Good question. That\u2019s where I started. Here\u2019s what I found out:<\/h2>\n\n- There\u2019s a network of tech sites, all running the same kind of content at the same time<\/li>\n
- They share traffic via redirects, some of their core pages are literally identical, and they link out to the same casinos and crypto sites consistently<\/li>\n
- They rely on parasite SEO tactics that explicitly contradict Google\u2019s guidelines (and Google is beginning to catch them up)<\/li>\n
- Could they all be owned by the same people?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
I\u2019ve found the connections between some of these sites, traced the tactics they use, and even tracked down the owners.<\/p>\n
To learn how a company with its roots in the UK spread a successful parasite SEO operation all over the world, read on\u2026<\/p>\n
How do you get into the top three results on Google in less than a year?<\/h3>\n
Put that question another way.<\/p>\n
How does a general tech site wind up ranking in the top five for gambling-related search terms all over the world?\u00a0![\"How](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/finixio-clickoutmedia-top5-gambling-min.png\")
Tech sites ranking for gambling keywords.<\/em><\/p>\n(Including in places where online gambling is seriously illegal\u2026)<\/p>\n
Parasite SEO: stealing domain authority<\/h3>\n
The answer is called parasite SEO. If you\u2019re an SEO, skip this part, you know it. But for everyone else, Google changed the way it ranks content recently. Domain authority, which is basically how much Google respects your domain, counts for a lot more now. Older sites that have been building a reputation for years have higher domain authority.<\/p>\n
Parasite SEO is when you use a site with high domain authority to host content that has nothing to do with the site. Like writing pet insurance content on a business site. You\u2019re parasitising on the domain authority to get the content to rank. (There\u2019s a good general guide to parasite SEO here<\/a>.)<\/p>\nIt\u2019s a growing problem because, well, it works better, cheaper and faster than conventional SEO.![\"Steve](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/steve-barnes-parasites-min.png\")
<\/p>\n
Steve says it as well as anyone. Parasite SEO just cancels the rules of good SEO. <\/i>(https:\/\/www.seroundtable.com\/google-parasite-seo-steps-36526.html<\/a>)<\/p>\nBut some parasites go a lot further than just spamming a lower quality article on what used to be a good website.<\/p>\n
Back in September this year Lars Lofgren published a post<\/a> showing why the business website Forbes was ranking for searches about pet insurance, CBD gummies and a whole lot else that was unrelated to the brand.![\"CBD](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/cbd-gummies-forbes-min.png\")
My screenshot of my SERPs; why is Forbes being treated as an authority on cannabis edibles?<\/em><\/p>\nI recommend reading Lars\u2019 post in full<\/a>, but I\u2019ll give a super quick overview. A company that wasn\u2019t owned or controlled by Forbes was blowing up traffic to several sections of Forbes\u2019 website, basically by doing parasite SEO at huge scale. They were making money stuffing the new material with affiliate ads:![\"Forbes](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/forbes-affiliate-ads-min.png\")
These ads are a vital part of the process: this is where the content pays for itself.<\/em><\/p>\nLater, Lars showed that the same company, Forbes Marketplace, was pulling the same tricks <\/a>at two other longstanding news and media sites.<\/p>\nWhen Lars wrote his post, Forbes ranked everywhere, at the top of every search results page, because Forbes Marketplace has been acting as a highly professionalized and very effective parasite SEO organization inside<\/i> Forbes. (Lars found that they have been so successful that there\u2019s reason to believe Forbes Marketplace was in talks to buy<\/i> Forbes!) Since then, Google seems to be catching up to the biggest parasite players and imposing manual penalties sitewide, resulting in big drops in traffic; the Forbes Marketplace playbook may be played out as a result.<\/p>\n
Google also just rolled out an update to its definition of site reputation abuse that perfectly describes parasite SEO practices:<\/p>\n
Site reputation abuse is the practice of publishing third-party pages on a site in an attempt to abuse search rankings by taking advantage of the host site’s ranking signals.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/blog\/2024\/11\/site-reputation-abuse<\/a><\/p>\nIt\u2019s fairly clear by reading their spam policies<\/a> that Google is directly targeting operations like Finixio\u2019s \u2014 let\u2019s see what happens in the coming weeks.<\/p>\nBut in the meantime, despite being caught and suffering penalties, the Forbes Marketplace case does show that parasite SEO can be even more successful when it\u2019s fuelled by plenty of cash and the people doing it are centralized and have access to the domain they\u2019re parasitizing off. Forbes Marketplace was well on the way metaphorically, and maybe literally, consuming Forbes as it once existed, in order to earn ad revenue for the clients who paid to have their content featured.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re far from the only parasite in the ecosystem created by Google\u2019s algorithm. There\u2019s a whole ecosystem out there built on violating Google\u2019s own guidelines \u2014 and getting algorithmically rewarded for it, too.<\/p>\n
Finixio\/Clickout Media\u2019s parasite SEO success story<\/h2>\n
Finixio is a London-based company that operates like a more freewheeling Forbes Marketplace.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve found evidence to suggest that Finixio\u2019s MO is to buy old, high-authority tech sites that aren\u2019t as profitable as their owners might like.<\/p>\n
Then, they leave the site structure and most of the original content up, and simply add new material that\u2019s not relevant to the site\u2019s original purpose.<\/p>\n
A website that built a reputation on giving general tech advice will pivot to promoting online gambling and cryptocurrencies, for instance.<\/p>\n
Or a website that used to offer analysis of emerging technology trends will suddenly pivot to\u2026 well, to promote online gambling and crypto.<\/p>\n
They use parasite SEO to make this impressively successful in a short amount of time.<\/p>\n
First, we should acknowledge: these people are good <\/i>at what they do. Check out these changes in traffic and ranking, in the Swedish market:![\"Techopedia](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/techopedia-swedish-rankings.jpg\")
Swedish market rankings for a website linked to Clickout Media, showing major, rapid changes in rankings.<\/em><\/p>\nThese pages are ranking on some highly competitive difficult keywords, and they\u2019ve gone from ranking 0 (meaning the page doesn\u2019t exist or doesn\u2019t rank at all) to top-three positions in just a few months.<\/p>\n
Making changes like this in twelve months should be impossible on highly-competitive keywords, and with conventional SEO, it would be.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the same in other countries, too:![\"Techopedia](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/techopedia-australia-rankings.jpg\")
<\/strong><\/p>\nThe same website\u2019s rankings in Australia, showing similar changes.<\/em><\/p>\nPokies\u2019 is Australian slang for slot machines; \u2018online pokies\u2019 is one of Australia\u2019s most difficult-to-rank-for keywords, but this site is number one for \u2018best online pokies Australia\u2019 and \u2018best pokies,\u2019 with a brand new page. How?<\/p>\n
Techopedia: quality collapses<\/h3>\n
Techopedia is a flagship Finixio\/Clickout Media brand, and it shows the way they operate clearly. Let\u2019s walk through the playbook.<\/p>\n
Step 1: Buy a once-solid website<\/h3>\n
First, Clickout Media buys Techopedia. That happens in April-May 2023, according to one source; a staffer at Clickout Media has since confirmed that Clickout owns Techopedia.<\/p>\n
Techopedia.com has been a fixture of the tech scene since 2000, so they have tons of domain authority.<\/p>\n
![\"Techopedia](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Techopedia-domain-rating-min.png\")
Ahrefs\u2019 domain checker tool showing Techopedia\u2019s massive domain rating.<\/em><\/p>\nCurrently, \u2018The Techopedia mission is to help you better understand technology, and make better decisions in the fields of IT, Tech, and Crypto,\u2019 according to their meta description<\/a>. Which is interesting, because in 2021, when Bitcoin boomed to $68,000, Techopedia\u2019s job description was<\/a> to be\u00a0 \u2018Your go-to source for professional IT insight, from defining complex tech jargon to exploring the latest tech trends.\u2019 Seems like a big change.<\/p>\n(If \u2018crypto\u2019 jumped out at you a bit there, well, it should, and we will be coming back to that whole situation in a big way in the second post in this series.)<\/p>\n
Inner pages on Techopedia get the kind of traffic that whole websites further down the food chain dream of: the whole site gets around 5 million views a month<\/a>, and the site\u2019s pages rank all over the world: number one in Japan for Ethereum future price<\/a>, number five in France for Black Friday<\/a>, or number one worldwide for Emma Navarro\u2019s net worth<\/a>. Techopedia is a heavy hitter everywhere.<\/p>\nLet\u2019s take just one example.<\/strong><\/p>\nThe page on Magis TV, a SaaS platform for TV streaming that is hugely popular in South America, gets 89,000 visits all by itself:![\"Organic](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/organic-traffic-techopedia-magis-tv-min.png\")
SEMRush\u2019s view on the traffic this one page gets.<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/ahrefs.com\/website-authority-checker\/?input=techopedia.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\nMagis TV has been declared illegal, shut down in Argentina, and kicked off the Google Play Store<\/a>.<\/p>\nBut that\u2019s not what interests us here. We\u2019re looking for this![\"Techopedia](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/techopedia-tips-instantcasino-min.png\")
This is taken from the Magis TV page. It\u2019s one of several casino ads on the page.<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/es\/descargar-magis-tv-legal<\/em><\/a><\/p>\nIf you like watching sports on TV, why not gamble? (For interesting thoughts on who might own this casino, see Behind the curtain at the end of this post, where we show how this whole network of websites is basically owned by the same handful of people, as well as part two of this series where we show how they also control a network of gambling and crypto sites.)<\/p>\n
