Parasite SEO
Renting the authority of a high-profile domain by publishing commercial content in a subdirectory or subdomain that the host does not genuinely edit or oversee.
Analogy Mental model
A travelling salesman nobody trusts rents a corner of a famous hospital lobby, hangs a sign invoking the hospital's name, and sells miracle cures to people who trust the building.
In practice What you actually do
The policy against abusing site reputation now has enforcement history behind it, including actions against major publishers running coupon and sponsored-content directories. The practical lesson for everyone else is to keep core growth off rented authority and to buy sponsored placements only in sections a real editor controls.
Where people get burned Pitfalls
Distinguish this from legitimate community participation. Publishing substantive answers as a real person on Reddit, professional networks, or developer platforms remains effective and permissible, as long as it is not a vehicle for link dropping.
This entry was written in English from the Chinese original, not machine-translated. Read the Chinese version →