Under Google's Nose: How the Parasitic SEO Ecosystem Thrives
Popular tech websites have suddenly started publishing content about cryptocurrencies and gambling. Within just a few months, they have taken top positions in search rankings for highly competitive queries, surpassing sites that had held these positions for years.
What’s going on?
A network of tech websites is simultaneously publishing similar content. They exchange traffic through redirects, use identical pages, and link to the same casinos and crypto projects. Their strategy relies on parasitic SEO, which goes against Google’s guidelines—and Google has started to take notice.
How Do Sites Reach Google’s Top 3 in a Year?
General tech websites are dominating global gambling search results through parasitic SEO. Google has changed its ranking algorithms, making domain authority a key factor. Older sites with a long history now have a significant advantage.
Parasitic SEO exploits this authority to promote unrelated topics. For example, a business portal might start publishing articles about pet insurance or online casinos. This method is effective, fast, and cheap, which is why parasitic SEO is growing.
However, some players take it much further.
Parasitic SEO by Finixio/Clickout Media
Finixio is a London-based company that operates similarly to Forbes Marketplace but with fewer ethical constraints.
How Does Finixio/Clickout Media Operate?
- Buying old, authoritative tech sites.
For example, Techopedia was acquired by Clickout Media in April-May 2023. This site has high authority since it has existed since 2000. - Mass layoffs of editors.
First, the old editorial team is fired and replaced with younger, inexperienced employees. A former employee revealed that after Techopedia was acquired, all editors were let go and replaced by people with no industry experience. - Flooding the site with crypto and gambling content.
In Sweden, the Netherlands, Australia, Germany, the US, and the UK, Techopedia is now 80–90% focused on cryptocurrency and gambling. Some tech-related articles are still published, but mostly as a cover. - Fake authors.
Many authors publishing content on Techopedia likely don’t exist. For example, “tech expert” Margaret Rouse is supposedly cited by The New York Times, but searching the NYT website yields no results. She has no online presence outside Finixio/Clickout websites.
Using Redirects and Dropped Domains
Finixio/Clickout Media heavily relies on redirects to transfer traffic from penalized sites to new ones.
- Spaceport Sweden was originally a project for building a spaceport in Sweden. Now, it’s a gambling site, though some old information remains to preserve its SEO authority.
- The Richmond Review was a British literary magazine, but now it promotes illegal casinos.
These schemes work: Spaceport Sweden rose from zero to the top 3 for the query “casino utan svensk licens” in just six months.
How Does Finixio Make Money?
Finixio/Clickout Media doesn’t just promote casinos—they likely own them. For instance, Instant Casino is actively promoted by Finixio’s CFO, and financial flows between the casino and Finixio intersect. The casinos promoted by Techopedia and Spaceport Sweden are linked to Finixio.
Google Is Striking Back
Google has started penalizing sites involved in parasitic SEO. Techopedia lost rankings for 700+ keywords. ReadWrite deleted an entire gambling section after losing 40% of its traffic. But new pages keep appearing on new domains, repeating the cycle.
Financial Aspects
According to Clickout Media recruiters, the company generates $40 million in net profit per month