Penalties, Redirects, and Dropped Domains: A New Chapter in the Parasitic SEO Race
A few days ago, I published an article about how the parasitic SEO network had spread across numerous old tech and business sites. Behind this scheme was Finixio/Clickout Media, a company claiming to control over 200 websites.
Since that article was published, significant changes have occurred. Almost all the sites mentioned have lost their search rankings.
Major Sites Under Fire
Finixio/Clickout Media owns numerous websites, particularly notable for their large tech and business publications, which were previously considered category B or C in their respective fields.
To stay focused, I will highlight three key examples:
- Techopedia illustrates the process of acquiring a website, transforming its content, and the impact on traffic.
- ReadWrite demonstrates how Finixio/Clickout shifts website focus toward gambling and cryptocurrency.
- Business2Community reveals how they use redirects to transfer positive SEO signals from one domain to another.
All of these sites have now suffered a dramatic traffic decline, losing hundreds of thousands of visitors in just a few days. Their high-ranking pages have dropped to the second or third page of search results.
Traffic Collapse
The websites I previously reported on have lost a significant amount of traffic.
- Business2Community dropped from 306,000 to 66,000 organic visits in just a week. This was not a simple algorithm change but a clear penalty. It is unclear whether it was automated or manually imposed, but in any case, the site has lost most of its audience.
- Techopedia lost over 1.7 million visits, dropping from 3 million to 1.3 million.
Techopedia was the flagship of the entire parasitic SEO network. It had a better reputation than Business2Community, which had long suffered from an open content publication model exploited by marketers.
In some regions, Techopedia lost almost half a million visitors. This is a severe blow that could have shut down the company if it were operating legally.
The decline is particularly noticeable in cryptocurrency and gambling niches, which were Finixio/Clickout’s main sources of revenue.
The rankings of pages targeting crypto casinos have also collapsed. Keywords that previously ranked in the top 5 have vanished from the first page of search results—most of them not even appearing on the second page.
ReadWrite’s Decline
A similar situation occurred with ReadWrite, where traffic dropped by 98,000 visits, and 23,000 keywords lost their rankings.
Although ReadWrite was a relatively small site, it still suffered. However, we know that none of these websites function as independent businesses—they are all part of a larger network controlled from a central hub.
How Did Finixio/Clickout Media Adapt to the Traffic Loss?
They did not change their strategy or comply with Google’s rules. Instead, they simply redirected traffic to other websites.
Finixio/Clickout is using redirects to pass authority from penalized sites to new projects.
Techopedia, Business2Community, and ReadWrite are now directing their visitors to new domains.
- Techopedia’s page on betting sites now redirects to bestoffshoresportsbooks(.)net—a site that appears to be a legitimate resource but is actually just a single-page website with no “About Us,” contact details, or privacy policy.
- The same happened with casinoutanspelpaus(.)io, a slightly more developed site with a fake author, “Mikael Andersson,” whose LinkedIn profile is empty.
What Do These Redirects Achieve?
The main goal is to transfer authority and SEO reputation from a penalized site to a new one.
Users don’t necessarily have to visit the new site, but search engines recognize the redirection and begin to treat the new domain as an authoritative source.
Sudden Traffic Surge for New Sites
If the redirects are effective, the traffic loss on old sites should be counterbalanced by growth on new ones.
- casinoutanspelpaus(.)io doubled its traffic within days of implementing redirects.
- Keywords for this site have started ranking higher. For example, one of its primary search queries jumped from position 17 to position 7.
Use of Dropped Domains
Finixio/Clickout is also utilizing redirects on dropped domains.
For example, The Richmond Review—a former literary magazine—now redirects users to gambling site ranking pages.
The old content remains untouched, but new pages dedicated entirely to cryptocurrency and gambling have been added.
Content Manipulation Based on Device Type
- Desktop users see articles about licensed bookmakers.
- Mobile users see content promoting illegal casinos.
This method allows Finixio/Clickout to hide illicit content from regulators, who typically use desktop devices for monitoring.
The Spaceport Sweden Case
Another example is Spaceport Sweden, which was once a website dedicated to space technology in Sweden.
Now, its old content is still indexed, but it is no longer accessible via navigation menus. Instead, four new pages focused on gambling have been added.
These manipulations are effective: Spaceport Sweden is rapidly gaining traffic and improving its search rankings.
Redirects to Crypto Casinos
- Business2Community now redirects users to solanacasino(.)ltd—a website that mimics the branding of the Solana blockchain project but is in no way affiliated with it.
- Solana Casino claims to be registered in Malta, but it does not appear in the official registry.
- The top casinos listed on the site are all linked to Finixio/Clickout.
Creation of New Localized Sites
Finixio/Clickout is also replacing old site subdirectories with new standalone domains.
- Business2Community’s Korean page now redirects to business2communitykorea(.)com.
- This new site is almost identical to the old version, with only minor layout changes.
- Similar redirects have been set up for UK and Switzerland-focused sites.
Conclusion
When Google imposed penalties on Finixio/Clickout, they did not abandon their tactics. Instead, they adapted, using redirects and dropped domains to preserve their traffic.
This strategy continues to work because Google’s algorithms are still unable to effectively detect and counteract these schemes.
Until search engines improve their detection of content relevance rather than just authority metrics, Finixio/Clickout will keep profiting while bypassing penalties.