Step 2: Fire everyone<\/h3>\n
Next, they fire the staff.<\/p>\n
Techopedia had staff who had been with the publication for a decade, and who had established some authority themselves in the space.<\/p>\n
We were lucky enough to speak to someone who used to work there, on condition of anonymity, and they told us how the process played out. We\u2019ll call this person Andrea, because it\u2019s not her real name.<\/p>\n
In April to May 2023, Andrea recalls, Clickout Media acquired Techopedia. The changes started immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst, they fired all editors and got new ones, mostly very young people with very little or no experience.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
At this stage, the writing staff was intact and the outlook didn\u2019t look so bad:<\/p>\n
\u201cThese young people did a great job, and gave us writers lots of freedom, and lots of ideas for new articles. In September-October, they hired new editors, still very young, and things were just great.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Initial signals were that editorial oversight might be reduced, but these weren\u2019t inexperienced writers who needed a lot of hand-holding.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen on February 2024 they hired a new content manager, and we all got fired overnight. All of us. All the freelancer writers got laid off. Even the articles we were in the process of writing were canceled (but paid), and the writer roster was substituted with names with little or no resume.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Younger, more inexperienced writers may be more biddable than established professionals from Europe and America. Maybe that explains the new content direction, required by Techopedia\u2019s new parasite SEO strategy.<\/p>\n
As Andrea recalls:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe parasite SEO happened overnight, and you can see that by just checking what was published on December 2023 and January 2024 and comparing it to February, March and April 2024\u2014it’s disgusting.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Andrea notes that many of these writers are so underpaid and so prolific that they\u2019re almost certainly \u2014 in her opinion \u2014 using AI to write the majority of their work. That would explain why the experience of reading it is much worse; it\u2019s also very<\/i> against Google\u2019s guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\nStep 3: Start churning out content in gambling and crypto<\/h3>\n
We took Andrea\u2019s advice and checked out what Techopedia\u2019s content looked like since the takeover. It\u2019s extremely clear: Since the takeover, it\u2019s\u2026<\/p>\n
Mostly gambling and crypto (Netherlands):![\"Techopedias](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/techopedia-netherlands-rankings.jpg\")
<\/strong><\/p>\nTechopedia\u2019s top ranking content in the Netherlands.<\/em><\/p>\nNearly pure gambling and crypto (Sweden):<\/strong>![\"Techopedias](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/techopedia-swedish-rankings-gambling.jpg\")
Techopedia\u2019s rankings in Sweden.<\/em><\/p>\nLots of gambling and crypto (Germany):<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Techopedia](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/techopedia-german-rankings.jpg\")
Techopedia\u2019s top ranking content in Germany.<\/em><\/p>\nMajority gambling and crypto (Australia):<\/strong><\/p>\nAustralian rankings for recent content on Techopedia.<\/em><\/p>\nMostly gambling and crypto (UK):<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Techopedias](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/techopedia-UK-rankings.jpg\")
The top ranking material on Techopedia in the UK.<\/em><\/p>\nBasically just gambling and crypto (USA):<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Techopedias](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/techopedia-united-states-rankings.jpg\")
The same story in the United States.<\/em><\/p>\nThe new writing staff is turning out posts aimed at crypto, gambling and a bit of gaming. That\u2019s what the site\u2019s about now. There are a few general tech articles stirred in, but you\u2019re lucky if they account for one in 20 or 30 of the top-performing posts across multiple markets. This is rank, not traffic, so it can\u2019t be explained by increased interest in these posts rather than more general tech posts.<\/p>\n
What about the quality of the new articles compared to the older ones?<\/strong><\/p>\nHere\u2019s one from 2022, written by an editor who isn\u2019t at the site anymore:<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/A-post-about-technical-aspects-of-AI-from-a-former-writer-on-techopedia-min.png\")
<\/p>\n
A post about technical aspects of AI, aimed at business people and published in 2022 on Techopedia. <\/i>https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/rds-and-trust-aware-process-mining-keys-to-trustworthy-ai\/2\/34665<\/a><\/p>\nThis is the first few paragraphs of RDS and Trust Aware Process Mining: Keys to Trustworthy AI? By Andrew Pery. Things to notice, from a purely content perspective:<\/p>\n
\n- No wild claims or strongly emotive language<\/li>\n
- Sources from major, respected institutions such as McKinsey, Pew, and the IDC<\/li>\n
- Fact-rich, with arguments supported by data<\/li>\n
- Quotes and comment from experts<\/li>\n
- Asking a question about the broad impact of a new technology<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Compare the style, approach and level of information, including sources for claims, to this piece:<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"A](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/A-post-about-the-prospects-of-the-cryptocurrency-industry-published-to-Techopedia-in-2024.png\")
\nA post about the prospects of the cryptocurrency industry, published to Techopedia in 2024. https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/news\/over-250-pro-crypto-candidates-elected-what-it-means-for-regulations<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nAgain, things to notice purely in the actual content itself:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Clear partisanship: the author has a \u2018side\u2019 in this. Look at phrases like \u2018more constructive regulatory policies,\u2019 or the implication that money from the crypto sector directly influencing an election is something to celebrate<\/li>\n
- Illogical argumentation: altcoin investors might benefit from this election, but the article doesn\u2019t say why that might happen, it just asserts it<\/li>\n
- Poor sourcing: links out lead to Politico, a Techopedia page of \u2018top altcoins,\u2019 another Techopedia page of post-election analysis of the crypto market, and\u2026 another Techopedia page on more or less the same subject. This is SEO, not reporting or journalism. These links don\u2019t lead to support for the arguments being made in the same neutral, authoritative way as Pery\u2019s links to Pew and the IDC<\/li>\n
- One of the major sources is a screenshot from social media<\/li>\n
- Right at the bottom, there\u2019s this video: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=gEYPy7rkzog<\/a> That\u2019s a 99Bitcoins video, and 99Bitcoins is also closely linked to Clickout Media<\/a>; their content has changed since March too, becoming much more concerned with promoting memecoins.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
This is qualitatively different, in the sense that it\u2019s less neutral and factual than Techopedia\u2019s former approach. And it\u2019s symptomatic of what\u2019s happening at Techopedia. The focus of the site has completely changed, and the content has changed with it.<\/p>\n
Step 4: Make up some staff?<\/h3>\n
There\u2019s a decent chance, too, that many of the writers on the site aren\u2019t real.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s Techopedia\u2019s \u2018best online casinos in the Netherlands\u2019 page:![\"Techopedia\u2019s](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Techopedias-\u2018best-online-casinos-in-the-Netherlands-page-min.png\")
Techopedia\u2019s list of the best casinos (or \u2018casino\u2019s\u2019) in the Netherlands. https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/nl\/casino\/nieuwste-casinos-nederland<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nThe author\/editor listed here is Joren Verdoes, who writes for Bitcoin Magazine\u2026![\"The](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/The-authoreditor-listed-here-is-Joren-Verdoes-who-writes-for-Bitcoin-Magazine-min.png\")
Jordan Verdoes\u2019 author profile at Bitcoin magazine.<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.nl\/author\/joren-verdoes<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\u2026also owned by Finixio:![\"Bitcoinmagazine.nl](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/bitcoinmagazine.nl-also-owned-by-Finixio-min.png\")
A Tweet advertising for a Head of Content for \u2018our Bitcoin Magazine,\u2019 by Finixio.<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/x.com\/FinixioHQ\/status\/1710611137350214066<\/em><\/a><\/p>\nJoren\u2019s LinkedIn is basically empty<\/a>, and there is only one photo of him on the internet; he doesn\u2019t appear to have any other social accounts or bylines on any property not owned by Finixio\/Clickout.<\/p>\nMargaret Rouse is the author of a huge number of pages on Techopedia. This is her:<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Margaret](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/margaret-rouse-technology-expert-on-techopedia-min.png\")
Margaret\u2019s author bio on Techopedia. A reverse image search didn\u2019t turn anything up either.<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/contributors\/margaret-rouse<\/em><\/a><\/p>\nHer LinkedIn page says her work has been cited by a slew of well-regarded publications:<\/p>\n
![\"About](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/about-margaret-rouse-min.png\")
Margaret\u2019s LinkedIn profile.<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/margaretrouse\/<\/em><\/a><\/p>\nI\u2019m not saying they never cited her, but\u2026
\n![\"Margaret](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/margaret-never-cited-in-nytimes-min.png\")
My SERPs, from a US server.<\/em><\/p>\nThey never used her name.
