Identifying and Avoiding Spam Techniques
What constitutes search engine spam?
In an effort to determine the best overall sumation of what actually constitutes SE Spam, I scoured the terms of use of all the major search engines.The bottom line is agreed by all.
Any optimization method or practice employed solely to deceive the search engines for the purpose of increasing rankings is considered spam.
- Hidden text.
- Keyword stuffing of text or tags.
- Doorway pages, multiple domains or subdomains with essentially the same content.
- Sneaky redirects.
- Cloaking.
- Cybersquatting (tricking users by registering misspellings of well-known web sites ie www.goggle.com)
- Link Schemes.
- Flooding the search results with machine-generated pages.
- Using meta data that does not accurately describe a page's actual content.
Why SPAM is a Bad Deal
First and foremost, spammed sites artificially influence a search engine's ability to calculate relevancy. This often means that the end user is provided results they would not expect to receive in response to their query which provides a bad experience.Second, and of utmost importance to the website owner or webmaster, sites which obtain high rankings through use of inscrutable methods are prone to penalty or ban by the search engines. It simply isn't worth it.
How to Avoid Spam AND Get High Rankings
Make sure every effort you make toward optimization actually benefits your user.Search engines want relevancy. Users want relevancy. Good content satisfies them both.
Enough said.
There is so much I can say about this!
Besides the fact that it can get your site banned, it is a total waste of your money and your creative energies! The search engines like sites with a lot of relevant information. Using your energy to add to your site and make regular updates will make your site a search engine magnet.
Most engines will quickly drop sites that have duplicate or near duplicate content. At best, one of your sites will stand while the other domains fall away. Give the engines and the user what they want: unique content.
Optimize the REAL site and the redirects are not necessary. Users do not appreciate being deceitfully redirected and will be less likely to use your products or services if they feel they have been deceived. Of course, your site can be penalized for this practice as well.
Truly, stuffing keywords is a dinasaur SEO method, please beware of it.
Do your keyword research, place your keywords and related words (more important than ever due to stemming) in the appropriate places within your content and your tags.
You do not need to stuff your keywords into your content, your meta tags or your alt tags. In fact, if you do, you will probably be facing penalization and until then your site will look ridiculous to your viewers. Be keyword smart, not keyword spammy.
Link Building is very important for achieving high search engine rankings and needs to be taken seriously.
There is no quick fix for the link building process. As much as you need links, you must keep in mind that when you link to a site you are "voting" for that site, stating that you not only appreciate their content, but that you agree with their methods.
By linking to relevant quality sites, you are showing the search engines, in effect, that you have good sense, good taste and most likely a good site.
On the other hand, when you vote for sites that SPAM the engines, the search engines see that you have no taste, no sense and obviously an unworthy site, regardless of how great your content is.
Linking schemes will typically have your site rubbing elbows with sites in "bad neighborhoods". Search engines will penalize your site, finding it guilty by association, for linking to a "bad neighborhood". Google clearly points out here that they will penalize a site for associating with a bad neighborhood.
The general rule of thumb on linking is this:
You are not held accountable for who links to you but you are held totally accountable for who you link to.
It is best that your linking be done by hand, either by you, by your webmaster or by a reputable SEO who understands the reality of penalization by association with a "bad neighborhood".
Take this very seriously and carefully review any site you link to or "vote" for.
The best way to optimize your site for long term ranking results is:
- Serious keyword and competition research
- Good content development
- Effective link building
If your viewers cannot benefit from your optimization efforts, chances are it is considered search engine spam. SPAM is truly not necessary for high rankings and will not get the long term results you want.
If you own a website but are not the webmaster or if you have a SEO in your employ, make sure you KNOW what techniques are being used...IT IS YOUR SITE afterall.
Once your site is ready, it's time to link build. A good first step in link building is to submit to directories.
