Occasionally, I run the great backlink tool Majestic SEO across websites of major companies purely to see if they are likely to fall victim to one of Google’s Penguin updates. Being a quiet Friday night, I thought I would check out the Bank of New Zealand (BNZ), as it is a subsidiary of a former client, not forgetting that it was my first bank when I lived in Godzone.
So I let it rip. One of the first reports I run is the Referring Domains Report, which I sort by Trust Flow in ascending order. This lists the lowest value links first and it’s common to see a few with a value of zero.
Sure enough, there were a few, so I turned the page and then kept turning until I reached the last page of the zeroes – over 700 low value links! Not that values of 1 through 10 were much better – and there are a few of those – but that’s getting away from the story.
Table of Contents
Cue Virgin
I noted that I was seeing a lot of domains containing “virgin” in the name. Oh, someone having a laugh. Hang on, some of them were recognisable, so what’s going on. I exported the Majestic SEO data and filtered out all the Virgin names. here they are:
- virgin.biz
- virgin.co.uk
- virgin.com.au
- virgin.com.pe
- virgin.hk
- virgin.org
- virgin1.biz
- virginafrica.biz
- virginage.com
- virginair.ca
- virginair.org
- virginaircraft.com
- virginalcohol.com
- virgin-america.us
- virginapparel.com
- virginaquatic.com
- virginasiapacific.net
- virginatlantic.ca
- virginatlantic.hk
- virginatlantic.org
- virginaustralia.biz
- virgin-australia.com
- virginaustraliaairlines.com
- virginbalance.net
- virginbalance.org
- virginbanking.co.nz
- virginbanking.com
- virginbikes.net
- virginbiz.co.uk
- virgin-blue.info
- virginblue.net
- virginblueairline.com
- virginblueairlines.com
- virgin-books.net
- virginbrides.com
- virgincanada.com
- virgincar.com
- virgin-car.com
- virgincareers.com
- virgin-cars.org
- virgincellphone.com
- virgin-charity.net
- virginchicago.com
- virgincinema.com
- virgin-cinema.com
- virgincinemas.com
- virgincityguides.com
- virginclothing.co.uk
- virgin-clothing.co.uk
- virginclothing.com
- virginclothing.info
- virgin-club.com
- virginclubs.com
- virgincola.biz
- virgincola.ch
- virgincom.com
- virgincommunicate.com
- virgincomputers.com
- virgincrew.com
- virgincrosscountry.co.uk
- virgincruisesholidays.com
- virgin-denim.com
- virgindigitalsystems.com
- virgin-direct.com
- virgindrinks.com.au
- virgindrinks.com.vn
- virgindrinks.nl
- virgin-drinks.org.uk
- virgin-drive.com
- virgindvds.com
- virginenergy.com
- virgin-erotica.co.uk
- virgin-erotica.com
- virginexclusive.com
- virginexploration.com
- virginexpress.info
- virginexpress.se
- virginextra.biz
- virgin-extra.net
- virginfm.com
- virgin-footwear.com
- virginforever.com
- virginfranchise.com
- virginfree.com
- virgin-galactic.com
- virgingalacticairlines.com
- virgingalaticairway.com
- virgingalaxy.com
- virgingas.com
- virgingermany.com
- virgingroup.co.uk
- virginguide.com
- virginh2o.co.za
- virginhome.co.uk
- virginhome.com
- virginhomephone.com
- virginhospitality.com
- virginhost.net
- virgin-incentive.net
- virginincentives.com
- virginincentives.net
- virgin-incentives.net
- virgininteractive.biz
- virginipo.com
- virginit.com
- virginit.net
- virgin-land.com
- virginleisure.com
- virginlifebank.co.uk
- virgin-limo.com
- virginlottery.org
- virginlotto.org
- virginmagazine.com
- virginmarketing.co.uk
- virginmarketing.com
- virgin-mega.tv
- virginmegastore.hk
- virginmegastore.tv
- virginmegastore.us
- virginmobile.cc
- virginmobile.co.il
- virgin-mobile.com
- virgin-mobile.com.vn
- virginmobile.hk
- virginmobile.mx
- virginmobilephilippines.com
- virgin-mobile-phones.com
- virginmobileringtones.org
- virginmoney.org
- virgin-money.org
- virgin-mortgages.com
- virginnews.com
- virginnightwear.com
- virginnz.com
- virginoil.com
- virginondemand.com
- virginone.info
- virginone.tv
- virginpensions.com
- virginphones.com
- virginpoints.com
- virgin-power.com
- virginpress.com
- virginpublishing.com
- virginradio.biz
- virgin-radio.cn
- virginradio.com.cn
- virginradio.fm
- virginrailways.co.uk
- virginrailways.com
- virginrecords.co.za
- virginrecruitment.com
- virgin-red.com
- virginrentals.com
- virginsalon.com
- virginschool.com
- virginshoe.com
- virginshopping.com
- virginshops.com
- virginskinware.com
- virginsocks.com
- virginsoftware.com
- virginsol.net
- virginsport.co.za
- virginstakeholders.com
- virginsteele.com
- virgin-student.com
- virginstudnet.com
- virgintalk.net
- virgintelecommunications.com
- virgintelephone.com
- virgin-territory.com
- virgin-ticket-sales.com
- virgintoy.com
- virgintrain.com
- virgin-trains.info
- virgintravel.co.uk
- virgintravel.com
- virgintravellers.net
- virgin-travellers.org
- virgin-travelstore.com
- virginuk.net
- virginunltd.co.uk
- virgin-unltd.com
- virgin-vodka.co.za
- virginvoice.com
- virginwatersports.com
- virginwear.com
- virgin-wine.com
- virginwineonline.com
- virginwines.net
- virgin-wines.net
- virginwines.org
- virgin-wines.org
- virginwinesonline.net
- virginwines-online.net
- virginwinesonline.org
- virginwines-online.org
- virgin-wireless.com
- virginwireless.net
- virginworld.com
- virginxtra.biz
I checked a few of them and was shocked to find them all a copy of the others. Checked the calendar – no, it isn’t 2005 when it was OK to put a copy of your website on every domain you owned. I did a search on one of them for the link to BNZ. Found it. A legit story about the Virgin Business Challenge. OK, not all these domains have the same content, but many do, but they all seem to have the same blog, hence the same links to bnz.co.nz.
Implications
Is there any story here? Well, copying an entire site fully or substantially is not a good idea if you care about SEO. Even if you don’t, then at least think of users who might land on one of these copies and be confused. Virgin is such a super brand that I don’t think its SEO will be affected by Google’s algorithms one way or the other. After all, nobody is going to look for most of these domains, which might include speculative purchases. I’d have 301’d all such redundant domains to a single primary website, such as virgin.co.uk.
What about BNZ getting 202 links from this group of sites? BNZ isn’t a big brand outside NZ, but it is sufficiently strong to not be affected by multiple links from Virgin. Please comment if you think there is an SEO concern here.
Could comment on SEO implications, but got caught up wondering about Virgin Stud Net…..what is Branson planning?!