George Maxwell buyers beware
George Maxwell is a company that sells chesterfield sofas, and I guess his SEO is http://www.munki-boy.co.uk/index.html, so why did they register this domain
Domain name: DISTINCTIVE-CHESTERFIELDS.COM
Registrant:
George Maxwell UK Ltd
6 Ashley Court
Hale, Cheshire WA15 9PD
GB
Now if I found out that they had bought some links to a site we designed, that also sells chesterfield sofas, then that might really piss me off..
DaveN
Andreas Voniatis 1885 days ago
http://www.alchemyv.com/Even if they did though, as annoying as that would be, I doubt would harm your clients site
DaveN 1885 days ago
client site was very very new !
Dave
Dudibob 1885 days ago
wait…he says he does SEO and he made a flash splash page and duplicate content, what an idiot.
Well there main site has PR 0 but there ‘destinctive’ site has PR 4 at a month old, wtf is Google doing?
Distinctive Chesterfields- the real one! 1885 days ago
http://www.distinctivechesterfields.comThis is so frustrating!!!
We have also identified that another competitor has had the same done by him also- http://www.chesterfields-direct.com as opposed to http://www.chesterfieldsdirect.co.uk
as well as as their own dupe site http://www.georgemaxwell-uk.com!!
what is going on with this guy?
i dont understand
DC
Andreas Voniatis 1885 days ago
http://www.alchemyv.com/Dave, Thats a fair argument, point taken mate.
Dan 1885 days ago
Do you think you could trademark something generic like ‘distinctive chesterfields’?
I’ve had the same hyphenated domain thing happen to me, it’s very annoying – the alternative is to buy them yourself. Unless you are a big company though – it’s difficult to justify buying every TLD and hypenated TLD as a ‘brand protection’ excercise. But you don’t need to have much traffic misdirected to make it pay for itself.
Dan Horton SEO 1884 days ago
Who is George Maxwell anyway LOL
Perhaps these guys should just offer up the domain now?
Chesterfields Direct-The real one! 1884 days ago
http://www.chesterfieldsdirect.co.ukWhen I first saw the chesterfields-direct.com address initially I was quite frustrated and informed Steve at Distinctive Chesterfields that they had done the same with his web site.
After the initial frustration I realised that this was desperate measures by a struggling company and not suprisingly so as the owner unlike ourselves with 21 years experience in the manfuacture and supply of traditional English Chesterfields here at http://www.chesterfieldsdirect.co.uk has only bought the company less than 6 months ago.
After consultation with our legal reps there are several avenues to follow and if a third party has deliberately registered a domain name similar to yours and is diverting business away from you, you can pursue two realistic options. The first one being a rule called passing off and the other is to take up the matter with the domain name registrars who will not want to be seen as being involved in these sorts of underhand tactis. Nominet runs the .co.uk system. More info can be found by searching for web law and various companies will give constructive advice.
Mike Lester
Director
http://www.chesterfieldsdirect.co.uk
James 1883 days ago
I’d clean up the hidden text area at the bottom of the page if I were you.
Chesterfields Direct-The real one! 1883 days ago
http://www.chesterfieldsdirect.co.ukIt is visible !!!!!!!!!!
Jonathan Swift 1883 days ago
That site dave designed does look very much like the old george maxwell site, is this soem kind of viral marketing
most big companies are owned by the same people in a group check ewhat adam curtis said
one eyed joe 1882 days ago
Hey, has anyone tried a whois on george-maxwell.com?
It’s the guy Steve was hanging around with last year, definitely something fishy going on there.
I heard there is a copyright dispute regarding the design and online representation of Steve’s site as it was copied directly from the 2005 George Maxwell site design.
I’m surprised Dave Naylor is involved in this one.
*Joe*
DaveN 1882 days ago
Joe, lol thats funny, I’m pretty sure i would know about any copyright dispute regarding the design we designed IT! that’s the client bit here ..
maxwells design are these :
http://www.chesterfields.co.uk/
http://www.chesterfields.info/
http://www.georgemaxwell.com/
http://www.chesterfields-direct.com/
http://www.chesterfield.de/
charlie chesterfield 1882 days ago
The Distinctive Chesterfields website and catalogue were copied almost exactly from the old George Maxwell website and catalogue.
Distinctive Chesterfields made no attempt to hide the fact they had copied the design and content.
If Distintcive Chesterfields had used a bit more honesty in their own design they wouldn’t be in this position now, I don’t really see how they could have a case against George Maxwell when they are as guilty as anyone of copyright abuse.
What goes around comes around.
BTW “Distinctive Chesterfields” isn’t a registerd trade mark, maybe I’ll go and register it now….
the whistleblower 1882 days ago
Did you design this one?
http://web.archive.org/web/20060511062926/http://www.georgemaxwell.com/
Come on Dave, keeping it in the family?
