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Your SEO agency's sites look like clones
An SEO agency builds sites using your name that look like your main site. From the outside, nothing sets them apart from clones. So before the first complaint, we ask what your agency built.
Article · SEO agencies · October 17, 2026 · 4 min read
By Vlad Pivnev, Founder & CEO
An agency builds dozens of sites using your name
These are your own sites (satellite sites). The agency buys the domains, fills them with content and builds links to them. Each site has a “sign up” or “play” button that leads to your main domain. Technically, the sites belong to you. One agency sells this network as its “brand protection” service.
Satellite sites per brand
One agency, in one country 10–15
Another agency, in total 50–100
Reach the top in 2–4 months 3–5 of 10
The design is close to your main site on purpose. So a check that compares a site with your home page doesn't catch them. They are similar, not identical.
Nothing technical sets them apart from clones
Here is how an agency site, a clone and your main site compare on the signals a check can see.
SignAgency siteCloneYour main site
Your logo and designyesyesyes
Your name plus a word in the domainyesyesno
In your SSL certificatesnonoyes
Your company in domain recordsnonoyes
The agency bought the domains. So domain records do not list your company, and your SSL certificates do not include them. A certificate check finds many of a brand's own domains. It does not find these.
The button does not settle it either. A satellite's button leads to you, just like an honest affiliate's. Some satellites even get the label “looks like a clone”.
Here is a real case. One brand's own site ranked first in one country's search results for “brand registration”. Its domain was the brand name and the word “registration”, joined with hyphens. Parasites build their names the same way. The brand's logo appeared next to the site in search results. The site did not run on the brand's platform. Only the owner could tell us it was theirs.
What we ask before the first complaint
We don't ask only for “your domains”. A brand often doesn't remember them: it bought SEO, not a list of domains. Agencies also work both sides. In September 2026, one iGaming SEO agency told us it also pushes client sites for other brands' names. So we ask about everything the agency built. Your answer takes a minute.
| Step | Who |
|---|---|
| You send your domains, backup sites and affiliate links | you |
| We ask what your SEO agency built: sites, social accounts and placements | you and your agency |
| We compare the affiliate number in each site's links with your official pages | we |
| For each unknown site, we show you where its button leads | we |
| You confirm “not ours” | you |
| Only then do we file a complaint | we |
Here is what step 3 found for one brand. 29 of 30 domains with its name used one template. Two affiliate numbers in their buttons also appeared on the brand's official pages. Sites with those numbers were the brand's own network or its SEO contractor's, not parasites. For the other numbers, we asked the brand.
In our own SERM work, we keep a list of every site we create for you. When the contract ends, you keep all of it.
FAQ
Will you take down sites our SEO agency built?
No. Before the first complaint, we get your list and ask what your agency built. We file only after you confirm “not ours”.
We don't know every site our agency built. What then?
We show you each unknown site, where its button leads and which affiliate number it carries. You check with your agency. Until you answer, we file nothing.
Do the satellite sites belong to us?
Yes, technically. But the agency buys the domains, so the domain records may not show your company. In our SERM work, everything we create is listed in the report, and you keep it when the contract ends.
Related pages
We never call your own site a clone. We file only after your “not ours”.
SERM Protection → · Fake websites & clones → · Affiliate hijacking → · Get a free brand audit →
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