Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Spam

This is any type of spamming that is geared toward obtaining higher organic rankings on the search engines. Respectable SEO firms will not use these tactics because they risk getting the website banned. A good SEO can get better rankings without spamming, but you get what you pay for most of the time.

Where to report Search Engine Spam:
(links open in new window)
Google
Google Webmaster Tools (It may get reviewed faster this way if you report from within the tools system)
MSN
Yahoo

SEO Spam Techniques:
(We DO NOT suggest you try ANY of these)

- Hidden Text Spam
When the text on the page is hidden from view to users, but remains spiderable by search engines.
Purpose
To increase the keyword density of the terms that the spammer wants to rank for in the organic search engine rankings, and sometimes to increase the relevancy score of a made-for-adsense (MFA) arbitrage site running PPC ads.
Method
Hidden text spam is usually accomplished by making the text the same color as the webpage, using CSS to push it very far off the page, commenting it out, putting images over top of it, etc. etc.
What You Should Do
If one of your competitors is ranking above you, yet they have less links, less content, and have been around for less time, using hidden text is one way in which they might have obtained those rankings. To check, first try looking at the cached version of the page by clicking the “cached” link next to the listing on the search engine result page (SERP). Do you see anything there that you didn’t see when you visited the regular version of the page? You can also go to View>Source and look at the code. Try doing a Ctr+F (search) on the page in source code view for the keywords and see if it takes you to a group of keywords that you didn’t see on the page. If you do find spam, report it to the search engine as outlined above.

- XSS Exploits
Cross-site scripting (XSS) is a computer security vulnerability that allows hackers to inject code into your web pages.
Purpose
Making your website link to them with spammy anchor text without your knowledge in order to obtain better rankings for those terms. Another, more malicious, use of XSS exploitation is information phishing.
Method & Protection
FPF is not in the habit of giving advice on topics which we are not well versed in, and this will be no exception. This is a particularly dirty and complicated (read: technical) trick and we suggestion reading this full Wiki entry as well as the links toward the bottom of that page.

- Keyword Spam
Stuffing titles, meta tags, alt tags, NoFrame tags, footers, etc. with keywords.
Purpose
To increase keyword density.
Method
Instead of describing the image or page with one or two relevant phrases (they CAN be keyword rich, but not spammy) the inexperienced SEO or webmaster will stuff dozens of keywords into the field.
What You Should Do
Most of the time I just ignore it. What these people don’t realize is that they are watering down the relevancy of that page. If I have a page about BLUE Widgets, why would I want the search engine to see the phrases “Red Widgets, Green Widgets, Purple Widgets…)? Wouldn’t I want to create a real, substantive page for my Red Widgets and leave the keyword off of my blue widget page so I can rank higher for each? With that said, if you find your competition is doing this and getting away with it on the top of the SERPs, you should report them using the methods described above.

- Cloaking
Showing one user a different page than other users sees.
Purpose
It is often used as an honest way to geo-target advertising and other marketing messages. However, in regard to spamming it is used to show the search engine a keyword-rich, content-rich page and the user a spammy, content-sparse page full of adsense and affiliate links, porn, gambling, etc.
Method
By checking the IP address of the user, the server can provide a page designed for that particular region, IP address, etc. If a webmaster knows the IP address range of the Googlebot spider, he or she can choose to show a special page when that spider visits.
What You Should Do
Using the same method you used to uncover hidden text (look at the cached version) see if the page looks the same as what you see on the “normal” page. Note: If there is no cache link, chances are they are using a nocache tag in the metadata on the page. This might only be visible on the version of the page they show to the search engines. Very tricky. But here’s something trickier for you: Let them think you’re Google.

