AVIS is an american car rental company founded in 1946. It has branches almost everywhere in the world.
I was studying some SERPs for queries related to car hire, and I noticed something weird from an SEO perspective.
Analyzing “avis.co.nz” in Majestic SEO, I obtained this:
WOW, almost 700 referring domains, with more than 850,000 links in total. I did some digging and this is what I found.
The first 65 referring domains are:
hybril.com
we-try-harder.com
autoverhuur.com
autovermieter.com
autoberles.com
billeje.com
fahrer.com
autoudlejning.com
internetclub.com
autonoloeggio.com
bilutleie.com
autoleje.com
avis.us
avisrentcontrol.com
selbstfahrer.com
avis.biz
chauffeur.com
avis.com
emailoffer.com
avisrentsavers.com
biludlejning.com
wagenverhuur.com
avis.mobi
avisrentacar.biz
avis-carrental.com
avisconnect.com
theavisgroup.com
gepjarmukolcsonzes.com
autovuokraus.com
avisracing.com
avisgroup.com
avisfurgonoleggio.com
avisazrentsavers.com
avisrents.com
avisfind.com
avisautonoleggio.com
avis.com.au
avis.travel
avistravelmanager.com
berauto.com
go2avis.com
avisonline.com
huurwagens.com
bilhyra.com
nbr.co.nz
avistravelmanager.org
avisweblink.com
avismontenegro.com
avisaliiclub.com
avisalist.com
avisville.com
aviscarentsavers.com
avisweekenderclub.com
avis-montenegro.com
avisinteractive.travel
avispreferredservice.travel
avisonline.travel
avisassist.travel
avis-alist.com
avisucks.com
avisagent.biz
avisweb.net
avisclubred.com
avisrentacar.travel
avis-first.com
avisinteractive.biz
and the list goes on and on, and on, and on.
With the External Link Checker Tool, I opened all those URLs and I noticed that it’s always the same website (same content, same images, same everything) only under different domains.
I get it for Avis.com.au (the australian website) but the others?
I was like:
As I said, the list goes on and on, and there is no canonical tag or some other SEO magic.
It’s just spam.
No, even better:
It’s just shit!
Basically all those sites are linking to each other, creating a perfect spammy network that is pushing Avis (in this case avis.co.nz) very high in rankings for very important queries.
But most of all , my question is: WHY?
I know you are thinking: you just said it…”high rankings” that’s why. YES! But I’m pretty sure Avis had no problem to create some magic stuff: they are a strong and well-known brand. Are you really saying that the only thing you are able to do is spamming the web?
I don’t want believe it.
And hey, Google. Open your eyes even here in NZ, would you?
and hey, Avis. If you want to start changing your online business model, please start changing your website design. But do not spam, because it’s dangerous and frankly stupid. You are very creative since you placed your website even under domains like “we-try-harder.com” or “internetclub.com”, so I know you can do better.
It’s called ethic.
