pointed to relevant content.  

Answer 5

Did you notice any latency from the server from all the added 301 entries?  

Comments

@music no it’s still fast. Redirects done at the registrar and dns level not on the server that hosts the main site.  

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@gomes I thought is more beneficial to do 301 redirect from . htaccess from host server?  

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@vinna Google doesn't care how you technically do the 301 redirect, as long as it's shown in the server header.  

Answer 6

How many hosts and IPs reffered to your domain?  

Comments

3800 unique IPs and 3300 subnets.  

Answer 7

At a guess, the site will be absolutely and totally trashed out of the serps.  

Comments

So far it has not

Answer 8

This can't be good. Google would send irrelevant traffic to your website which will have high bounce rate back to serps. This means your overall orginal rankings will go down.  

Comments

In this case we're not really worried too much about irrelevant traffic.  

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The cause of worry is that it would drive-up bounce rate back to serps across your domain which sits badly with Google. You can google pogosticking to read more about same.  

Answer 9

I would brace yourself and have a disavow file ready

Comments

I'm working on a disavow file, but I may not need it.  

Answer 10

Wait whaatttt.  

Comments

@interdict rip client  

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@interdict even my reaction was same! XD

Answer 11

39k redirects sounds insane. Looking forward too seeing the results. I would feel uneasy about doing more than 2 or3 redirects! Has anyone tested this at scale? How many redirects are considered safe etc ?  

Comments

@lists in the past I have seen where 100 domains redirected is safe. Anything over that and it can be an issue.  

Answer 12

SEO - Suicide Engine Optimization

Answer 13

Maybe all these 39k domains Will loose all the authority they may have gained in the past?  

Comments

@bawdy73900 why would they lose authority?  

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@gomes maybe because you're telling Google that they dont exist anynore. Im not sure about It. but I think It could be possible

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@bawdy73900 as long as the links still exist to those domains the authority is still there. Google does decide to pass it to the other site or not. Since they are redirected to the landing page and not the home page then most likely the links would count. Redirects to a home page can be a soft 404 and not help.  

Answer 14

Penalty is on its way.  

Comments

@depoliti hopefully not

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@gomes I hope so, mate. Alas, I have some experience with thousands upon thousands of domains in a product. And at a certain point in time it caught up to the client. Yes it took like a couple of years, but it did. They were decimated :(

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@depoliti sometimes and sometimes they get back  

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Talking about a US shipping company, Rune. 3000 domains got blacklisted. They didn't come back ;)

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@depoliti yet! Times is so long

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@depoliti holy fuck I found someone that spells our name correctly.  

Answer 15

That’s asking for trouble, imho

Answer 16

The domains are all pointed to 1 landing page, or each domain is pointed to different landing pages ?  

Comments

Each domain redirects to a unique landing page on the site. The landing page then links to the home page of the site.  

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I see, they all point to 1 url.  

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@reisfield each domain has its own landing psge

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So they generated 39, 000 extra pages on their site, each unique. Wow.  

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@reisfield yes

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@gomes How did they generate all those pages of unique content in (presumably) a short space of time. They must have pages created dynamically / spun to hell?!?!  

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@nila17365 It is done with code--easy to do. The landing pages are mainly a unique title tag, meta description tag, a few sentences on the page and a contact form. So generally they're thin content pages. They are not spun articles or anything like that.  

Answer 17

Some people have too much money. millions of $$$ of domains?  
https://media.giphy.com/media/jQiIy...y.gif

Comments

Yes, about $20-50million in value of those domains.  

Answer 18

Don't worry.  

Answer 19

I bet it ranks well for keyword “Christian Louboutin shoes”

Answer 20

@gomes are they using the change of address tool as well in GSC?  

Comments

@prosit58029 no

Answer 21

Dan. com didn't have problem with 1M 301s so should be fine.  

