Q and A: Why are domains I don't own displaying my site content?

Dear Kalena...

My domain is normaschutt.com and I have had a static IP address assigned to it by GoDaddy.com since Christmas for SSL cert purposes. It works great. However, when you search for 'norma schutt photography' on Google, in addition to my legitimate listings and references, you come up with a couple of URLs (www.247-bingo.com and www.webuyazre.com) that is really pointing to my website and my content.

An NSLOOKUP on www.normaschutt.com, www.247-bingo.com, and www.webuyazre.com returns the same IP address for all 3. I do not own either of these other domains. I've called GoDaddy and they say my site is the only one with that IP and that it's not their problem and haven't been able to help. I first noticed this 2-3 months ago which is long enough for the search engines to update these listings, I would think.

What is causing this and what can I do?

Norma

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Norma

Oh dear! I've heard of situations like yours, but never actually seen one in action before. What you've got there is an IP/Name Server tangle. Here's what's happening:

1) All 3 domains were registered at www.godaddy.com

2) Normaschutt.com and webuyazre.com are sitting on the same IP address. Normaschutt.com has the following nameservers:

NS3.SECURESERVER.NET
NS4.SECURESERVER.NET

Webuyazre.com has these nameservers:

NS1.SECURESERVER.NET
NS2.SECURESERVER.NET

Essentially, both domains are sitting on the same server, on a shared IP address, with your domain treated as the primary domain from which to draw content.

3) 247-bingo.com has these nameservers:

PARK9.SECURESERVER.NET
PARK10.SECURESERVER.NET

meaning it is parked to another domain name on the same server, in this case yours. According to a Whois Lookup, this domain is actually owned by GoDaddy and for sale by GoDaddy so it IS their problem and you should give them grief until they fix it.

4) Google is treating 247-bingo.com as a stand-alone site and is caching it accordingly. The content is from your site and may already be treated as dupe content because that domain has a PageRank of zero. This doesn't appear to be hurting your site, but why risk it? Get GoDaddy to fix this ASAP.

5) Google is ignoring webuyazre.com in that the cache for that domain is actually from your domain. So Google already understand that webuyazre.com is on the same IP and is not the *real* domain and is indexing normaschutt.com instead. So don't worry too much about this one.

6) I'm not sure what GoDaddy's version of a static IP is, but I can assure you that they have not provided you with a dedicated IP address. If they had done that, you wouldn't be seeing any of these problems. You need to call them and ask to speak to a supervisor or someone who can sort out this mess for you.

If you are really concerned about webuyazre.com showing your site content, do a WhoIs Lookup on GoDaddy.com and contact the domain registrant. His details are listed as I checked. He may not even be aware that his domain is showing your site! If he's concerned, he'll also contact GoDaddy and insist on them sorting out the IP issue.


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