Name hacking, and website not anymore in google results

Site URL: http://www.charlottetanguy.fr

Hello,

I am facing a very confusing issue. First, an individual -having the same name as me- jumped on the ".com" equivalent of my ".fr" website adress. My website exists for 15 years, i am a photographer and illustrator. That person declares to be graphist, photographer, too, and bought the domain ".com" through squarespace, who hosts my website ".fr". My website that always have been for 15 years in the first page of google results is now absent. But this person's website took its place. 

It means that none of my clients can find me, but goes directly to this person's website.

What to do to struggle against this hijack of my identity ?

It is an unfortunate situation for you but domain names are pretty much first come first serve. There are no rules or laws, corporate or government that prevent someone from having your name or purchasing a second level domain with a different top level domain than yours. The exception of course would be a brand name which the brand owner could go after someone for using their brand name.

The traditional method for protection is to buy those domains you don't want folks to have yourself. But once the other person gets it, you are pretty much out of luck. You can offer to buy the domain from them but that can be expensive and a bit of a process.

I don't think the other Charlotte Tanguy had a nefarious purpose to damage you. Her site looks legit on cursory examination.

As to why you have been knocked out of a high ranking position I'm guessing that the .com might rank more highly than .fr as people are more often looking for companies rather than individuals. I'm not an SEO expert so perhaps those more familiar with SEO can comment.

The only suggestions I can make would be to re-submit your site to Google, Bing, and etc. for indexing. That may not help but it can't hurt to spend the few minutes it would take to do. The other thing to do is try to improve your site content. Content is king. Again I'm not an SEO expert so I have no recommendations but that is an oft cited thing to do.

Thank you for your answer. Yes i think the other is truly a person working as a graphist... But it is really confusing how, in a couple of days, my website became suddenly invisible. Not even on page 7 of results.

I have had this happen to me also, the "troll" registered similar domain, then I assume they have penalised me somehow.