Answer 22

That's a lot of work doing 39000 301 redirects

Answer 23

Here's me this week feeling guilty for not building out 10pbns and just doing 301s. I'll sleep guilt free tonight

Answer 24

@gomes Do you mind sharing which industry or type of site? Very curious :)

Answer 25

I so badly want to see how this unfolds! Following! Please update us

Comments

@fit3494 I love this

Answer 26

Penalty is in the post to you. please enter code. Hope it works out

Answer 27

I believe traffic will climb exponentially and unless there is a manual review, the traffic will stick

Answer 28

Any idea how much the 39, 000 domains cost? Like at $10 each that's $390k

Comments

That sounds about right. but you can get domains at wholesale prices, though, which I recall is about $8. 16 each for . COM. Not all are dot com, though. So easily $500, 000 a year in renewal fees.  

Answer 29

Did he rank for " HD wallpapers " yet? Lol, this is insane. Google: Ranking requires high-quality content with links from high authority websites This guy: redirects 39k domains Google: Listen here, you little shit.  

Answer 30

The primary search term being “SEO is dead”

Comments

Yeah, links don't really mean much anymore, right?!?  

Answer 31

Or you could 301 those 39, 000 to one Web 2. 0 with an exact match link to your money site  DA 100, PA 100 link

Comments

Well the problem is that the domain are all different topics, probably over 100 different topics. So it's best at this point to just create a unique landing page for each domain name. Otherwise we would have 300, 000+ links from 39, 000 domain names overnight pointing to one page.  

Answer 32

SEO clients always do [insert weird/ stupid thing here] without telling the SEO. That sounds risky as hell. especially if the odd search terms aren't related. And I wonder what the time period over which the redirects were set up was, and the link velocity before and after that. that's what first comes to mind, anyway.  

Comments

The site had a few hundred links. Then 300, 000+ links from 39, 000 domain were pointed to the site at one time. All at once.  

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I wouldn't know what to say, not knowing all the detail, but I'd be nervous to do something like that. Hopefully it'll all work positively though :)

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@vane988 I am not too nervous, the reason for doing it is legit and white hat. Not trying to game Google rankings.  

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I guess those details make it worth not worrying about. anyway you know this game better than most of us. if it doesn't work then another 39, 000 redirects to competitors?  I'm kidding. And am sure it will work.  

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So whoever this customer is, they are making enough Revenue off of a website with a few hundred links pointing to it, to justify spending maybe a half a million dollars on redirected domains?  

Answer 33

Tell customer he need 40, 000 domain 301 to be sure SEO will work

Comments

I would just be happy with 10 Majestic TF 80 links.  

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@gomes all will appreciate if at some point u can share domain name :) or atleast AHREF Traffic and RDs Screenshot

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@lissettelissi826 I already shared Majestic data in the comments.  

Answer 34

Tell them you're clearly not charging them enough $$$!  

Answer 35

If the domains had any authority then the LP would get a lift and in turn pass it along to homepage - definitely should have a lift in rankings

Answer 36

Is the site a domain marketplace?  

Comments

No, it's not.  

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@gomes interesting

Answer 37

And I was worried with my 5-6 domain 301's.  

Answer 38

@hairdresser  

Comments

I cant wait to know what will happens!  

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@hairdresser a boost. Search for web design in Romania and see the link profile for baboon. ro

Answer 39

Wow. That's some effort right there.  

Answer 40

Bill, since the content is auto generated. Why didn’t you replicate the home page content of those domains in the 39k new auto generated pages than having thin content like contact form and 2 or 3 lines?  

Answer 41

What about the sub pages of those 39k domains? Are you redirecting them too?  

Comments

@highams yes all pages redirected to the landing page.  

Answer 42

Will be kicked out from the SERP sooner or later.  

Comments

@prepared hopefully not.  

Answer 43

That’s a big commitment in annual domain fee renewals alone - wow

Answer 44

That’s insane. Really went all in with that approach I guess. Probably will cause some serious issues very quickly.