How To Stay Away From Search Engine Spam In SEO
Search engine spam is one of the most difficult problems that search engine crawlers encounter. And it can be a real problem for web-site owners, too, because those who use search engine spam in an attempt to improve their site rankings make it even more difficult for legitimate web sites to achieve good rankings.
So, what exactly is search engine spam? Yahoo! defines it like this:
Pages created deliberately to trick the search engine into offering inappropriate, redundant, or poor-quality search results.
Other search engines have a similar definition for search engine spam. Ultimately, what your con- cern with search engine spam should be is to avoid it at all costs. There’s a fine line between opti- mizing your web site and creating search engine spam. And you can cross that line unexpectedly. The problem is that search engines will penalize your site if they perceive any element of the site as being search engine spam. And in some cases, that penalty can be delisting your site from search rankings entirely.
There are more than a dozen types of search engine spam. Some types, like content scraping, we’ve already covered. But many more exist and in order to avoid them, you should know what they are.
Doorway pages
Doorway pages are often confused with landing pages, but they are not even close in their functions. Landing pages are designed to be rich in content, and visitors usually come to these pages through PPC ads. Doorway pages, on the other hand, are created specifically for search engines with the intent of increasing search engine results rankings.
Doorway pages usually use some form of redirection so that when visitors click through the link in the search engine results and land on the page, they are immediately taken to another page. This is either accomplished with a fast Meta refresh, JavaScript, or server side redirection. The Meta refresh is a technique that is used less often now than in the past, because many search engines penalize web sites that use such tactics.
In place of the Meta refresh, some web sites have found clever ways to trick visitors into clicking at link that leads them forward to the web site they’re being drawn to. There are also some web sites that have designed content-rich doorways, which are doorway pages that have some element of con- tent included as well as a basic navigational structure that’s consistent with the rest of the web site. These pages, like other doorway pages, are still designed to draw high quantities of visitors.
Hidden and tiny text
If you plan to use hidden or tiny text on your page to draw search engine rankings, you should probably change your plans. The practice of using hidden and tiny text was used a lot in the past. It’s accomplished by including keyword-rich text that is the same color as the background of your site. This text can’t be seen by the visitors that come to your site, but it can be read by search engine crawlers.
The problem with using this technique is that search engines have caught on, so they are looking for this trick and if they find it, you’ll be penalized or possibly even delisted. The offense is further compounded if you happen to use keyword stuffing in addition to hiding your text within your web site. Keyword stuffing is using a nonsensical stream of keywords, or using keywords out of place on your site. When you combine this method with hiding your text, it’s just a matter of time before search engines refuse to include your site in their search rankings.
SEO oversubmission
Submitting your sites to search engines and directories is one tactic that some web-site owners use to ensure their sites are detected by search engines (and it is covered more in Chapter 14). But most of the larger engines, while providing a way to submit a URL, actually suggest that the best way to be included in their index is to get a link to the URL.
Don’t use automated submission services if you decide to submit your URL. Submit everything by hand, taking care to read the instructions completely.
Page jacking
Page jacking is a method of search engine spam that’s similar in nature to scraping. The difference is that with page jacking, whole pages and even whole web sites-are copied for the purpose of increasing search ranking and traffic for another site.
In one example of page jacking, a person might copy a whole site like Microsoft. They then cloak that site, but it still appears in search listings. Then, when unsuspecting users click through the listing for Microsoft they’re taken not to the Microsoft page, but to another page that the hijacker funnels them to.
Not only is page jacking a good way to get your web site delisted from search engine results, but it’s also a crime that can result in a stiff fine and possibly jail time. There are also trademark and copy- right infringement issues associated with page jacking.
Bait and switch
Remember the old bait-and-switch cons that used to be so popular? Someone would offer a prod- uct as a great deal, and then, when users showed up to purchase it, the seller would try to switch them to more expensive products or ones with less quality. This bait and switch still happens today, and it’s come to the Internet.
Bait and switch in SEO is the practice of creating an optimized web page specifically for search engines with the intent of obtaining good rankings. When those rankings are obtained, the company replaces the optimized site with one that’s less optimized and more normal. The result is nearly instant traffic when the site has been switched.
Bait and switch does have one downfall. Most search engine crawlers revisit a site several times a month. And when the crawler revisits a bait-and-switch site, it will see that the content of the site has changed, and will adjust search rankings accordingly. In other words, the person who set up the bait and switch put a lot of time into a temporary optimization solution.
It makes much more sense to do your optimization the right way the first time out. Then, when the crawler comes back through looking at your site, it sees a consistent picture of the site, and the ranking of the site will remain consistent.
Cloaking
Cloaking is another sleight-of-hand SEO technique. For SEO purposes, cloaking a site is a method of delivering a page based on who is requesting the page. For example, if a web site is using cloak- ing, when a regular visitor comes to the site, that visitor will see one page. But when a search crawler comes to the site, it sees a much more relevant, better optimized site.
Search engines frown on cloaking, and if you’re caught using cloaking techniques, your site will be penalized or even delisted completely.
There is another reason that people use cloaking on their web sites. Instead of trying to trick search engines, some web-site owners use cloaking to protect the source code of their web site. Because it’s possible for anyone to choose Show Source or Display Source Code from their browser’s tool menu, it’s sometimes frustrating for organizations that want to keep their source code proprietary.
Instead of putting it out for the whole world to see, these companies use page cloaking. But this is not an advisable way to protect your code. Search engine crawlers don’t like cloaked sites and your site will be penalized if you choose to use cloaking for any reason.
Hidden links
Hidden links are created using the same methods used to create hidden text. The difference between hidden links and hidden text is that, with hidden links, the search crawler can follow the links to other sites or to other pages within the same site.
Because many search engines now pay close attention to the links that lead into and off of a web site, hidden links have become more popular. However, they should not be used under any circum- stances, because the ultimate result when your hidden links are discovered is that your site will be penalized by the search engine. And anything that reduces your site ranking or has the potential to affect the ranking in a negative way should be avoided.
Spamming a search engine for any reason is never a good idea. And you can be penalized even for inadvertently spamming, so take the time to learn what techniques could lead a search engine to believe that you’re intentionally spamming it. Then, avoid those techniques no matter what might lead you to believe that spamming a search engine might be a good idea.
