Mecca Hosting

[meccahost]

Greek39,

I'm more than happy to clarify the parts that you did not understand, if you'd please let me know what made no sense to you.

Bill

[pgaming]

we take customer complaints very seriously, and I hope that we can have the opportunity to respond to this complaint.

Not in this instance, instead you felt the need to ignore a very serious complaint.

I would like to point out that these special URLs -- that are used to help customers get listed on search engines

How does taking a well-established domain already ranking well and mangle it beyond recognition help? Such as xxxxxxxx..meccahosting.com/~a0002595/Seeburg_9800.html

Please tell me how this helps get people’s websites get listed on search engines. As far as I can tell the only really beneficiary is Mecca. It is complete and utter spamdexing.

Would this be the extent of you SEO knowledge? If so yikes!!!

BTW

Cloaking

Cloaking refers to the practice of presenting different content or URLs to users and search engines. Serving up different results based on user agent may cause your site to be perceived as deceptive and removed from the Google index.

source:http://www.google.com/support/webmas...y?answer=66355

Mecca fair bit could still be said but I choose to leave it hear. I feel patronized and perhaps the person you should be dealing with is member mojo.

Good luck with Redhat, Zeus I prefer old school like pascal.


greek39

[Nandakishore]

I'd like to say that we have to gear our services towards the majority; we would not be successful otherwise. I understand that this service did not work for Mojo, but it does work for over 90% of our customers

Please understand that it is not considered as ethical business to force a service on a customer without his knowledge. If you think you have to do it to gear your services, then, I am afraid, you are pushing yourself in the category of rogue business.

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[mojo]

I'd like to say that we have to gear our services towards the majority; we would not be successful otherwise. I understand that this service did not work for Mojo, but it does work for over 90% of our customers, and we do receive a lot of positive feedback on this service. For people that are unable to obtain good search engine visibility on their own, we are driving free traffic to their sites that has been proven to generate sales.

The special URL that we use does require that links use "relative" addressing, and not a full path; we do try to help customers to understand the difference and change their pages to work under both. I'm not sure what happened in your case, as to why we didn't assist you with the conversion of your site.

We've found no evidence that any person looks closely at the URL; if you've found research to the contrary, we would certainly be interested in that information. The research we have shows that people searching on the Internet want fast access to information and spend little time assessing the source of that information; they click the link and briefly peruse the content to determine whether they feel it is relevant.

I can tell you that in the past 7 years, you are the first person to ever cancel an account because of these special URLs. We do receive a lot of questions from customers about them, but customers have rarely asked that we remove the listings.

In any case, I am very sorry about how things have turned out. We are certainly responsible for not working with you more closely to come to some sort of a compromise. We have modified customers sites on occasion to allow them to work with the "relative" addressing, but it would appear that we didn't offer this to you.

Sincerely,

William Howell

This is just wrong on so many levels. I did not ask your opinion on who looks at urls. I am a branded site, obviously people are going to search mojo. They see your url and think you are a scraper. All I asked you to do was host my sites. Period. You caused me many man hours and frustration because of your "service".

Why in the world would I want or need to change my pages to work with your method. This is absolutly insane. For you not to consider that I may have certain things on my sites that require my url is unexcusable. I don't care how much research there is. I go back to the same question I've asked several times. Why dont you ASK first before disrupting sites? You know that by doing this and a client doesnt want that, it ties up google. You KNOW this yet you do it anyway.

I ask you:

Why don't you give people the option? Would you consider adding an Opt In for this so called service? I have not heard the answer to this.

Meanwhile mecca hosting is a ROUGE hosting service.

[meccahost]

First, you're asking us to change the way we do things over 1 customer out of over 10,000 customers that doesn't like this service. Would you invest money in changing a system that works and that 10,862 customers have enjoyed, just because 1 person says they don't like the service? We are not forcing something on customers that they don't want.

All of our customers want to have better rankings in search engines to make more money, and we assist them with that. The majority of our customers cannot afford to pay for search engine promotion services, and know little or nothing to even try to get listed on their own. How is getting their site listed and making them money a bad thing?