\n![\"Nytimes](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/nytimes-never-used-her-name-min.png\")
This is just my SERPs on Google.<\/em><\/p>\nNor did Time<\/i>.<\/p>\n
And Rouse doesn\u2019t show up anywhere but Finixio\/Clickout Media properties either.<\/p>\n
Does this conclusively prove that Finixio are inventing staff members when they\u2019re really using a shifting staff of freelancers? No, of course not.<\/p>\n
But it does raise the question of where these people, and their long lists of citations, are, if that\u2019s not the case.<\/p>\n
And in the job ads we found (see What do Clickout say\u2026?), skills at using freelancers to assemble content rapidly are specifically listed.<\/p>\n
A similar story plays out at ReadWrite.<\/p>\n
Readwrite: a hard pivot to crypto and gambling<\/h3>\n
ReadWrite is another Finixio\/Clickout Media acquisition, according to a now-deleted blog post by the site\u2019s former owner<\/a>. And it\u2019s seen similar changes.<\/p>\nFinixio\/Clickout assets and affiliates often have opaque chains of ownership, though the company can be quite explicit about what they own under certain circumstances, such as when they\u2019re trying to recruit people.<\/p>\n
When Finixio\/Clickout Media buy a website, the changes are obvious pretty quickly. Here\u2019s the Techopedia bottom-of-page navigation: ![\"Techopedias](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/techopedias-bottom-navigation-min.png\")
Techopedia\u2019s navigation.<\/em><\/p>\nAnd here\u2019s ReadWrite\u2019s:
\n![\"Readwrites](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/readwrites-bottom-navigation-min.png\")
<\/strong>ReadWrite\u2019s navigation, looking very similar.
\n<\/em><\/p>\nReadWrite\u2019s focus on crypto and gambling is even more blatant than Techopedia\u2019s, perhaps because the site is smaller.![\"Readwrite.coms](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/readwrites-traffic-according-to-semrush.png\")
<\/p>\n
ReadWrite\u2019s traffic at SEMRush, showing about 288,000 visits a month \u2014 compared to about 5 million for Techopedia.<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/www.semrush.com\/analytics\/overview\/?q=readwrite.com&protocol=https&searchType=domain<\/em><\/a><\/p>\nReadwrite uses a similar approach to what we\u2019ve seen before:<\/strong>![\"Organic](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/organic-keywords-readwrite-min.png\")
ReadWrite\u2019s rankings for gambling and crypto content.<\/em><\/p>\nA mix of stuff directly about gambling and crypto, with game and general tech interest material stirred in. It\u2019s all getting good traffic:![\"Organic](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/organic-keywords-according-to-semrush-for-readwrite-min.png\")
Organic keywords generating the vast majority of ReadWrite\u2019s traffic, showing that front-page and especially top-position SERPs are driving the majority of traffic to the site.<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/www.semrush.com\/analytics\/organic\/positions\/?db=us&q=readwrite.com&searchType=domain<\/em><\/a><\/p>\nThis page is characteristic of the content that\u2019s not about crypto and gambling:<\/strong>
\n![\"characteristic](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/characteristic-of-the-content-thats-not-about-crypto-and-gambling-on-readwrite-min.jpg\")
ReadWrite\u2019s computer gaming coverage. The site still publishes material like this, in addition to a growing focus on crypto and gambling.<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/readwrite.com\/final-fantasy-14-dawntrail-everything-you-need-to-know\/<\/em><\/a><\/p>\nThere are no ads for online casinos on the Final Fantasy: Dawntrail page shown above, but here\u2019s the \u2018Most popular tech stories\u2019 section right below the article:
\n![\"Most](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Most-popular-tech-stories-on-readwrite-min.png\")
Stories 01 and 03 are crypto-focused. https:\/\/readwrite.com\/final-fantasy-14-dawntrail-everything-you-need-to-know\/<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nIt\u2019s 40% meme coin crypto.<\/p>\n
The \u2018Latest news\u2019 section immediately below it is 100% crypto<\/strong>
\n![\"The](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/100-percent-crypto-on-readwrite-min.jpg\")
Latest news, totally focused on memecoins, with presales and close-in analysis of the market. https:\/\/readwrite.com\/final-fantasy-14-dawntrail-everything-you-need-to-know\/<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nPopular topics is\u2026<\/strong>
\n![\"Popular](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/popular-topics-on-readwrite-min.jpg\")
Popular topics includes crypto too. https:\/\/readwrite.com\/final-fantasy-14-dawntrail-everything-you-need-to-know\/<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nYou get the idea. This feels like more highly-specialized crypto content than you\u2019d expect to find under Final Fantasy coverage on a general tech site.<\/p>\n
But ReadWrite target gambling too, and very directly. (Credit where it\u2019s due: they\u2019re pretty good at it!) Here\u2019s them targeting \u2018online pokies,\u2019 the Australian term for slot machines:
\n![\"Readwrite\u00b4s](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/readwrites-online-pokies-ranking-min.png\")
ReadWrite\u2019s \u2018Online pokies\u2019 ranking. This should not be possible with conventional SEO.<\/em><\/p>\nThat page is up 98 places in SERPs compared to the previous week.<\/p>\n
How come? Maybe it\u2019s because Readwrite has massive, hulking domain authority.
