… or How to Make Identifying Connection Between Your Sites Nearly Impossible.
Quite a few things have already been said about connections between sites identifiable by Google becoming the reason for mass bans – this excellent post by Graywolf comes to mind, as well as one memorable practical lesson from Matt Cutts. But these are things that are kinda more or less on the surface and possibly can be identified algorithmically. Now, what happens if somebody is so curious about your network that they start digging into your details manually? You think it’s enough to just take care of the basics and you’re safe – well think again.
Recently, I have been looking at somebody’s network of sites (for research purposes mostly, competitive analysis and such, ya know) and found it incredible how many stupid things people can do with their domain information that leaves them wide open to anyone skilled enough to look deeper. I am not going to tip anyone as to all the evil uses of such information but I couldn’t help posting a few things many people seem to either ignore or be unaware of.
So, what in your WHOIS info can be potentially vulnerable?
1. Unless it’s a shared host hosting hundreds of sites that belong to different clients of this hosting provider, hosting your multiple sites on the same IP is a surefire giveaway – infact, this was the first thing that revealed the whole network in question to me.
2. Nameservers: these should either be separate for every domain you own or belong to the host whose shared hosting you’re using, along with hundreds of other sites hosted there.
3. Registrant info: this should either be privateor completely unique for each domain. Using email address like myotherdomain@yahoo.com as you contact email in registrant details is as stupid as can be.
4. Screw any of the above once and your domain is screwed for good as the WHOIS history and nameserver changes can all be tracked for as much as $149/year (the cost of silver membership at Domaintools).
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