DaveN 1882 days ago
@ the whistleblower, Nope never seen that we didn’t start working with Steve at Distinctive Chesterfield untill Dec 2007…
I think one of my favorite sites looks more like DC
http://www.savilerowco.com/
maybe they copied George Maxwell … lol
Dave
DaveN 1882 days ago
one eyed joe,
are you saying the whois on george-maxwell.com?
is fake or something..
Domain name: GEORGE-MAXWELL.COM
Administrative Contact:
Sotgiu, Francesco sales@chesterfields.co.uk
it’s the same has GEORGEMAXWELL.COM
Domain name: GEORGEMAXWELL.COM
Administrative Contact:
Sotgiu, Francesco sales@chesterfields.co.uk
one eyed joe 1882 days ago
http://www.chesterfields.co.uk/
http://www.chesterfields.info/
http://www.georgemaxwell.com/
http://www.chesterfields-direct.com/
http://www.chesterfield.de/
aren’t all the same company, what is it you are saying above?
crazy horse 1882 days ago
Dave you’re right, the savilrowco site is even more identical to yours than the old george maxwell site, it’s plain to see but in the interests of fairness, as you’re arguing for fairness:
“regarding the design we designed IT! ”
should that be “savilerowco designed it”,?
DaveN 1882 days ago
Hey, has anyone tried a whois on george-maxwell.com?
It’s the guy Steve was hanging around with last year, definitely something fishy going on there.
and you said
That site dave designed does look very much like the old george maxwell site, is this soem kind of viral marketing
I thought you ment Francesco and Steve, had come up with some crazy plan ….
from what I was told George Maxwell had been sold, and I think Steve would have told me about such a plan tbh
one eyed joe 1882 days ago
I’m sure you would opt out of any crazy plans if you knw of them
ive supplied chesterfields too several of these company’s and i know what goes on
DaveN 1882 days ago
LOL crazy horse …
I don’t think my staff can afford to shop there, I don’t actually design the sites myself, we employ in house designers i just thought I looked like the savilerow site ..
but look at the industy :
http://www.furniturevillage.co.uk/
http://www.dfsonline.co.uk/
http://www.intosofa.com/
http://www.leathersofasonline.co.uk/
http://www.csl-sofas.com/
http://www.ekornes.co.uk/
http://www.leathergroups.com/
my design team said they produced 3 layouts and 2 colour schemes for DC
Dave
DaveN 1882 days ago
then joe,
you will know more about it than I do… but you say not the same company, but why are all these registered to one person ?
http://www.chesterfields.co.uk/
http://www.chesterfields.info/
http://www.georgemaxwell.com/
http://www.chesterfields-direct.com/
http://www.chesterfield.de/
one eyed joe 1882 days ago
i don’t know, i found it on whois i am asking if they are the same as in your first comments
DaveN 1882 days ago
lol got you .. i think so those there the only maxwell designs i knew about
DaveN 1882 days ago
Franco,
You said “I’m not sure why you deleted my posting, maybe you’re scared of the truth being published?”
I have checked awaiting moderation and Spam floder.. not sure where you post went, but feel free to post
DaveN
DaveN 1882 days ago
Ok Franco i think while you were sending emails I was going through moderation but your post in live now.. The charlie chesterfield one, yeh!.. so are you saying that you did the domain and spam links because the design looks like your site did 3 years ago, even though I have already pointed out that it’s not a copy of your old site design.
DaveN
Franco 1882 days ago
Dave,
Below is a copy of my earlier post, I have no link to distinctive-chesterfields.com or chesterfields-direct.com,I presume these sites have been created as part of an SEO campaign by George Maxwell UK Ltd..
“The Distinctive Chesterfields website and catalogue were copied almost
exactly from the old George Maxwell website and catalogue.
Distinctive Chesterfields made no attempt to hide the fact they had copied
the design and content.
If Distintcive Chesterfields had used a bit more honesty in their own
design they wouldn’t be in this position now, I don’t really see how they
could have a case against George Maxwell when they are as guilty as anyone
of copyright abuse.
BTW “Distinctive Chesterfields” isn’t a registerd trade mark, maybe I’ll go and register it now….
What goes around comes around.”
Franco
Pete 1882 days ago
Dave, mate… from reading whats going on with this post it seems like your really stuck in the middle… what with a client who you did a site for ( and I presume the SEO too) then all these competitors jumping in with all the bad press and rumour mungering. Rumours are is that when George Maxwell (aka Franko) sold out a few months ago there is still a dispute in the money side of things. Perhaps this is why everyone seems so pissed off with each other??