\n![\"Readwrite](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/readwrites-hulking-authority-min.png\")
Ahref\u2019s Domain Rating tool, giving an idea of the value the domain alone brings to the ability to rank.<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/ahrefs.com\/website-authority-checker\/?input=readwrite.com
\n<\/em><\/a><\/p>\nI think I might have found the secret sauce.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s certainly not an improvement in content quality. Like Techopedia, ReadWrite\u2019s content changed radically when it was bought by Clickout Media, and everything more than about a year old seemes to have been scrubbed from the site.<\/p>\n
We believe that Clickout Media bought ReadWrite, partly because Ric McManus, the site\u2019s founder, wrote about it in April this year \u2014 only for the post to be scrubbed from his blog and from the Internet Archive too<\/a>.<\/p>\nBut not before screenshots could be taken and distributed:<\/a> ![\"Richard](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/richard-mcmanus-deleted-blogpost-min.jpg\")
Ric McManus\u2019 blogpost, showing Finixio\u2019s recruiter trying to recruit him to work at ReadWrite.<\/em><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/x.com\/Pamp_It_\/status\/1836404386819404143<\/a><\/p>\nRic found out his old company had been sold when he got an email trying to recruit him to Finixio!<\/p>\n
See part two of this series for more on the ownership structures Finixio\/Clickout Media prefers.<\/p>\n
What about when a website\u2019s dead and gone, but the domain still has authority?<\/p>\n
Redirects: stealing authority from defunct sites<\/h2>\n
Parasitizing on the domain authority of older, established tech and business websites isn\u2019t the only way Clickout Media does SEO tactics that go against Google\u2019s guidelines.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s talk about redirects.<\/p>\n
Redirects point people away from the URL they clicked on, and towards another URL.<\/p>\n
So if I visit, say, archiveswales.org.uk, that\u2019s what I should get. In 2023 it looked like this:<\/p>\n
![\"Archiveswales](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/archiveswales-in-2023-min.jpg\")
Archives Wales, back in the days when it was an archive site.<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20230307093403\/https:\/\/archiveswales.org.uk\/<\/em><\/a><\/p>\nBut when I try it, I get redirected to https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/se\/gambling\/casino-utan-svensk-licens<\/a>. Try it yourself:<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/archiveswales.org.uk\/<\/a><\/p>\nThere are multiple domains redirecting to this same Techopedia web page:
\n![\"There](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/techopedia-redirect-domains-min.png\")
Redirects to Techopedia\u2019s \u2018casino without Swedish license\u2019 page.<\/em><\/p>\nWhen you redirect like this, you transfer the domain authority and link juice from the redirecting site to the target site. The ones above all redirect to Techopedia\u2019s \/casino-utan-svensk-licens page. No wonder it started doing so well, so quickly.<\/p>\n
These all redirect from Business2Community to a website called Spaceport Sweden:![\"Spaceportswedens](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/spaceportswedens-redirect-domains-min.png\")
Redirects to Spaceport Sweden.<\/i><\/p>\n
They all lead here:![\"spaceportsweden](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/spaceportsweden-main-page.jpg\")
<\/strong>Spaceport Sweden\u2019s main page, translated to English
\n<\/i><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.spaceportsweden.com\/<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\nThe page specially recommends four casinos: Lucky Block, Mega Dice, Instant Casino, and 24Slots. Lucky Block is intimately linked with Finixio \u2014 half the C suite are Finixio staff, and guess which company they hired to do promotions? I mean, by this point, you kind of already know, but yes, even though the CEO of Lucky Block is Head of Business Development at Finixio, they’re still working together.<\/p>\n
Instant Casino being at the top of these lists isn\u2019t strange, in and of itself. But it looks like it might be a part of the pattern. Could it be that Instant Casino is also a Finixio asset?<\/p>\n
Though it\u2019s often difficult to show who owns what (see Behind the curtain for more on that), we were able to find out some information. First, until recently goldennewscasino.com redirected to Instant Casino:<\/p>\n
![\"goldencasinonews](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/goldencasinonews-redirecting-to-instantcasino-min.png\")
Golden Casino News using a 301 redirect to send traffic to Instant Casino.<\/em><\/p>\nAnd Golden Casino News was, previously, definitely owned by Finixio.<\/p>\n
![\"Goldennewscasino](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/goldennewscasino-owned-by-finixio-min.jpg\")
\nGolden Casino News\u2019 \u2018Company information and address\u2019 section, with Finixio, identified as the owner, highlighted.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s since changed hands<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Goldennewscasino](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/goldennewscasino-changed-hands-from-finixio-to-clickoutmedia-min.jpg\")
The same page, taken on the day I posted this piece. The new owner is listed as Clickout Media!<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/goldencasinonews.com\/about-us\/<\/em> <\/a><\/p>\nHow likely do we think it is that Finixio is giving traffic away to an unrelated website? Not that likely. And here\u2019s Liam Solomon, Finixio\u2019s digital PR and growth manager (and Clickout Media\u2019s head of sports PR<\/a>) tweeting Instant Casino content:<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/x.com\/liamsol_\/status\/1747956313269637242<\/a><\/p>\nYou know, just sports PR. This isn\u2019t conclusive proof by any means. But again, it seems to be part of a pattern.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s another Business2Community, redirecting to the same website, SpaceportSweden.com:<\/p>\n
Business2Community, eagerly sending hard-earned traffic to Spaceport Sweden. Why would you do this if they weren\u2019t connected?<\/em><\/p>\nSome things, though, we can find the receipts for. We\u2019ve seen Business2Community redirecting to SpaceportSweden.Could it be that Clickout Media owns Business2Community.com?
\n![\"Business2community.com](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/business2community-is-owned-by-clickoutmedia-min.png\")
https:\/\/www.business2community.com\/terms-of-use<\/a><\/p>\nLucky guess.<\/strong><\/p>\nSpaceport Sweden is a drop domain. It used to belong to a company that was working to establish a space program out of Kiruna<\/a>:
\n![\"Spaceport](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/spaceport-sweden-in-2020.-min.png\")
Spaceport Sweden in 2020.<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20201021010407\/http:\/\/www.spaceportsweden.com\/<\/em><\/a><\/p>\nNow, the site\u2019s navigation has just four pages:<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Spaceportsweden](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/spaceportsweden-with-toplist-min.png\")
<\/p>\n
Spaceport Sweden now, where the main areas of the site are totally focused on gambling.<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/www.spaceportsweden.com\/<\/em><\/p>\nAll dedicated to circumventing Swedish gambling laws.<\/p>\n
But there are plenty more pages actually on the site, including tons of their original content \u2014 pages that don\u2019t show up anywhere in the main navigation, but is present in the sitemap and is indexed in google.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/spaceportswedens-original-content-min.jpg\")
This page is one of many legacy pages that have been pruned from the navigation menu but are still indexed and accessible.<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/www.spaceportsweden.com\/id_7180\/<\/em><\/a><\/p>\nCould the new owners just not be bothered to prune the site? Maybe. Or maybe they\u2019re parasitising on the site\u2019s reputation, to fly under the radar about their gambling business. There are some impressive links pointing to those old pages.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s working, too. Look at how rapidly SpaceportSweden has climbed the rankings:![\"Spaceportswedens](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/spaceportsweden-rankings-sweden-min.png\")
Rapid increases in ranking over time can be seen in this image of the changes between May and November 2024.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u2018Casino utan svensk licens\u2019 has climbed from not ranking at all in the SERPs, to third position in Sweden, since May this year. These aren\u2019t new, easy keywords; just like with Finixio\u2019s other parasite successes, this shouldn\u2019t be possible in this amount of time, and it isn\u2019t with conventional SEO.<\/p>\n
Spaceportsweden\u2019s toplist looks like this:![\"Spaceportswedens](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/spaceportswedens-toplist-min.png\")
<\/strong>Check out the wording, layout, and which casinos are recommended\u2026 <\/i>https:\/\/www.spaceportsweden.com\/<\/a><\/p>\nWhich is interesting, because here\u2019s Techopedia\u2019s:<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Techopedias](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Techopedias-toplist-min.png\")
<\/strong><\/p>\n\u2026and compare it to this page.\u00a0<\/i>https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/se\/gambling\/casino-utan-svensk-licens<\/a><\/p>\nYou see the difference right away, right?<\/p>\n
Me either. They\u2019re word for word identical \u2014 compare them, seriously, check it yourself \u2014 and the design is nearly identical too, with only minor changes to things like button size and font.<\/p>\n
Both point to a website called topcasinosites.eu, and here, in turn, is their<\/i> sitemap:<\/p>\n
![\"Topcasinosites.eu](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/topcasinositesEU-sitemap-min.png\")
Topcasinos.eu\u2019s sitemap, showing a page dedicated to Spaceport Sweden.
