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I have noticed that someone pointed his domain to my dedicated IP address and now my website can be viewed using his domain name @ example.com . This can hurt my SE Traffic and SEO in many ways. How can I block this domain?

S.L. Barth
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sajjad hosseini
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2 Answers2

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To prevent a negative impact on your SEO you can redirect any incoming content that isn't for your own domain to google to prevent the impression of duplicate content. How this can be done relies on your webserver.

// You can limit the answers of your webserver to a specific domain. It is explained here. You can modify the catchall entry with a redirection like explained here.

To solve this at long sight you should send an abuse Report to the responsibel Registration authority which registered the fake domain(s).

You can also check legal measures if the registrator was that dumb to use his real name.

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davidb
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  • I don't have any control on his domain ! he is using my dedicated IP address to show my content but the domain is parked somewhere else and Cpanel doesn't let me park it again . BTW I'm using Apache along side with Litespeed webserver . – sajjad hosseini Oct 06 '15 at 10:58
  • thanks I think if I somehow manage to block access to my sites using the ip address , then I can block the domains which are not hosted at my cpanel . – sajjad hosseini Oct 06 '15 at 11:18
  • Do you have access to the server via SSH or at least SFTP or FTP? – davidb Oct 06 '15 at 11:32
  • Yes I do have SSH access . The server is running CentOS 6.7 and cPanel with Apache as the main webserver . – sajjad hosseini Oct 06 '15 at 11:34
  • I edited the post and added links to two possible solutions that work with apache – davidb Oct 06 '15 at 11:38
  • At which top level domain is the fake domain? Have you done a whois lookup for that domain? – davidb Oct 06 '15 at 11:39
  • Thanks for the answers David . I will take a look at the links you posted . There isn't anything I can do about the domain . Everything is fake but I reported the scam to the registrar . Let's hope they do something about it too . – sajjad hosseini Oct 06 '15 at 11:48
  • Your welcome! Dont hesitate to ask further questions. – davidb Oct 06 '15 at 11:53
  • Ok now I have checked apache config file . (httpd.conf) . The catch all virtual host solution seems to be the answer . But I don't know what I should add to the httpd.conf . Is there a way to tell apache to deny every domain that is not listed in the config file ? – sajjad hosseini Oct 06 '15 at 12:46
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    The catchall host is the "default" for every domain that is not explicitly defined. You can add a redirection to the catchall host and just deliver your website on your correct domain. For normal you specify the site configurations in `/etc/apache2/sites-available/default` or in another file in the `sites-available` directory – davidb Oct 06 '15 at 12:50
  • Well David thank you so much . I did as you said and now every domain name which is not listed at the configuration file , will be redirected to the main address . Case solved ! – sajjad hosseini Oct 06 '15 at 13:05
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  1. Report this to the registrar
  2. Report this to the DNS service they are using
  3. Redirect all incoming requests from that domain name to a page or another website.

It sounds like you've done 1. Action 2 may result in a better response - technically the registrar can do little. You'll want to read the terms of service for both 1 and 2, and find out if there's anything specific that they are doing to violate the ToS. Point this out, but be brief and to the point, "Your client, the owner of domain example.com, is using DNS to direct traffic to my web server in violation of your terms of service, section 3.2 'You must not use this service to attack any website or internet service or user directly or indirectly'. Please consider disabling their account until they are in compliance with your Terms of Service."

For action 3 the specific implementation depends on your server. When a web client requests your site's homepage, it reports the domain name it intended to contact to your server.

In general, there are two methods to handle this:

  • Your server may be able to be configured to reject or redirect requests for domain names. If you're using an Apache server, you'll need to edit htaccess, if IIS, you'll need to edit web.config. For other server types, try an internet search for "domain redirect [myservertype] rule".
  • Your scripting language running on the server can also perform this redirect. The server passes variables to the script, and these can be accessed in PHP, Perl, CGI, and even javascript. Testing against your domain name and redirecting all others shouldn't require much code.
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Adam Davis
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  • Would it be wise to redirect there domain to sites known to be black listed are labeled harmful by major search engines in order to hurt them or get them to back off? Or will that back fire? – Bacon Brad Oct 06 '15 at 17:52
  • @BradMetcalf I wouldn't say it's wise. Two wrongs don't make a right. They have chosen to let you decide what their visitors see, though, so you could be mean in return if you choose. It's not my definition of wisdom, though. – Adam Davis Oct 06 '15 at 22:25