We have not ignored this customer's very serious complaint; we addressed it immediately. We flagged the listing to no longer be parsed by search engines as soon as the issue was brought to our attention, without delay. Whether the customer liked this service or not, whether we should or should not do it by default, does not change the fact that the listing was already there, and that we did everything in our power to assist the customer to resolve the issue. If we owned Google, we certainly would have taken the listing down immediately, if that were within our power.

The site was "mangled" only for our special version of the site because http://zeus.meccahosting.com/~a000xxxx/ requires that links are "relative", which means that a link to /images/myimage.gif would need to be changed to images/myimage.gif. Generally, most links are created as relative by the web publishing software, but there are some that create absolute paths. If this type of problem occurs, we typically work with the customer to help them change the paths from absolute to relative pathing.

As far as an already well-ranked domain, our listing would only interfere if it obtains a higher ranking (which is not a bad thing; higher is always better), which in this case it was more highly-ranked than the customers listing. I'll explain why we get better search engine rankings a bit later. Since our listing took precedence (it did not remove their existing listing, it was only more highly ranked), the problem with the links being absolute and not relative was a big problem, and one that we should have worked closely with the customer on.

In regards to cloaking, this is something that has nothing to do with what we're talking about; however, I will briefly explain what cloaking is and why you can be blacklisted for doing it. The most search engine friendly page would be a type of page you would never want a human to see; it would have a lot of keyword redundancy, images would only exist further down the page, and the content of the page would not read well. What some people choose to do, referred to as cloaking, is that when they detect that the visitor is a robot and not a human, they decide to display a totally different web page; one that is tailored to the search engine, rather than humans.

Finally, I will briefly touch on search engine promotion to help you better understand why it is so hard, and why it costs so much money; in addition, it is my hope that you'll better understand why we're in a better position to help customers. The most important factor, as any SEO will tell you, is "popularity" which is applied to the root domain. This means that you have to have a lot of external sites pointing into your website to gain "popularity". How many links? Hundreds, Thousands, even Millions; the more the better, and the more you have the higher you will be ranked. In addition, the overall size of the website plays a major factor, as a large site is considered more credible. How many pages should you have? Well, generally, to be considered a credible site, at least 100 web pages, but more is better. There are certainly many other factors involved, but popularity and size play a large role, which make it very, very hard for small sites to rank well.

These special URLs rank well solely because they have the meccahosting.com domain; they would not rank well otherwise. Our website has almost 100,000 pages of content associated with it, which gives the domain credibility with all major search engine providers. We have tens of thousands of links into our sites, which are one-way links and not link exchanges (link exchanges are not highly valued by search engines). This gives all our customers an immediate boost and helps get them ranked and ranked well, without doing any work. Of course, if the customer wants to improve their listings even more, we suggest that they assess keyword usage and placement; keyword frequency and precedence are important as to what keywords they will be found under.

I won't respond further to this issue here. I will just say that we've been in business for over 7 years and have thousands of customers. You'll find our posts on forums all around the world where we openly share information, such as how to get listed on search engines, how to develop websites that sell, and other important topics. I hope that everyone would keep an open mind and look at our company, not from the perspective of just a single dissatisfied customer, but from the thousands of posts on the Internet to the contrary. I don't think you will find many other complaints on the Internet about Mecca Hosting; only a lot of "thank yous".

I'll only close with stating that search engine visibility is important, and everyone works to be found in search engines. We are assisting customers in getting ranked and they make money as a result, which we think is a very good thing. We also have over 10,000 customers that will tell you the same thing. Certainly, they would prefer to be listed under their own domain and not ours, but they understand the reasons, and getting listed and getting customers is what is important to them; not how it had to be accomplished.

Thank you all for listening.

Bill

[mojo]

First, you're asking us to change the way we do things over 1 customer out of over 10,000 customers that doesn't like this service. Would you invest money in changing a system that works and that 10,862 customers have enjoyed, just because 1 person says they don't like the service? We are not forcing something on customers that they don't want.

