.co.cc domain name
I don’t know about you, but recently I noticed a lot of spammy-looking webpages in Google’s search results coming from .co.cc. Well, it seems like Google took the same view and dumped all .co.cc pages from their index.
What I didn’t realise was that .co.cc was NOT a domain extension like .com, .org and .co.uk. In fact, .co.cc is just a regular domain, like neilshearing.com (the actual extension is .cc). When people signed up for a .co.cc “domain”, they actually got a sub-domain, such as pages.co.cc or pages.neilshearing.com which they redirect to places like blogger.com. Why’s that significant? Well, the fact that .co.cc is one domain name allowed Google to clean out 11 MILLION .co.cc sub-domains by simply banning the main domain from its index.
It’s always risky to build a business relying on an asset someone else owns, especially when that asset is provided to you at no cost. Anyone who relied on free Google traffic to a .co.cc sub-domain was relying on at least TWO free services… Google and whoever owned the .co.cc domain. I started selling my first ebook back in 1997 from free webspace given to me by my Internet Service Provider, but I also knew it was risky and bought my own domain name later that year. So, fourteen years later, the same rule applies… don’t build a business around other people’s assets, especially if you don’t pay for them.
In other words, don’t do this…
SEO 4 U... DOH!
Good work Neil. I think you are the very first person I heard this news from. Very interesting!
Nice catch, you broke the news to me Neil, Tweeted, Facebooked, G+’d and blogged.
Funny that I was just ranting about a .to URL link shortener built for Google + profiles.
Cheers Chris.
Yeah, well they delisted two of my sites that are a far cry from spam or black hat. In fact, I own both of my .com domains, no free host, they’re not sub-domains, etc. So I guess Google’s got a couple of my competitors in their pockets and decided to just add me in with their swipe.
I’m NOT a black hat marketer and I’m ticked as h-e-double-hockey-sticks at Google right now. This is twice they’ve delisted my sites for whatever reason they got up their butts this time so I’m trying to find other ways of marketing my LEGITIMATE sites in ways that don’t involve Google at all.
I’ve lost a TON of business in the last couple of weeks because of them and their “Oh I think we’ll delist this site this week just because…we feel like it…” grrrr
Sorry to hear that, Karen. I’ve never had a site delisted. I’ve got penalties galore… all of which I’ve resolved. I always thought a delisting was for some ultra-evil tactics like cloaking. Do your banned sites not show for a site:domain.com search?
Karen, I feel your pain.
I’ve only had one site delisted (no it doesn’t show up at all with a site:domain.com search on Google, but I still get traffic from the other engines) and it was being built with non-scraped content, stuff from my own experience. But that was before this fiasco.
I understand that there really are less than useful sites around, but I absolutely abhor the fact that Google, or any one company, has total control over deciding what Internet searchers are actually allowed to see. Consequently, honest folks’ businesses and income are trashed overnight, literally at the whim of a couple of youngsters.
Interesting… any idea why your site got delisted?
No, I don’t. It dealt with back pain and I’d found a product which stressed the technique of targeted exercise, which is similar to what I had used a couple of years ago that actually helped me. Maybe the ‘back pain’ field was too spammy in Google’s eyes. I no longer target any mainstream ills or products as they’re too tough to get off the ground, it seems. The sites at the top are loaded with garbage backlinks, which I believe Google has encouraged, but that’s a different topic entirely.
Depending on the age of the site, it’s my belief that bad backlinks cannot hurt a site. See http://www.neilshearing.com/2011/05/18/google-breaks-its-own-golden-rule/. However, bad backlinks can certainly hurt new sites, especially if over-optimised links are the first ones a site gets.
When you say a field was perhaps to “spammy”, I think you’re right… sites with commercial intent seem to get less leeway than others… which is why affiliates find it so hard to build sites Google likes… not only are they commercial in intent, but the worst affiliate sites only exist to flip visitors to the merchant… so Google prefers to just send traffic to the merchant.
Still, none of that explains why Google would ban your site.
I always get a kick out of people who do silly things online and then wonder why Google or YouTube or Facebook or Twitter or EzineArticles are so mean.
The people who get angry when bloggers don’t publish their obvious spam comments…
Do it the right way people. The cream will eventually rise to the top. Unfortunately, the spammers will find a new way to spray their junk all over the place 8=(
Hi Neil, Thank you for your words of wisdom. You are of course so right. Free domains suck and should never be used for business. Thank you again for letting all new entrepreneurs know about this risk.
Cathy
Hi Cathy,
Thanks for leaving your thoughts. Wow, it’s been a while since we exchanged emails… 2008 I believe. I hope you’re doing well.
Yep. you don’t spit into the wind, you don’t mess around with a junk yard dog, and you do not build your business inside of someone else property boundaries, whether brick and mortar or on line. To do so, is asking for problems.
Thanks for the warning.
I suppose the same applies to using sub domains of your own main domain. Recently, I created a subdomain and, out of ignorance, forwarded it to an affiliate product. After setting up an Adwords campaign, Google informed me it was against their rules and promptly took the main domain from their page 1 search results …in fact it was nowhere to be found!
After I had removed the forwarding and the ads, the main domain was restored as quickly as it had disappeared.
On that day, I learned first hand about the Google slap!