\nhttps:\/\/topcasinosites.eu\/page-sitemap.xml<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a webpage dedicated to Spaceport Sweden. It\u2019s a 404, but there\u2019s no way these things aren\u2019t connected.<\/p>\n
Other websites with near-identical toplists include unitisweden.com:<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"UnitiSweden](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/unitisweden-toplist-min.jpg\")
Once again, the toplist is identical. https:\/\/www.unitisweden.com\/<\/em><\/p>\nExactly who owns these sites is often impossible to discover; they\u2019re drop domains that don\u2019t identify their owners, list physical addresses, or even have privacy policies.<\/p>\n
But then, ownership is only unclear until it\u2019s time to speak plainly, like when you\u2019re trying to recruit someone.<\/p>\n
Behind the curtain: How Finixio\/Clickout control and operate their business<\/h2>\n
But wait: how do we know Finixio owns ReadWrite? We don\u2019t, because they don\u2019t. It\u2019s all a lot more complicated than that.<\/p>\n
Adam Grunwerg and Samuel Miranda are two of Finxio\u2019s three officers:<\/strong>![\"Adam](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/adam-grunwerg-and-samuel-miranda-two-of-three-finixio-officers-min.png\")
Official ownership records for Finixio at the UK\u2019s Companies House website.
\nhttps:\/\/find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk\/company\/11705811\/officers<\/a><\/p>\nAdam Grunwerg is also one of the Involved Parties at another marketing company, Clickoutmedia:![\"Clickoutmedia](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/clickoutmedia-malta-business-registry-records-min.png\")
<\/p>\n
Involved Parties records for Clickout Media at the Malta Business Registry.
\nhttps:\/\/register.mbr.mt\/app\/query\/get_company_details?auto_load=true&uuid=676ff735-3e2b-51b4-99d5-159096f5d5d6<\/a><\/p>\nWho owns Clickout Media?<\/h3>\n
The Maltese Business Registry lists two shareholders, both other companies, both registered in the UK:<\/p>\n
![\"arg](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/arg-media-ltd-and-sbm-holding-group-ltd-min.png\")
Ownership records for Clickout Media at the Malta Business Registry. <\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/register.mbr.mt\/app\/query\/get_company_details?auto_load=true&uuid=676ff735-3e2b-51b4-99d5-159096f5d5d6<\/em><\/a><\/p>\nOne of these two holding companies, SBM Holding Group Ltd, has two officers, of whom one is Samuel Broadbent Miranda:
\n![\"sbm](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/sbm-holding-group-ltd-Samuel-Broadbent-Miranda-min.jpg\")
SBM Holding\u2019s official ownership records at Companies House.
\n<\/em>https:\/\/find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk\/company\/14155578\/officers<\/em><\/a><\/p>\nThe other has just one officer, Adam Robert Grunwerg\u2026<\/p>\n
![\"arg](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/arg-media-limited-Adam-Robert-Grunwerg-min.png\")
ARG Media Limited\u2019s ownership records at Companies House.<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk\/company\/08242192\/officers<\/em><\/a><\/p>\nThe companies aren\u2019t related but the people are the same. Finixio doesn\u2019t own Clickout Media; the same people own both companies. Some might call that a distinction without a difference, though I\u2019m guessing none of those people would be lawyers.<\/p>\n
What about their relationships with the websites they own? Why do we believe Clickout Media owns ReadWrite (apart from Ric McManus\u2019 now-scrubbed blogpost)?<\/p>\n
Maybe Pavel Pudakov knows. He\u2019s employed to be Head of Content at ReadWrite, by\u2026
\n![\"Pavel](\"http:\/\/recleudo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pavel-pudakov-head-of-content-at-readwrite-min.jpg\")
Pavel Pudakov\u2019s profile on B2B lead research site RocketReach.<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/rocketreach.co\/pavel-pudakov-email_25933241<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\u2026Clickout Media. (You\u2019ll be shocked to learn
I\u2019ve found the connections between some of these sites, traced the tactics they use, and even tracked down the owners.<\/p>\n
To learn how a company with its roots in the UK spread a successful parasite SEO operation all over the world, read on\u2026<\/p>\n
How do you get into the top three results on Google in less than a year?<\/h3>\n
Put that question another way.<\/p>\n
How does a general tech site wind up ranking in the top five for gambling-related search terms all over the world?\u00a0 (Including in places where online gambling is seriously illegal\u2026)<\/p>\n The answer is called parasite SEO. If you\u2019re an SEO, skip this part, you know it. But for everyone else, Google changed the way it ranks content recently. Domain authority, which is basically how much Google respects your domain, counts for a lot more now. Older sites that have been building a reputation for years have higher domain authority.<\/p>\n Parasite SEO is when you use a site with high domain authority to host content that has nothing to do with the site. Like writing pet insurance content on a business site. You\u2019re parasitising on the domain authority to get the content to rank. (There\u2019s a good general guide to parasite SEO here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n It\u2019s a growing problem because, well, it works better, cheaper and faster than conventional SEO. Steve says it as well as anyone. Parasite SEO just cancels the rules of good SEO. <\/i>(https:\/\/www.seroundtable.com\/google-parasite-seo-steps-36526.html<\/a>)<\/p>\n But some parasites go a lot further than just spamming a lower quality article on what used to be a good website.<\/p>\n Back in September this year Lars Lofgren published a post<\/a> showing why the business website Forbes was ranking for searches about pet insurance, CBD gummies and a whole lot else that was unrelated to the brand. I recommend reading Lars\u2019 post in full<\/a>, but I\u2019ll give a super quick overview. A company that wasn\u2019t owned or controlled by Forbes was blowing up traffic to several sections of Forbes\u2019 website, basically by doing parasite SEO at huge scale. They were making money stuffing the new material with affiliate ads: Later, Lars showed that the same company, Forbes Marketplace, was pulling the same tricks <\/a>at two other longstanding news and media sites.<\/p>\n When Lars wrote his post, Forbes ranked everywhere, at the top of every search results page, because Forbes Marketplace has been acting as a highly professionalized and very effective parasite SEO organization inside<\/i> Forbes. (Lars found that they have been so successful that there\u2019s reason to believe Forbes Marketplace was in talks to buy<\/i> Forbes!) Since then, Google seems to be catching up to the biggest parasite players and imposing manual penalties sitewide, resulting in big drops in traffic; the Forbes Marketplace playbook may be played out as a result.<\/p>\n Google also just rolled out an update to its definition of site reputation abuse that perfectly describes parasite SEO practices:<\/p>\n Site reputation abuse is the practice of publishing third-party pages on a site in an attempt to abuse search rankings by taking advantage of the host site’s ranking signals.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/blog\/2024\/11\/site-reputation-abuse<\/a><\/p>\n It\u2019s fairly clear by reading their spam policies<\/a> that Google is directly targeting operations like Finixio\u2019s \u2014 let\u2019s see what happens in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n But in the meantime, despite being caught and suffering penalties, the Forbes Marketplace case does show that parasite SEO can be even more successful when it\u2019s fuelled by plenty of cash and the people doing it are centralized and have access to the domain they\u2019re parasitizing off. Forbes Marketplace was well on the way metaphorically, and maybe literally, consuming Forbes as it once existed, in order to earn ad revenue for the clients who paid to have their content featured.<\/p>\n They\u2019re far from the only parasite in the ecosystem created by Google\u2019s algorithm. There\u2019s a whole ecosystem out there built on violating Google\u2019s own guidelines \u2014 and getting algorithmically rewarded for it, too.<\/p>\n Finixio is a London-based company that operates like a more freewheeling Forbes Marketplace.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve found evidence to suggest that Finixio\u2019s MO is to buy old, high-authority tech sites that aren\u2019t as profitable as their owners might like.<\/p>\n Then, they leave the site structure and most of the original content up, and simply add new material that\u2019s not relevant to the site\u2019s original purpose.<\/p>\n A website that built a reputation on giving general tech advice will pivot to promoting online gambling and cryptocurrencies, for instance.<\/p>\n Or a website that used to offer analysis of emerging technology trends will suddenly pivot to\u2026 well, to promote online gambling and crypto.