What exactly is Search Engine Spam?

by Carla Reis | January, 2007

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The word "spam" is mostly associated with email, as in when your inbox gets overflow with unsolicited emails from Viagra promos to Software offers. Then you have to take time to clean up your inbox before you can move on to your regular emails. Search engines have the same problem; the only difference is that it takes them longer to ‘delete’ the offender from their ‘inbox’.

Search Engine Spam Definition

Accordingly to Tim Mayer, Director of Product Management at Yahoo!, spam is considered any web page that is created deliberately to trick the search engine into offering inappropriate, redundant, or poor-quality search results.

Inappropriate content is content not directly related to the actual search query. An example is a travel Web site that is optimized for “Hawaii Packages” when it only offers packages to Mexico.

Redundant content is using the same content in different pages to increase the number of pages ranked in one search query. Cloaking and doorway pages are common strategies that deliver redundant content to the search engines. Don’t confuse “Landing Pages” with “Cloak” or “Doorway Pages”. Landing Pages are legitimately designed for both search engines and visitors, offering unique content and conversion centered calls to action.

Tricks to Avoid

If a search engine discovers you are trying to trick them into giving a page higher ranking than it deserves, you could face penalties. Most of the time, a search engine will modify the algorithm so the spam pages no longer appear at the top of search results. In more extreme cases, the page itself, or the whole site, will be removed from the search engine index.
Protect your site and choose your SEO company wisely (read previous article on “Be Aware of Guarantees”). Avoid penalties by recognizing and staying aware from these kinds of spam:

Hidden text and links - Invisible, hidden or small text only for ranking purpose. All content on your Web site should be detectable by your human visitors.
Mirror pages and sites - Pages built and tailored for each search engine. Search engines have duplicate filters to detect identical or near-identical content and will eliminate pages and Web sites that offer it.

Doorway pages - Gateway, doorway, and hallway pages created specifically for obtaining high search engine positions. These do not benefit site visitors.

Cloaking - The process of delivering specific Web pages to search engines that are different from pages end users see. Search engines commonly ban the IP address of the cloaked content.

Link farming – Web sites whose sole purpose is to link to another, commonly called free-for-all (FFA) Web sites. If you participate in a link farm or a "Submit Your Site to 100,000 Search Engines" program, your site can be penalized.

"Instant" link popularity - Any SEO/SEM company promising you “instant” link popularity is doing work that will cause your Web site to be penalized. Link development takes time.

Will my Web site be really banned from search engines?

Yes. If your Web site engages in illicit SEO practices, it is possible that it will be penalized or blacklisted.

Advertising agencies, amateur Web marketers, and Web hosting companies now offer SEM services for their customers. Before you hire them, make sure they do not use spam methods to obtain top search engine positions. In an interview with Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Watch, Eric Schmidt, chief executive of Google, said "We are now trying a lot harder to catch them, because there are a lot more bad guys now."

Summary: Search Engine Optimization is a new industry; however, it is bound by rules as any other. When selecting a SEO company, make sure they follow search engine best practices because once a Web site has been banned from the search engines, it usually takes a lot of time and money to have it listed again.

Carla Reis
President
Quest Quality Solutions
www.questqualitysolutions.com
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