Should I Hide the Fact that I Run Multiple Websites From Competitors?

[Dreamchaser]

What would you do to avoid leaving trails and footprints when you have multiple websites? I've heard Ryuzaki mention how easy for someone to track and trace the trails you leave behind.

Not so much for blackhat purposes but to mask it from your competitors and potential hackers.

Apart from using a dedicated server for each website, Cloudflare, and VPN. Is there anything else I should consider? Should each of the websites have separate GSC and analytics accounts?

Also curious to know what level of access you would allow for your writer and VA (formatting, image uploader, etc).

 

[Steve Brownlie]

Has anyone got any (non blackhat related) stories where this kind of obfuscation would be worth trying? Other than the basics (low effort stuff) I mean? It seems too paranoid to me to try to anonymize ever website you own etc/pretend to be a different owner on them all etc. But would love to hear if anyone has some 'war stories' to prove me wrong.

 

[Ryuzaki]

My question to people asking these questions is "Why?"

Why are you asking the question, specifically? "Fear" is usualIy the answer but that's not specific. What is it you fear? Is it a privacy issue? Do you think someone can or would sabotage your efforts? What reason would someone have for doing that? Really dig into it and answer the string of questions that arise, you know.

You're asking us if you should do this. We aren't psychic and you aren't telling us why it is you're even concerned about it. "Should I have a concern?" I dunno, have you made enemies or something? Hackers are at your neck 24/7 regardless, and they spray and pray, unless you make an enemy, which usually requires being a real dick in some fashion.

In general, no. It's not like the old days when we could nuke each others projects.

Yes, there are plenty of nutcases online that will target you out of jealousy, so don't expose who you are, don't expose your sites, and don't be helpful or don't give validation of why someone should trust you when you're being helpful. I can tell you for sure that no good deed goes unpunished in some fashion. But you do get more out of it than you risk (or even ever lose, if it ever happens).

Just do basic operational security and move forward in your career. Some bridges don't need to be crossed until you get there. Otherwise they just bog you down in fear of things that might come that usually never come.

 

[Dreamchaser]

Thanks for taking the time to respond. Not sure why the title of this post is changed to the above when I simply titled my draft post as "leaving footprint".

Not so much of fear or paranoia but more on doing the right thing from the beginning rather than rectifying it later. Looking for the best practice.

One of the reasons for not leaving a footprint is I've read somewhere that there is a risk Google may penalize small websites in different verticals which belong to the same owner, where the owner is also the writer. Deemed as lacking experience, depth, and expertise. Is that the case?

The other reason is to avoid exposing the site as Ryuzaki has mentioned which can be traced via author name, reverse lookup, etc.

Just to give an example, there was one guy who shared his success in selling his website for a huge amount of money (I'm not stating the amount due to privacy) in one of the Facebook groups. Out of curiosity, I search his name and found out about the other websites he is currently working on with some reverse lookup.

Even though he didn't disclose the website that he sold as he want to protect the buyer and also the NDA agreement, I've more or less known which website he has sold.

Some of the common items which seem harmless like shared accounts on certain tools can reveal a lot of things.

 

[KiwiBlogGuy]

PetLifeToday group of sites were openly connected and all died overnight.

The entire network was identified and discussed in SEO circles.

This may have brought attention leading to the manual action it seems they received.

If they were kept separate they may have only lost one or two of their sites.

Of course, their aggressive interlinking might have contributed to their shortlived success - so it's difficult to draw a solid conclusion.

Still something to think about.

 

[zak]

What would you do to avoid leaving trails and footprints when you have multiple websites? I've heard Ryuzaki mention how easy for someone to track and trace the trails you leave behind.

There are the obvious ones:

• Author names
• SameAs info in the author/org schemas (social profiles, email, etc)
• Shared servers
• Shared accounts (GA or anything that drops a cookie or calls an API, including many WP plugins)

Less obviously, it's often about text similarities. If I want to track down a competitor's other sites (and I do for competitors that I can consistently outrank), I just copy a few chunks of text from their boilerplate pages (privacy policy, terms of use, etc). Those + about page are often enough.

Here's the thing, though, as Ryu said, trying to avoid these tactics just isn't worth it. You can waste a ton of time trying to obscure every possible comparison vector. There are people that are Batman-level detective at this, so you'll never fully prevent it fully.

 

[Sutra]

Not sure why the title of this post is changed to the above when I simply titled my draft post as "leaving footprint".

Possibly because your original title sucks. The new title actually tells the reader what the post is about, and what is being asked. Thus, you get the right people in the thread. Basic marketing dude. It also has the benefit of helping others skip the thread and save time if they're not interested.

Ryu answered your question perfectly and summed it up with:

Just do basic operational security and move forward in your career. Some bridges don't need to be crossed until you get there. Otherwise they just bog you down in fear of things that might come that usually never come.

That's exactly it. That IS the best practice. The rest of your reply after that is just procrastination.

You're trying to craft the perfect plan to avoid actually working. You can't craft the perfect plan because the plan will change as you gain data. What may seem perfect now, will most certainly not be perfect down the road and you will have to adapt in ways you couldn't anticipate before. Why? Because you didn't have the experience or data to know what was coming. And no amount of advice can prepare you for things that come without warning. As Ryu said, you cross those bridges when you get there. Just do the basic security stuff and move forward.

Or, ask more questions, read more, ponder the meaning of existence, and in 6 months lament the fact that you're still in the same spot: nowhere.