- Bot Clicking SERPS
I’m not sure of the actual industry term for this, but it is basically the act of sending a program out to search for keywords and click on your organic results in the search engines (these same bots are used for PPC click fraud as well) over and over again.
Purpose
It has been speculated that the click through rate (CTR) on SERPs plays a role in how well a site ranks. In other words, if there are three different websites in the top three spots and spot #2 is consistently getting skipped over by users who click instead on the listing in spot #3, those two listings may switch places over time.
Method
The bots will often skip over multiple IP addresses to perform their tasks under the radar. They do this by using proxy servers located around the world. Sometimes they will also click on competitor’s domains, click back again quickly, and then click on the targeted domain before cutting off and going to a new IP. It is also speculated that clicking the back button within a certain amount of time can signal to the search engine that you think the result was not relevant to your search.
What You Should Do
Ummm… I really don’t know. Most industries aren’t nearly competitive enough online for this to even be worth anyone’s time. This trick is most often used to click on PPC ads, either to make money from your own ads as a publisher, or to drain your competitor’s budget as an advertiser. Such practices might become more sophisticated as social web plays a result in search. Stay tuned…

- Blog Spamming / Comment Spamming
Commenting on blogs or forums for the sole purpose of obtaining a link.
Purpose
To increase link popularity and thereby improve organic search engine rankings.
Method
Ever see this… “Hi, I like your blog. I have one just like it at buymycrap.com“? Sometimes they will put the link as their website and it will show up when you click their name. This does little good because most blog software includes a rel=nofollow tag. But they do it anyway, I think just to get on your nerves.
What You Should Do
Manually approve all comments on your blog, ensure that all comment links have a rel=nofollow tag inside the link, install askimet, and you’re about 99% spam-free by then. But you’ll never be 100% spam free. They are persistent bastards, I’ll give ‘em that.

- Form Spamming
Submitting a link or sending a message through an online form and copying the resulting “confirmation page” URL, usually a dynamically generated query string.
Purpose
That query string is now a page on your website, which links to the spammer because they included a link to their site in the submission form and you have repeat it on the confirmation page. Spammers take advantage of this to increase their link popularity.
Note:
As with any link from your site, it can have a negative affect on your rankings if the link goes to a “bad neighborhood” which spam links usually do. The .edu websites are particularly vulnerable and/or targeted for this type of spam.
What You Should Do
Do you have a confirmation page on your contact or directory link submission form? Does it show the message or link being submitted? If so, get rid of it! Use MSN’s linkfromdomain: command to find out what links are coming out of your domain.
QUESTION: Here’s an interesting question for the class. If you perform a search on a term that you rank well for (perhaps a site:domain search?) and copy the resulting query string (URL) from that SERP, then seed it as a link somewhere so it gets crawled, will other search engines think that search engine was linking to you? Hmmm… Anyone?

- Wiki Spamming
Creating wiki articles about their little noname company, or inserting links to their website into other wiki articles.
Purpose
Again, as with most search engine spam, the spammer’s goal is to increase link popularity.
Method
Start a new wiki article about your crappy site, or just include a link to your crappy site inside another wiki article that doesn’t seem to get much attention from editors.
What You Should Do
If you really have that much time on your hands, delete the link and explain why. Otherwise, I just ignore them. They don’t usually last that long anyway.

- Social Network Spamming
Type 1: Creating multiple accounts, sometimes called “sock puppets” on sites like Reddit and Digg for the purpose of voting for your own submissions that are so poorly done that nobody else would want to link to them.
What You Should Do
Bury their stories and/or report them to administrators. NOTE: I do not consider writing for your audience spamming, so an article about Digg that gets submitted to Digg is not any spammier than writing about tennis in a tennis magazine. If have been known to write a few Digg stories myself.
Type 2: Creating profiles on every social networking site around - such as myspace or yahoo360 - for the sole purpose of gaining link popularity or making friends who you can send email / comment spam to.
What You Should Do
Drop them from your friends list ASAP.

- PR Hijacking / Page Jacking
When a spammer does a 302 (temporary redirect) to a higher ranking page for awhile, sometimes the search engines will start to credit the originating page for the links going into the page that it redirects to.
Purpose
I could redirect one of my pages to www.google.com or www.whitehouse.gov if I wanted to, and if I could somehow inherit some of the “link juice” or rankings from those pages…
Method
Usually using a mod URL rewrite in the .htaccess file, a webmaster will redirect the page to a higher ranking website. This is usually combined with cloaking (see above) so that the search engine gets redirected but the user does not.
What You Should Do
If you suspect someone is doing this (although the search engines have gotten a lot better about it in the last year, mostly by treating 302s as a 301) go to the page using Google’s IP address and see if you get redirected.