<\/p>\n They use parasite SEO to make this impressively successful in a short amount of time.<\/p>\n First, we should acknowledge: these people are good <\/i>at what they do. Check out these changes in traffic and ranking, in the Swedish market: These pages are ranking on some highly competitive difficult keywords, and they\u2019ve gone from ranking 0 (meaning the page doesn\u2019t exist or doesn\u2019t rank at all) to top-three positions in just a few months.<\/p>\n Making changes like this in twelve months should be impossible on highly-competitive keywords, and with conventional SEO, it would be.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the same in other countries, too: The same website\u2019s rankings in Australia, showing similar changes.<\/em><\/p>\n Pokies\u2019 is Australian slang for slot machines; \u2018online pokies\u2019 is one of Australia\u2019s most difficult-to-rank-for keywords, but this site is number one for \u2018best online pokies Australia\u2019 and \u2018best pokies,\u2019 with a brand new page. How?<\/p>\n Techopedia is a flagship Finixio\/Clickout Media brand, and it shows the way they operate clearly. Let\u2019s walk through the playbook.<\/p>\n First, Clickout Media buys Techopedia. That happens in April-May 2023, according to one source; a staffer at Clickout Media has since confirmed that Clickout owns Techopedia.<\/p>\n Techopedia.com has been a fixture of the tech scene since 2000, so they have tons of domain authority.<\/p>\n Currently, \u2018The Techopedia mission is to help you better understand technology, and make better decisions in the fields of IT, Tech, and Crypto,\u2019 according to their meta description<\/a>. Which is interesting, because in 2021, when Bitcoin boomed to $68,000, Techopedia\u2019s job description was<\/a> to be\u00a0 \u2018Your go-to source for professional IT insight, from defining complex tech jargon to exploring the latest tech trends.\u2019 Seems like a big change.<\/p>\n (If \u2018crypto\u2019 jumped out at you a bit there, well, it should, and we will be coming back to that whole situation in a big way in the second post in this series.)<\/p>\n Inner pages on Techopedia get the kind of traffic that whole websites further down the food chain dream of: the whole site gets around 5 million views a month<\/a>, and the site\u2019s pages rank all over the world: number one in Japan for Ethereum future price<\/a>, number five in France for Black Friday<\/a>, or number one worldwide for Emma Navarro\u2019s net worth<\/a>. Techopedia is a heavy hitter everywhere.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s take just one example.<\/strong><\/p>\n The page on Magis TV, a SaaS platform for TV streaming that is hugely popular in South America, gets 89,000 visits all by itself: Magis TV has been declared illegal, shut down in Argentina, and kicked off the Google Play Store<\/a>.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s not what interests us here. We\u2019re looking for this If you like watching sports on TV, why not gamble? (For interesting thoughts on who might own this casino, see Behind the curtain at the end of this post, where we show how this whole network of websites is basically owned by the same handful of people, as well as part two of this series where we show how they also control a network of gambling and crypto sites.)<\/p>\n Next, they fire the staff.<\/p>\n Techopedia had staff who had been with the publication for a decade, and who had established some authority themselves in the space.<\/p>\n We were lucky enough to speak to someone who used to work there, on condition of anonymity, and they told us how the process played out. We\u2019ll call this person Andrea, because it\u2019s not her real name.<\/p>\n In April to May 2023, Andrea recalls, Clickout Media acquired Techopedia. The changes started immediately.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst, they fired all editors and got new ones, mostly very young people with very little or no experience.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n At this stage, the writing staff was intact and the outlook didn\u2019t look so bad:<\/p>\n \u201cThese young people did a great job, and gave us writers lots of freedom, and lots of ideas for new articles. In September-October, they hired new editors, still very young, and things were just great.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Initial signals were that editorial oversight might be reduced, but these weren\u2019t inexperienced writers who needed a lot of hand-holding.<\/p>\n \u201cThen on February 2024 they hired a new content manager, and we all got fired overnight. All of us. All the freelancer writers got laid off. Even the articles we were in the process of writing were canceled (but paid), and the writer roster was substituted with names with little or no resume.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Younger, more inexperienced writers may be more biddable than established professionals from Europe and America. Maybe that explains the new content direction, required by Techopedia\u2019s new parasite SEO strategy.<\/p>\n As Andrea recalls:<\/p>\n \u201cThe parasite SEO happened overnight, and you can see that by just checking what was published on December 2023 and January 2024 and comparing it to February, March and April 2024\u2014it’s disgusting.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Andrea notes that many of these writers are so underpaid and so prolific that they\u2019re almost certainly \u2014 in her opinion \u2014 using AI to write the majority of their work. That would explain why the experience of reading it is much worse; it\u2019s also very<\/i> against Google\u2019s guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n We took Andrea\u2019s advice and checked out what Techopedia\u2019s content looked like since the takeover. It\u2019s extremely clear: Since the takeover, it\u2019s\u2026<\/p>\n Mostly gambling and crypto (Netherlands): Techopedia\u2019s top ranking content in the Netherlands.<\/em><\/p>\n Nearly pure gambling and crypto (Sweden):<\/strong> Lots of gambling and crypto (Germany):<\/strong><\/p>\n Majority gambling and crypto (Australia):<\/strong><\/p>\n Mostly gambling and crypto (UK):<\/strong><\/p>\n Basically just gambling and crypto (USA):<\/strong><\/p>\n The new writing staff is turning out posts aimed at crypto, gambling and a bit of gaming. That\u2019s what the site\u2019s about now. There are a few general tech articles stirred in, but you\u2019re lucky if they account for one in 20 or 30 of the top-performing posts across multiple markets. This is rank, not traffic, so it can\u2019t be explained by increased interest in these posts rather than more general tech posts.<\/p>\n What about the quality of the new articles compared to the older ones?<\/strong><\/p>\n Here\u2019s one from 2022, written by an editor who isn\u2019t at the site anymore:<\/p>\n A post about technical aspects of AI, aimed at business people and published in 2022 on Techopedia. <\/i>https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/rds-and-trust-aware-process-mining-keys-to-trustworthy-ai\/2\/34665<\/a><\/p>\n This is the first few paragraphs of RDS and Trust Aware Process Mining: Keys to Trustworthy AI? By Andrew Pery. Things to notice, from a purely content perspective:<\/p>\n Compare the style, approach and level of information, including sources for claims, to this piece:<\/strong><\/p>\n Again, things to notice purely in the actual content itself:<\/strong><\/p>\n This is qualitatively different, in the sense that it\u2019s less neutral and factual than Techopedia\u2019s former approach. And it\u2019s symptomatic of what\u2019s happening at Techopedia. The focus of the site has completely changed, and the content has changed with it.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a decent chance, too, that many of the writers on the site aren\u2019t real.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s Techopedia\u2019s \u2018best online casinos in the Netherlands\u2019 page: The author\/editor listed here is Joren Verdoes, who writes for Bitcoin Magazine\u2026 \u2026also owned by Finixio: Joren\u2019s LinkedIn is basically empty<\/a>, and there is only one photo of him on the internet; he doesn\u2019t appear to have any other social accounts or bylines on any property not owned by Finixio\/Clickout.<\/p>\n Margaret Rouse is the author of a huge number of pages on Techopedia. This is her:<\/strong><\/p>\n Her LinkedIn page says her work has been cited by a slew of well-regarded publications:<\/p>\n I\u2019m not saying they never cited her, but\u2026 They never used her name. Nor did Time<\/i>.<\/p>\n And Rouse doesn\u2019t show up anywhere but Finixio\/Clickout Media properties either.<\/p>\n Does this conclusively prove that Finixio are inventing staff members when they\u2019re really using a shifting staff of freelancers? No, of course not.<\/p>\n But it does raise the question of where these people, and their long lists of citations, are, if that\u2019s not the case.<\/p>\n And in the job ads we found (see What do Clickout say\u2026?), skills at using freelancers to assemble content rapidly are specifically listed.<\/p>\n A similar story plays out at ReadWrite.