Curious Questions About A Dead (Not Expired) Competitor Site

[djd33p]

One of my competitor sites which was ranking for a lot of good low competition keywords in my niche has been dead (hosting expired) for atleast the last 3 months but the domain is still valid and not expiring till October 2021. I have managed to copy most of their posts using Wayback Archives.

The site's pages are slowly but surely getting deindexed on Google and Bing except a few articles which I also expect to be going out soon. Copyscape also returns no matches for those deindexed articles.

My questions are these -

1) What possible reasons could make someone abandon their site and leave it to die a slow death like this?
2) Can I post the copied articles of theirs on my site that are now deindexed?
3) For whatever reason, if the owner of that site decides to revive it once I've already indexed the copied content, what steps should or can I take in such a scenario to avoid getting penalized for duplicate content if and when his posts also get reindexed?

Really look forward to hearing from and getting guided by the more experienced guys here. I really need to know what to do going forward in this case, because all that content is real gold and very well researched and written for my niche! Thank you in advance for your tips and suggestions!

PS for mods: Please feel free to move this post to the right category if it doesn't belong here.

 

[MichaelClayton]

1. Maybe some personal issues at home, or some accident, or maybe the project wasn't that important for them.
2. Copyright still applies, but other than that it shouldn't hurt you from an search engine ranking standpoint;
3. Having the site expire and content getting deindexed will hurt him more than you having a working, fast, reliable site providing the duplicate content. Google penalizes duplicate content on your own website (i.e. if you have the same article twice on your website)

Also, try to add a phrase at the beginning of the article and another at the end, or maybe combine phrases from multiple articles if it makes sense.

 

[Grey]

Google penalizes duplicate content on your own website (i.e. if you have the same article twice on your website)

Would it be penalized if a script generated the content too? I was worried about this. I was going to have a script show like part 1, 2, or 3 of my article but then have a link for "see full article on one page". Should I avoid that?

 

[Grey]

2) Can I post the copied articles of theirs on my site that are now deindexed?
3) For whatever reason, if the owner of that site decides to revive it once I've already indexed the copied content, what steps should or can I take in such a scenario to avoid getting penalized for duplicate content if and when his posts also get reindexed?

If you earn money off them, may be worth getting them rewritten.

 

[fc-dh]

I would contact them and see if the site is for sale (after you did your due dillenge)

 

[The SEO]

I would contact them and see if the site is for sale (after you did your due dillenge)

That's the best possibility.

Otherwise, just register the new domain or an expired domain in your niche and use the deindexed content on it.

 

[djd33p]

That's the best possibility.

Otherwise, just register the new domain or an expired domain in your niche and use the deindexed content on it.

This sounds like a really good plan too but wouldn't it be better if I posted that content on my already ranking site in the same niche instead of me competing against myself?

I understand it's risky to post all that content on my money site but by the looks of it, that site owner seems to have completely abandoned his ship.

 

[DeadJoe]

This sounds like a really good plan too but wouldn't it be better if I posted that content on my already ranking site in the same niche instead of me competing against myself?

I understand it's risky to post all that content on my money site but by the looks of it, that site owner seems to have completely abandoned his ship.

If you grab the content and post it on your current site then technically you're 100% good to go. Google will not see it as copied content since it is out of index. However, if the owner comes back, restores his website or wants to start a new website and realizes that you've copied his content then you may run into an issue.

Since the original content was his, he can file a DMCA and get your website de-indexed. Not a huge possibility to be honest, he's probably not coming back from what you've said, but in the event that he does, and if he is smart and knows this stuff,then he can 100% fuck you over. So if you're willing to take that risk with your current site, especially if it isn't making that much money then that's your call.

If your website is making a decent bit of money then don't do this with your current site. Start another site and put the content there. Keep an eye out for his domain and see if you can get it through back order or auction or something. I am not sure how you would track that, it is best to ask someone who is more experienced in domaining such as @Nargil

 

[djd33p]

If you grab the content and post it on your current site then technically you're 100% good to go. Google will not see it as copied content since it is out of index. However, if the owner comes back, restores his website or wants to start a new website and realizes that you've copied his content then you may run into an issue.

Since the original content was his, he can file a DMCA and get your website de-indexed. Not a huge possibility to be honest, he's probably not coming back from what you've said, but in the event that he does, and if he is smart and knows this stuff,then he can 100% fuck you over. So if you're willing to take that risk with your current site, especially if it isn't making that much money then that's your call.

If your website is making a decent bit of money then don't do this with your current site. Start another site and put the content there. Keep an eye out for his domain and see if you can get it through back order or auction or something. I am not sure how you would track that, it is best to ask someone who is more experienced in domaining such as @Nargil

Precisely what I had in mind. Back ordering that domain is a fantastic idea considering that it has a fair bit of authority going to absolute waste right now.