You could at least state this policy of CHANGING URLS WITHOUT PERMISSION on your home page. You don't even do that. Makes one wonder.

I am done here as well since we have hit a brick wall.

[universal4]

It really doesn't matter what "spin" Mecca wants to try and put on this.

Mecca, took a clients domain (which the client OWNS) that they were contracted to host and redirected traffic destined to that domain to a different destination.

PERIOD! It IS what happened....no marketing spin or quotes of we were trying to help the client or any other BS can change this or cover it up.

As a web host, they are charged with the responsibility of doing what a clients wants and contracts with them to do.

If a web host hosts domain1.com, then it is the RESPONSIBILITY of that web host to deliver any traffic destined for domain1.com TO domain1.com.... PERIOD!

I am also a member of a number of web hosting forums, although I haven't been active in a few of them lately, but NEVER have I heard of this kind of action by any host that claims to be so respectable, and certainly not one that has the kind of ewxtensive client list that Mecca does.

It is my sincere hope that this action gives Mecca a serious black eye, and that they either change their terms of service to make it more clear that they do this to clients traffic at their discretion, or that they become known for these practices, or that they CEASE these types of practices.

Many of us here are VERY well versed in the art of SEO, and we all know how much damage this kind of practice can do to rankings of a domain...

BUYER BEWARE!

Rick
Universal4

[pgaming]

Bill,

The way you service your customers is entirely up to you. But I should mention in our highly competitive industry your method is classed as Blackhat Seo. In addition it makes a mockery out of the Google’s webmasters guidelines. Combine the two the method is toxic.

But being this the WEB, the Wild West, you are entitled to your opinion. Likewise we are entitled to ours. Webmasters must know about the pros, cons and implications hosting their sites with Mecca.

Google would be very interested in knowing how Mecca is manipulating their results. I am confident most here and on other public boards would appreciate knowing more about mecca.

Furthermore, I am confident most will not disagree with our position.

Thanks

greek39

[Nandakishore]

I think we should report this business practice of Mecca Hosting in any webhosting forum we can access.

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[pgaming]

I think we should report this business practice of Mecca Hosting in any webhosting forum we can access.

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I agree or at least let others know. I figure the only reason they have 100,000 pages indexed is off the backs of others.

greek39

[Paolino]

What you guys at MeccaHosting are doing is totally unethical and deprecable. You are damaging the hard work of honest webmasters like Mojo. I think is better for you to change your terms and conditions before you lose all your customers and reputation!

[Fergie]

You almost have to laught at his twisted explanation of how SEO works. He thinks he's talking to a bunch of 12:00 flashers here.

If they have happy customers who are paying to host their domains on another domain??? then their customers must be amateurs who don't care that their homepage url is both long, and makes a pretty crappy email address extension...

Now for us serious SEO professionals, this is just too much bullshit to bear. Unbelievable and totally unacceptable. What can we do about this rogue hosting company? This arbitrary domain redirecting cannot continue.

[AussieDave]

the only reason they have 100,000 pages indexed is off the backs of others.

Exactly!

I can't believe the audacity of some people.

MeccaHosting
You may care to remember that we're all gambling affiliates here. Hence our SEO skills are honed to a fine edge. They have to be to compete in the online gaming industry.

Trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes here about search engine optimisation is going to backfire on you and Mecca Hosting.

As far as hosting a few members own reputable hosting companies, which btw they would never, ever do what Mecca Hosting has done to any of their clients, period.

I've seen the google cache and I couldn't believe it. This has to be one of the worst displays of dodgy, unethical and rogue like behaviour I've ever seen from an website hosting company.

It's obvious from your retorts that you don't have an issue with hijacking people's web sites; that is exactly what you've done to feather your own link popularity.

If it was up to me I'd be contacting each and every person who is currently having their website hosted at Mecca web Hosting and let them know about the unethical, black hat seo Mecca hosting has unleashed on these clients.

Performances like this is a formula for a class action law suit!