<\/p>\n ReadWrite is another Finixio\/Clickout Media acquisition, according to a now-deleted blog post by the site\u2019s former owner<\/a>. And it\u2019s seen similar changes.<\/p>\n Finixio\/Clickout assets and affiliates often have opaque chains of ownership, though the company can be quite explicit about what they own under certain circumstances, such as when they\u2019re trying to recruit people.<\/p>\n When Finixio\/Clickout Media buy a website, the changes are obvious pretty quickly. Here\u2019s the Techopedia bottom-of-page navigation: And here\u2019s ReadWrite\u2019s: ReadWrite\u2019s focus on crypto and gambling is even more blatant than Techopedia\u2019s, perhaps because the site is smaller. ReadWrite\u2019s traffic at SEMRush, showing about 288,000 visits a month \u2014 compared to about 5 million for Techopedia.<\/em> Readwrite uses a similar approach to what we\u2019ve seen before:<\/strong> A mix of stuff directly about gambling and crypto, with game and general tech interest material stirred in. It\u2019s all getting good traffic: This page is characteristic of the content that\u2019s not about crypto and gambling:<\/strong> There are no ads for online casinos on the Final Fantasy: Dawntrail page shown above, but here\u2019s the \u2018Most popular tech stories\u2019 section right below the article: It\u2019s 40% meme coin crypto.<\/p>\n The \u2018Latest news\u2019 section immediately below it is 100% crypto<\/strong> Popular topics is\u2026<\/strong> You get the idea. This feels like more highly-specialized crypto content than you\u2019d expect to find under Final Fantasy coverage on a general tech site.<\/p>\n But ReadWrite target gambling too, and very directly. (Credit where it\u2019s due: they\u2019re pretty good at it!) Here\u2019s them targeting \u2018online pokies,\u2019 the Australian term for slot machines: That page is up 98 places in SERPs compared to the previous week.<\/p>\n How come? Maybe it\u2019s because Readwrite has massive, hulking domain authority. I think I might have found the secret sauce.<\/p>\n It\u2019s certainly not an improvement in content quality. Like Techopedia, ReadWrite\u2019s content changed radically when it was bought by Clickout Media, and everything more than about a year old seemes to have been scrubbed from the site.<\/p>\n We believe that Clickout Media bought ReadWrite, partly because Ric McManus, the site\u2019s founder, wrote about it in April this year \u2014 only for the post to be scrubbed from his blog and from the Internet Archive too<\/a>.<\/p>\n But not before screenshots could be taken and distributed:<\/a> https:\/\/x.com\/Pamp_It_\/status\/1836404386819404143<\/a><\/p>\n Ric found out his old company had been sold when he got an email trying to recruit him to Finixio!<\/p>\n See part two of this series for more on the ownership structures Finixio\/Clickout Media prefers.<\/p>\n What about when a website\u2019s dead and gone, but the domain still has authority?<\/p>\n Parasitizing on the domain authority of older, established tech and business websites isn\u2019t the only way Clickout Media does SEO tactics that go against Google\u2019s guidelines.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s talk about redirects.<\/p>\n Redirects point people away from the URL they clicked on, and towards another URL.<\/p>\n So if I visit, say, archiveswales.org.uk, that\u2019s what I should get. In 2023 it looked like this:<\/p>\n But when I try it, I get redirected to https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/se\/gambling\/casino-utan-svensk-licens<\/a>. Try it yourself:<\/p>\n http:\/\/archiveswales.org.uk\/<\/a><\/p>\n There are multiple domains redirecting to this same Techopedia web page: When you redirect like this, you transfer the domain authority and link juice from the redirecting site to the target site. The ones above all redirect to Techopedia\u2019s \/casino-utan-svensk-licens page. No wonder it started doing so well, so quickly.<\/p>\n These all redirect from Business2Community to a website called Spaceport Sweden: They all lead here: https:\/\/www.spaceportsweden.com\/<\/a> The page specially recommends four casinos: Lucky Block, Mega Dice, Instant Casino, and 24Slots. Lucky Block is intimately linked with Finixio \u2014 half the C suite are Finixio staff, and guess which company they hired to do promotions? I mean, by this point, you kind of already know, but yes, even though the CEO of Lucky Block is Head of Business Development at Finixio, they’re still working together.<\/p>\n Instant Casino being at the top of these lists isn\u2019t strange, in and of itself. But it looks like it might be a part of the pattern. Could it be that Instant Casino is also a Finixio asset?<\/p>\n Though it\u2019s often difficult to show who owns what (see Behind the curtain for more on that), we were able to find out some information. First, until recently goldennewscasino.com redirected to Instant Casino:<\/p>\n And Golden Casino News was, previously, definitely owned by Finixio.<\/p>\n It\u2019s since changed hands<\/strong><\/p>\n How likely do we think it is that Finixio is giving traffic away to an unrelated website? Not that likely. And here\u2019s Liam Solomon, Finixio\u2019s digital PR and growth manager (and Clickout Media\u2019s head of sports PR<\/a>) tweeting Instant Casino content:<\/p>\n https:\/\/x.com\/liamsol_\/status\/1747956313269637242<\/a><\/p>\n You know, just sports PR. This isn\u2019t conclusive proof by any means. But again, it seems to be part of a pattern.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s another Business2Community, redirecting to the same website, SpaceportSweden.com:<\/p>\n Some things, though, we can find the receipts for. We\u2019ve seen Business2Community redirecting to SpaceportSweden.Could it be that Clickout Media owns Business2Community.com? Lucky guess.<\/strong><\/p>\n Spaceport Sweden is a drop domain. It used to belong to a company that was working to establish a space program out of Kiruna<\/a>: Now, the site\u2019s navigation has just four pages:<\/strong><\/p>\n Spaceport Sweden now, where the main areas of the site are totally focused on gambling.<\/em> All dedicated to circumventing Swedish gambling laws.<\/p>\n But there are plenty more pages actually on the site, including tons of their original content \u2014 pages that don\u2019t show up anywhere in the main navigation, but is present in the sitemap and is indexed in google.<\/p>\n Could the new owners just not be bothered to prune the site? Maybe. Or maybe they\u2019re parasitising on the site\u2019s reputation, to fly under the radar about their gambling business. There are some impressive links pointing to those old pages.<\/p>\n It\u2019s working, too. Look at how rapidly SpaceportSweden has climbed the rankings: \u2018Casino utan svensk licens\u2019 has climbed from not ranking at all in the SERPs, to third position in Sweden, since May this year. These aren\u2019t new, easy keywords; just like with Finixio\u2019s other parasite successes, this shouldn\u2019t be possible in this amount of time, and it isn\u2019t with conventional SEO.<\/p>\n Spaceportsweden\u2019s toplist looks like this: Which is interesting, because here\u2019s Techopedia\u2019s:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2026and compare it to this page.\u00a0<\/i>https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/se\/gambling\/casino-utan-svensk-licens<\/a><\/p>\n You see the difference right away, right?<\/p>\n Me either. They\u2019re word for word identical \u2014 compare them, seriously, check it yourself \u2014 and the design is nearly identical too, with only minor changes to things like button size and font.<\/p>\n Both point to a website called topcasinosites.eu, and here, in turn, is their<\/i> sitemap:<\/p>\n That\u2019s a webpage dedicated to Spaceport Sweden. It\u2019s a 404, but there\u2019s no way these things aren\u2019t connected.<\/p>\n Other websites with near-identical toplists include unitisweden.com:<\/strong><\/p>\n Exactly who owns these sites is often impossible to discover; they\u2019re drop domains that don\u2019t identify their owners, list physical addresses, or even have privacy policies.<\/p>\n But then, ownership is only unclear until it\u2019s time to speak plainly, like when you\u2019re trying to recruit someone.<\/p>\n But wait: how do we know Finixio owns ReadWrite? We don\u2019t, because they don\u2019t. It\u2019s all a lot more complicated than that.<\/p>\n Adam Grunwerg and Samuel Miranda are two of Finxio\u2019s three officers:<\/strong> Adam Grunwerg is also one of the Involved Parties at another marketing company, Clickoutmedia: Involved Parties records for Clickout Media at the Malta Business Registry. The Maltese Business Registry lists two shareholders, both other companies, both registered in the UK:<\/p>\n One of these two holding companies, SBM Holding Group Ltd, has two officers, of whom one is Samuel Broadbent Miranda: The other has just one officer, Adam Robert Grunwerg\u2026<\/p>\n The companies aren\u2019t related but the people are the same. Finixio doesn\u2019t own Clickout Media; the same people own both companies. Some might call that a distinction without a difference, though I\u2019m guessing none of those people would be lawyers.<\/p>\n What about their relationships with the websites they own? Why do we believe Clickout Media owns ReadWrite (apart from Ric McManus\u2019 now-scrubbed blogpost)?<\/p>\n Maybe Pavel Pudakov knows. He\u2019s employed to be Head of Content at ReadWrite, by\u2026 \u2026Clickout Media. (You\u2019ll be shocked to learn Tech sites ranking for gambling keywords.<\/em><\/p>\nParasite SEO: stealing domain authority<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\nMy screenshot of my SERPs; why is Forbes being treated as an authority on cannabis edibles?<\/em><\/p>\nThese ads are a vital part of the process: this is where the content pays for itself.<\/em><\/p>\nFinixio\/Clickout Media\u2019s parasite SEO success story<\/h2>\n