Interesting. I always thought sub-domains were seen as separate from the main domain. Some spammers still recommend using sub-domains to test unethical tricks. Did you link to the sub-domain from the main domain?
Neil,
I not once created and removed sub-domains of my own main domain. Some of them are live now. I promote them as separate sites with submitting to search engines, creating site maps, cross linking, etc. But I don’t know if Google take those cross links into account for ranking my sites.
Hi
well given the use of the domain extension its seems a reasonable move on th epart of google. Painfull if you were an inocent bstander and google didnot eamail you to explain!
Still they are doing a good job of cleaning things up
regards
Oh thats interesting. I didn’t realise it was one single root domain. I know theres lots of spam on them like play-online-casino.co.cc etc. Maybe its a good thing if it gets rid of spam.
Hi Martin, I saw one sub-domain specifically set up to look like a Gmail account login page… nasty. I’m sure that hastened the downfall of .co.cc.
Hi there
I was wondering about that domain because I cam accross whilst I was searching for something the other day and there were litterally hundreds of them for one search I did. Most of them were rubish pages but there were pretty well indexed non the less. Glad to see the Spammers get their rightful rewards. They (the spammers) are most annoying when you are trying your best to get well indexed legitamately and these guys come along and ruin months of work for the “real” internet marketers
It makes you wonder if Google actually DOES place a value on things that have a cost attached… like a Yahoo listing, a 10-year domain registration etc. Certainly, not many spammers list websites at $299/yr in Yahoo or pay for domain registration for a decade…
Hi Niel,
This post and your previous post “How to get 12 links from Google” are very valuable alerts. I have been telling my readers about the pitfalls of placing all your eggs in one basket and outlining the disadvantages of using free applications such as hosting in your online business.
Without this sounding like an outrageous plug on your blog, I would like to invite you and your readers to get access to my “Protected Index” and download free in-depth information on the best website promotion techniques. To get to the index go to my site link above and go to the “What’s New” tab.
Cheers,
Kitty.
Right on Neil! Too many people want to take shortcuts these days. Pity they don’t ban pages that take forever to load as well! After all, if you want to wait that long, you would most probably look the business up in the yellow pages (if they had a real bricks and mortar business that is). Sorry my pet peeve!
You know I had not ever really paid attention to those kind of domains, regardless I am glad that I never did try and use something like that.
Honestly people should really try and continue to focus on using either .com, .net, or .org as their domains.
Tim
Yes, this is serious. I know lots of those subdomains are going to be spammy. But look at some of the stuff on Blogger. Yep, same situation but it won’t likely be solved the same way. Where’s the competition for Google?
Hi Neil,
This is very scary indeed!
I advise my friends not to rely of free things, they do not last long.
For those who want to secure their online business, there is a service that is offering competitive domain name and free web hosting for life.
The only condition is that you have to sign up for an affiliate and it is free.
Details are found on my website, click on plug-in profitsite and follow the instruction how to register for a domain and have your own website hosted for free…. and for life saving you hundreds of dollars. Then you will avoid being slapped by Google.
I’m not sure anyone but Google can guarantee that “you will avoid being slapped by Google.”
Interesting Neil. But I wonder then why Google doesn’t take the same action with .uk.com domains and websites? .uk.com is simply a .com domain and all .uk.com domains are sub-domains of .uk.com – it has been going at least 15 years and I note that there are still many .uk.com domains in Google’s index.
Hi Lee. I’ve often seen British businesses with a .uk.com sub-domain and wondered if they actually knew it wasn’t an official domain extension. If .uk.com ever got banned, all the sub-domain holders would lose their rankings too. I guess .uk.com doesn’t spam like .co.cc was judged to have done.
Neil.
Hi Neil,
It is really a great blogpost and I hope that google caarys on the same attitude. Why should somebody rank higher by using some illegal methods. The era is of seo services so buy some affordable seo services and get yourself ranked.
Thanks
Sharique
Hi Neil
Interesting – but I’d never even heard or used .co.cc !
I don’t use sub-domains either.
It’s simple really…. buy a proper .com site, add good, unique content that Google likes.
Use free sites to help promote your main site.
Don’t use underhand black-hat methods that will get your site banned!
How many more times? -keep it clean then you won’t have any problems.
Google cleaning up the [rubbish] from the web – good, more room for legitimate sites.
Hi Neil, I am glad to hear this. Personally I work my but off trying to get ranked by Google and I am not sure if I am getting any where, so I am glad to hear the cheaters are not prospering.
Ray
Hi Ray, yes it does seem that Google are getting tougher on spam. I guess it’s like weeding the garden… the weeds always find a way to come back! It’s interesting that the spam team fought spam, but they needed Panda to come along to fight low content, which was not deemed “spam”. Who knows, eventually they may just rank good content on page one of the Google SERPs, that’d be useful! One step would be a tag for an author to identify their original work, so that when subsequent duplicates show up, they’re ignored.
Thank you Neil for the heads-up and for posting this valuable information. I’m glad that I came across your blog and knew about it!
Neil great information and funny really because I have just read Googles mission statement as part of my business coaching program, they are totally focused to helping their customers get the best results that they can, in fact as they put it, their goal is to get their customers off their website as quickly as possible to the page they desire.
Google could not care less about any of us marketers, we are not their target market and so if we find ourselves in a sub-domain index such as .co.cc and the majority are providing garbage to the Google index then we are in trouble.
igor