Distinctive Chesterfields- the real one! 1881 days ago
http://www.distinctivechesterfields.comI am not and never have been interested in getting into some long drawn out debate on this whole issue. I think the method in which George Maxwell UK ltd have operated is underhand, but as you say Franco, what goes around, comes around. Tell me, really, what do the old GM site and my site really have in common? They are both white and clean looking, and we both sell a similar base range of chesterfields that ten or so other companies do!
As for the brochure, we used a specialist design company, the Design Mechanics, based in Huddersfield, Who were given the ranges we sell ( from our own photography, from our own samples, taken in our own warehouse) and mocks of the site. They designed the brochure ( and i think, did a pretty good job).
There was a discussion about my purchasing of George Maxwell, which consisted of one meeting with Frank, who seemed like a likeable guy, and two or three phone calls, but for reasons which i dont feel proper to mention of a public forum, i did not feel it was the opportunity for me.
So lets get back on topic- dupe sites aren’t good for anyone- not me, and not the industry- but most importantly, not the customer. And just to clarify, there are no copyright infringerments that i know of going on and no connection between my company and any other in the chesterfields industry.
D R R 1825 days ago
This is quite an interesting discussion. As someone involved in a very small way in the Chesterfield business I have always been interested as to just who it is that sits at the top of all these sites. It was obviously ‘George Maxwell’. At least I’m not the only one that feels customers could be more than a little mis-led by it all.
I must say that I don’t think that there is a great deal of difference in many of the sites. Maybe we should try to differentiate between what we all offer
rather than trying to all appear the same? Just a thought.
So, is George Maxwell still for sale?
Regards
D R R
Pesh 1237 days ago
http://www.pdqfurniture.co.ukHi guys- I actually found this thread whilst searching the backlinks for: http://www.chesterfieldsdirect [dot] co [dot] uk.
I understand your worries regarding paid placements guys, and if someone else had an almost identical domain and were buying links that inadvertently pointed to my site then I would be worried about the decisions made with the purchases and implications they could cause!
There seems to be no ways in governing such events.
How can Google adapt to this?
I guess this model could help express an opinion or theory in regards to Google’s possible future behaviour.
If ( and this is a big if!) google’s eyes and methods of ranking were replicating the I Ching ‘Book of Changes’ and networking relationships and changes in serps were like the seasons rolling together sequentially, then I guess google would also see these link purchase mistakes as natural link acquisition!?
Should Google be accommodating this aspect more?
Anyway I digress –
A little background about how I found this post:
I was searching for links on blogs through backlinks of a furniture competitor.
I came across http://www.developmentbg [dot] com.
Whilst checking whether this weblog was a genuine blog I found the aforementioned site in its backlinks owned and registered by Mike Leicester – the guy who posts above quite a lot!!!!
As an aspiring ‘link builder to be’ I was obviously more interested in sites in the UK market so clicked through straight away.
I found it strange that the link to http://www.developmentbg [dot] com. did not appear visually on site, however seoquake returned the result that
http://www.modernfurnituredeal [dot] com
http://www.laflat [dot] com
and
http://www.developmentbg [dot] com all emanated from the homepage.
It made me think:
a.) Does http://www.chesterfieldsdirect.co.uk actually look like a real online furniture shop? They have no real product catalogue and the basic order system is a wee flaky to say the least.
and
b.) If they are a real furniture shop in the UK, why are they linking out to a blog hosted in Pakistan with no recip…3 x way linking????
c.)Where were the links?
I found that the links were in the footer but are craftily hidden.
Hover over the footer and scroll your mouse wheel and you will see the 3 x links in question scroll like te source code suggests – not sure how they made it scroll but looks well hidden.
I thought maybe there was a possibility that this site had been hacked through ftp. But, then I find that the guy who is obviously doing the seo has posted a link (Mike Leicester) in the first comments here! And it turns out the hidden text is intended!!!!
So……I realise this is slightly off topic, but how would linking out to a blog help the seo on your furniture site? Or is this simply a site to power laflat? or modernfurnituredeal?
I am bewildered!
Can anyone shed some light?
NigelSofas 1129 days ago
http://www.english-sofas.co.ukI found this site when looking at a competitor’s backlinks too! I don’t think there should be such a worry to backlinks into a website you’ve designed or owned, links are increasingly becoming a smaller factor in my opinion. It’s all about how your brand is perceived and there are many more areas of the web including social areas which can really give a stron indication to Google who the authority sites are for certain keyphrases and relevancy.
Nina Greaves 1108 days ago
http://www.comfy-living.co.ukI found this page when I was researching competitor’s backlinks as well! Perhaps the publishing of the offending URL could have been avoided somehow, instead of driving traffic to them and also creating a link