Swedish market rankings for a website linked to Clickout Media, showing major, rapid changes in rankings.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nTechopedia: quality collapses<\/h3>\n
Step 1: Buy a once-solid website<\/h3>\n
Ahrefs\u2019 domain checker tool showing Techopedia\u2019s massive domain rating.<\/em><\/p>\nSEMRush\u2019s view on the traffic this one page gets.<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/ahrefs.com\/website-authority-checker\/?input=techopedia.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\nThis is taken from the Magis TV page. It\u2019s one of several casino ads on the page.<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/es\/descargar-magis-tv-legal<\/em><\/a><\/p>\nStep 2: Fire everyone<\/h3>\n
Step 3: Start churning out content in gambling and crypto<\/h3>\n
<\/strong><\/p>\nTechopedia\u2019s rankings in Sweden.<\/em><\/p>\nTechopedia\u2019s top ranking content in Germany.<\/em><\/p>\nAustralian rankings for recent content on Techopedia.<\/em><\/p>\nThe top ranking material on Techopedia in the UK.<\/em><\/p>\nThe same story in the United States.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n\n
\nA post about the prospects of the cryptocurrency industry, published to Techopedia in 2024. https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/news\/over-250-pro-crypto-candidates-elected-what-it-means-for-regulations<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n
Step 4: Make up some staff?<\/h3>\n
Techopedia\u2019s list of the best casinos (or \u2018casino\u2019s\u2019) in the Netherlands. https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/nl\/casino\/nieuwste-casinos-nederland<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nJordan Verdoes\u2019 author profile at Bitcoin magazine.<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.nl\/author\/joren-verdoes<\/em><\/a><\/p>\nA Tweet advertising for a Head of Content for \u2018our Bitcoin Magazine,\u2019 by Finixio.<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/x.com\/FinixioHQ\/status\/1710611137350214066<\/em><\/a><\/p>\nMargaret\u2019s author bio on Techopedia. A reverse image search didn\u2019t turn anything up either.<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/contributors\/margaret-rouse<\/em><\/a><\/p>\nMargaret\u2019s LinkedIn profile.<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/margaretrouse\/<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n
\nMy SERPs, from a US server.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nThis is just my SERPs on Google.<\/em><\/p>\nReadwrite: a hard pivot to crypto and gambling<\/h3>\n
Techopedia\u2019s navigation.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>ReadWrite\u2019s navigation, looking very similar.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nhttps:\/\/www.semrush.com\/analytics\/overview\/?q=readwrite.com&protocol=https&searchType=domain<\/em><\/a><\/p>\nReadWrite\u2019s rankings for gambling and crypto content.<\/em><\/p>\nOrganic keywords generating the vast majority of ReadWrite\u2019s traffic, showing that front-page and especially top-position SERPs are driving the majority of traffic to the site.<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/www.semrush.com\/analytics\/organic\/positions\/?db=us&q=readwrite.com&searchType=domain<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n
\nReadWrite\u2019s computer gaming coverage. The site still publishes material like this, in addition to a growing focus on crypto and gambling.<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/readwrite.com\/final-fantasy-14-dawntrail-everything-you-need-to-know\/<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n
\nStories 01 and 03 are crypto-focused. https:\/\/readwrite.com\/final-fantasy-14-dawntrail-everything-you-need-to-know\/<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n
\nLatest news, totally focused on memecoins, with presales and close-in analysis of the market. https:\/\/readwrite.com\/final-fantasy-14-dawntrail-everything-you-need-to-know\/<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n
\nPopular topics includes crypto too. https:\/\/readwrite.com\/final-fantasy-14-dawntrail-everything-you-need-to-know\/<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n
\nReadWrite\u2019s \u2018Online pokies\u2019 ranking. This should not be possible with conventional SEO.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nAhref\u2019s Domain Rating tool, giving an idea of the value the domain alone brings to the ability to rank.<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/ahrefs.com\/website-authority-checker\/?input=readwrite.com
\n<\/em><\/a><\/p>\nRic McManus\u2019 blogpost, showing Finixio\u2019s recruiter trying to recruit him to work at ReadWrite.<\/em><\/p>\nRedirects: stealing authority from defunct sites<\/h2>\n
Archives Wales, back in the days when it was an archive site.<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20230307093403\/https:\/\/archiveswales.org.uk\/<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n
\nRedirects to Techopedia\u2019s \u2018casino without Swedish license\u2019 page.<\/em><\/p>\nRedirects to Spaceport Sweden.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/strong>Spaceport Sweden\u2019s main page, translated to English
\n<\/i><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong><\/p>\nGolden Casino News using a 301 redirect to send traffic to Instant Casino.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nGolden Casino News\u2019 \u2018Company information and address\u2019 section, with Finixio, identified as the owner, highlighted.<\/p>\nThe same page, taken on the day I posted this piece. The new owner is listed as Clickout Media!<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/goldencasinonews.com\/about-us\/<\/em> <\/a><\/p>\nBusiness2Community, eagerly sending hard-earned traffic to Spaceport Sweden. Why would you do this if they weren\u2019t connected?<\/em><\/p>\n
\nhttps:\/\/www.business2community.com\/terms-of-use<\/a><\/p>\n
\nSpaceport Sweden in 2020.<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20201021010407\/http:\/\/www.spaceportsweden.com\/<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nhttps:\/\/www.spaceportsweden.com\/<\/em><\/p>\nThis page is one of many legacy pages that have been pruned from the navigation menu but are still indexed and accessible.<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/www.spaceportsweden.com\/id_7180\/<\/em><\/a><\/p>\nRapid increases in ranking over time can be seen in this image of the changes between May and November 2024.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/strong>Check out the wording, layout, and which casinos are recommended\u2026 <\/i>https:\/\/www.spaceportsweden.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nTopcasinos.eu\u2019s sitemap, showing a page dedicated to Spaceport Sweden.
\nhttps:\/\/topcasinosites.eu\/page-sitemap.xml<\/p>\nOnce again, the toplist is identical. https:\/\/www.unitisweden.com\/<\/em><\/p>\nBehind the curtain: How Finixio\/Clickout control and operate their business<\/h2>\n
Official ownership records for Finixio at the UK\u2019s Companies House website.
\nhttps:\/\/find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk\/company\/11705811\/officers<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nhttps:\/\/register.mbr.mt\/app\/query\/get_company_details?auto_load=true&uuid=676ff735-3e2b-51b4-99d5-159096f5d5d6<\/a><\/p>\nWho owns Clickout Media?<\/h3>\n
Ownership records for Clickout Media at the Malta Business Registry. <\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/register.mbr.mt\/app\/query\/get_company_details?auto_load=true&uuid=676ff735-3e2b-51b4-99d5-159096f5d5d6<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n
\nSBM Holding\u2019s official ownership records at Companies House.
\n<\/em>https:\/\/find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk\/company\/14155578\/officers<\/em><\/a><\/p>\nARG Media Limited\u2019s ownership records at Companies House.<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk\/company\/08242192\/officers<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n
\nPavel Pudakov\u2019s profile on B2B lead research site RocketReach.<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/rocketreach.co\/pavel-pudakov-email_25933241<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n