- Funnel and Doorway Pages
Also called gateway pages, spamdex pages, etc., these are designed to bring a user in for a specific keyword and give no relevant information that couldn’t be found on the other pages.
Purpose
Often used by directories, national law firms, and other websites who market on a national level and have been known to partake in spamming, this type of spam is designed to bring users in for certain specific keywords, most often a city and state.
Method
A good example would be to create a page for all 50 US States, and possible hundreds or thousands more for each city. Most of the text would be the same, except the location reference changes each time. So one page title might read “Personal Injury Lawyer in Colorado” and the next would read “Personal Injury Lawyer in Ohio“. Sometimes there is a legitimate reason, such as a national directory of law firms, and other times it is just plain search engine spam.

- Content Scraping
Using software that grabs text or code from other pages compiles it on your own website.
Purpose
The cliché goes: Content is King. Indeed it is, simply because search engines know good content takes time to create. For instance, do you think this content was written in five minutes? Do you think a software program wrote it?
Method
The software programs sometimes scrape directory listings from places like DMOZ, keyword-specific search results from Google, or just steal content from other websites. The more sophisticated programs will grab content from here and there, bring it back to your site and mash it all together in a semi-coherent way that is less detectable by duplicate content filters.
What You Should Do
Always make your links absolute. That way if someone steals your code at least you get the link popularity. Use programs like Copyscape to see if other sites have ripped off your content. Find lists of IP addresses that belong to content scrapers and block them from your site in the robots.txt file. Or be tricky and redirect them to one of your mother-in-law’s site (read: your competitor).

- Referrer Spam
Visiting another website from your own (either manually or with a bot) in order to leave your site’s referral information on their server logs.
Purpose
Many webmasters use free log analysis programs like AWStats and leave the /stats folder or files open for anyone to see. The referrals are recorded in these files. Search engines can crawl these pages and will see the referrals. The idea is that a search engine will then think that you are linking to the site that sent you the referral.
What You Should Do
Stop making your stats analysis program available for all to see. Block IP addresses when you find rouge bots or strange referrals. Block your stats directory in the robots.txt file and password protect it. Post the IP address on a forum for all to see.

- Link Farms
Uncategorized pages filled with junkie links, including those to phentermine, viagra, casinos, porn, etc.
Purpose
To obtain better link popularity. Often this backfires.
Method
Usually an inexperienced webmaster or unethical SEO firm will submit to these along with reputable directories in hopes of increasing the link popularity of their website.
What You Should Do
As long as you’re not getting links from these places yourself, don’t worry about it. Link Farms usually do more harm than good.

- Reciprocal Linking Software
Programs and automated networks that help people exchange links
Purpose
To increase link popularity
Method
You link to site:A and the software puts a link from site:A TO your site. Or site:B links to you and the software puts a link to site:B FROM your site. Today’s more sophisticated programs will work with multi-level link exchanges (3-way links, pyramid links, etc.). For instance, site:B links to your Site:1 and the program puts a link on your site:2 to their site:C.
What You Should Do
Stay away from these. Period. There are even highly respected search engine forums that have networks such as this for their members, but they are known to get sites banned.

- MFA Sites / PPC Arbitrage
Ever go to a site from a search engine thinking that you had found what you were looking for, only to land on a page full of even MORE Google ads?
Purpose
To make a quick buck off of those who are too lazy to click the back button.
Method
Often, this is combined with a quick redirect for two reasons. First, they cloak for the spiders so the spiders see the first page without getting redirected, but other users get sent to the spammy page. Second, since you were forwarded to another page from the first, clicking back will only take you back to the first page, which then re-redirects you back to the spammy page. This ever happen to you? Since it’s easier for you to “click out” of the page through a link (that they get paid for) than to close your browser window and start over, you might click on a link.
What You Should Do
Go over to Matt Cutt’s website and bitch about it. And next time it happens, you can either hit back (if that doesn’t work, try hitting back twice real quick) or close your browser and start over again. But NEVER click on an ad because that just encourages them.

There are other types of “spam” that pertain to internet marketing, some of them well-known (email spam) and some less known but just as vicious (cookie hijacking). We may cover these other types of spam another time, but with all of the spammin’ n jammin’ going on all over the web, it is overwhelming enough to talk about all of the search engine spamming out there.

Did we miss something? Feel free to comment and talk about the type of search engine spam YOU have had experience with and we’ll add it to the list!