Hey everyone! I'm dealing with a weird issue and could use some help. My main website runs on a Docker container with Apache, and I'm using an Nginx reverse proxy along with Let's Encrypt for SSL. Recently, I found out that my site content is being displayed under random domains, such as boot-phone.com and mail.kulturplaner.org, even though I never set those domains up myself. When I checked Google Search Console, it turns out that Google indexed these random domains instead of my actual one as the canonical version. I've already updated my Nginx configuration to include strict server names and set up a default server block to redirect all other domains to my actual domain using 301 redirects. Now I have a few questions: 1) Why would someone direct their domain to my server's IP? 2) What could their motive be (SEO spam, phishing, etc.)? 3) Has this harmed my SEO since Google indexed the wrong domain? 4) Am I now safe with the 301 redirects in place? 5) Is there a way to keep an eye on new domains that might point to my IP in the future? Thanks for your assistance!
1 Answer
This seems fairly common when you're operating on a shared cloud platform. The previous owner of that IP might have left their DNS records up. Luckily, it looks like you've made some progress with your Nginx fixes.
That update looks a bit suspicious. Here's a screenshot I took showing some of my concerns.
I appreciate your insight! I've had this server since 2020, and I've seen multiple domains showing my content like kulturplaner.org and mail.kulturplaner.org.