Dave

[mojo]

Thanks everyone for trying. Obviously Mecca Hosting has no intention of changing what they are doing. I would be satisfied merely with them obtaining permission from their customers before proceeding with messing with addresses and google!

For some reason, this is not going to happen. That in itself speaks volumes.

[mojo]

If it was up to me I'd be contacting each and every person who is currently having their website hosted at Mecca web Hosting and let them know about the unethical, black hat seo Mecca hosting has unleashed on these clients.

I would like to warn others too Dave. That is the intent of everyone at the GPWA I think. To stop things like this when we find them so others don't get hurt. I encourage everyone to share the link to this thread here in their SEO travels and correspondence.

[AussieDave]

If anyone has a regular seo/webmaster forum that visit, feel free to pass this on.

Consider it done, I'm about to write a blog about this place.

Seeing they also geo target AU I feel it's my duty to inform my readers to beware of this hack hosting place.


cheers



Dave

[AussieDave]

I would like to warn others too Dave. That is the intent of everyone at the GPWA I think. To stop things like this when we find them so others don't get hurt. I encourage everyone to share the link to this thread here in their SEO travels and correspondence.

Well we got the google cache at out disposal...


Cheers



Dave

[universal4]

The URL address does have the meccahosting.com address, but few visitors actually look closely at the URL; they only visit the website.

The above quote pretty much says it all.

Folks, if you own a website, and you own a domain name, that name is what people will identify with your site.....and that "url" is what the search engines identify YOUR website and YOUR content with.

What Mecca is doing, is taking YOUR content and showing YOUR content as being THEIRS. What that does is one of two things basically, 1) it tells google the content has been duplicated elsewhere, (duplicate content is a very bad thing) and 2) it attempts to give Mecca credit for YOUR work.

There is ZERO explanation that Mecca could tell us about what they are doing that would not fit in to one of those two scenarios I've breifly outline....it's either one or the other....and BOTH hurt the client.

And then, when they recieve a customer complaint

In this particular case, this customer requested that we remove the listing, which was done by specifying that search engines were no longer allowed to view the site; unfortunately, it can be several weeks before the search engines visit again to update their listings.

They take steps to cause as much search engine damage to the client as they can.!!??

Read that again:

which was done by (Mecca) specifying that search engines were no longer allowed to view the site

Stating they do not benefit by this practice is just a plain wrong. In my opinion (an opinion shared by many here) They directly benefit by this practice because it shows someone else's content at an url with Mecca's domain name....which is then indexed as pages located within Mecca's website although the content is someone else's.

I link to my hosting clients, but when I do, I link DIRECTLY to them, and do not redirect an url owned by me and pointed at a client that is then advertised to the search engines. (that would be duplicate content....in fact an entire website duplicate. #1 site is the original domain and #2 site is the url owned by mecca that the search engines know about...same website, but at a different url...."DUPLICATE"

Rick
Universal4

[mojo]

Thank you for that Rick. What they did targeted google only. Or maybe it had only gotten that far. My url was completely wiped out. According to my tracker, mecca hostings url picked up every single google search and the traffic was mostly google searches. My url picked up everything else. I couldn't understand what was happening and thought I set it up wrong when I changed servers. Give them time and I'm sure they will start on yahoo.

Once I confirmed what was happening I considered duplicate content but thought, nah, they wouldn't do that to me! They are my hosting company ! Dup content is a big no no and harmful. All webmasters know to avoid this. I also noticed by back pages were being picked up by mecca hosting as well. More and more every day. Soon they would have had my entire sites.

I find it very difficult to believe I am the only complaint out of 10,000 (they claim). Some may not notice or have tracking set up but I'm sure there are many who would see.

I am glad to see this thread on page 1 of google for mecca hosting.

[universal4]

I guess this thread being on page 1 of Google for Mecca Hosting shows how much more Mecca Hosting knows about search engines and SEO than we do huh?

Mecca Hosting, you had an opportunity here to do the right thing, and your statements earlier clearly show what you feel about your clients.

Rick
Universal4