What is search spam?
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Search engine spam is the most common tool of so-called “black hat” optimization. Today, search spam is used in one form or another almost everywhere, since, despite the ban on its use for search promotion, with the right approach it can significantly contribute to promotion and increase traffic for a short time.
Moreover, very often novice webmasters use one or another search spam method without even knowing it. For example, buying links is also one of the methods of search spam, but it does not always lead to the imposition of search engine filters on the resource.
There are several main methods of search engine spam. Contextual spam.
The essence of this method of search spam is to oversaturate the site’s web documents with keywords. The most common way to use contextual spam is to oversaturate the main text of resource pages with a key phrase or word. However, there are more sophisticated ways to use it, including using a font whose color matches the background color for over-optimized text, using a 1-pixel font for keywords, oversaturating web document tags with keywords, and so on.
Today, it is not advisable to use contextual spam, since search algorithms quite effectively detect its use, for which sites fall under filters or are pessimized by search algorithms. Link spam.
This is the most common method of implementing search spam. Its essence lies in unnatural manipulations with the external and internal reference mass of an Internet resource.
However, excessive use of link spam can lead to serious consequences, including the application of the AGS filter. Therefore, when saturating the link mass with purchased links, you should remember that they must have natural characteristics: be on thematic sites, have various anchors, and so on.
Behavioral spam. This method of search spam is relatively new. Today, search engines are just developing methods to combat behavioral spam, which makes it possible for many optimizers to use it quite effectively.
Cheating the behavioral factors of a website is usually carried out by purchasing activities on exchanges, so its use requires certain financial costs.
Promoting a website in search engines is task No. 1 for any webmaster and optimizer. After all, the number of site visitors and, ultimately, the profit brought by this site depends on high positions on queries. You can achieve good positions in search using permitted or unauthorized methods, the latter includes search spam, or as it is called at Google - “webspam”.
If you open the “License to use the Yandex search engine”, then clause 3.7. This license defines search engine spam as follows: “Search spam” is an attempt to deceive the Service’s search engine and manipulate its results in order to change the position of a website in search results. Websites that use “search spam” may be lowered in ranking or excluded from the Service database due to the impossibility of their correct ranking.— Thus, Yandex regulates webspam as deception of the PS and manipulation of search results, without specifically saying what kind of manipulations are meant.
The Google corporation includes the well-known department Webspam Team, which is commanded by the well-known Matt Katz and this department is engaged in the fight against search spam. One of the latest creations of this department is the Google Penguin filter, which has made a lot of noise since the spring of 2012.
Google classifies, among other things, the following things as webspam:
- Doorways
- Hidden text and hidden links
- Link exchange schemes
- Masking and hidden redirect
- Pages filled with irrelevant keywords
- Pages or domains with almost the same content
- Link exchange schemes
For all this, the site can be lowered in ranking or even thrown out of the search databases. Google recommends reporting sites that use illegal search spam methods through this page. It is possible that in this way someone is getting rid of competitors in search results.
From the above, you can understand that webspam is the manipulation of content and links in order to obtain high positions. There are a lot of methods of webspam as such, and there is no point in listing them all in this article.
Spam rate
When ranking sites, an indicator such as the spam rate of an individual web page and the entire website is used. This coefficient is constantly recalculated depending on the incoming data and affects the ranking in conjunction with other factors.
Link search spam
Link webspam most often includes:
- Creation of sites (site networks) specifically for links
- Link exchange
- Trash links from comments
- Unmoderated links
- Links hidden
- Cross-cutting links not related to the subject of the site
- Purchased links with key entry
- Links for manipulating PR and TIC
Text search spam
Text search spam most often comes down to keyword spamming
- page text
- headers
- meta tags
- links
- presence of ks in the domain
- etc.
In conclusion, it is worth saying that search engines have always been determined to fight search spam and this fight continues to this day. Moreover, the successes of search engines in this matter are visible to the naked eye. But it’s up to you to decide which promotion methods to choose for your websites.
Rand Fishkin on anchors and the future of links
There is a legend that search spam in small doses can effectively have a positive effect on website promotion. However, anything called spam cannot benefit consumers, and search spam falls under the category of gray SEO.
Search engines can recognize SEO spam. In this article, we will tell you what search engine spam is so that you don’t accidentally create it on your website.
Types of search spam
Search engine spam can be divided into four types:
- In the text of the article.
- In meta tags.
- In the links.
- In the domain name (yes, this even happens).
All these types of spam can be recognized by search engines, and if they are found on a website, it will be demoted in search results. Therefore, search spam should be excluded. Let's look at everything in order.
Spam in text
Search spam in the text of an article in philology is called tautology. In simple words, this is the repetition of the same phrases (words) to such an extent that reading becomes uncomfortable and sickening. This is where the term “” came from, which means the same thing.
Spam in text can be expressed as follows:
“We are a company that sells shampoos, and you can buy shampoos from us. We sell shampoos cheaply and deliver purchased shampoos. And you can also buy shampoo from us.”
Spam in the text appears because the author of the article tries to include too many key queries in the hope that this will have a positive effect on the ranking of the site. However, the result from this will only be negative. When writing an article, strive to make it easy to read.
Spam in meta tags
Spam in meta tags is the same tautology, only not in the article, but in the meta, that is, in the description and title of the article. If you use too many keywords in these parts of the page, you can get negative results.
If you consider the impact of meta tags on website promotion, you can understand that spam in them will lead to even greater negativity than in the text of the article.
Link spam
Internal linking is a good way to speed up site indexing. However, if you overdo it, the effect will be negative. So, if you create, for example, a dozen links to an article with the anchor “my article,” then the cost of such linking will be zero, and this will have a bad effect on promotion.
Domain name spam
Some people manage to buy themselves a domain that uses a key query. For example, buy inexpensive shampoo.rf or kupitshampun.ru. This is called search domain name spam. It is also advisable to avoid this.
Every year the number of sites hosted on the Internet increases exponentially. As a result, competition for a place in the TOP greatly increases (especially for high-frequency queries).
Webmasters and optimizers are forced to use a variety of methods to promote their own sites (their resources) in an ever-increasing competition.
And some of these methods are partially or completely prohibited by search engines.
Many users know firsthand about spam in their websites, but not everyone knows about search spam.
Search engine spam – what is it?
The common name for prohibited optimization techniques that some webmasters sometimes use is search engine spam.
This name is due to the fact that search results are spammed with pages with irrelevant content due to the use of dishonest promotion methods. In other words,
search spam is when a user’s request produces content that does not correspond to this request (in the user’s opinion) and which should not be in the TOP (in the search engine’s opinion).
The presence of such spam pages in search results negatively affects people’s attitude towards search engines and reduces their level of trust.
Types of search spam
What is considered search spam? Let us list its main types.
- Stuffing content with keywords and phrases
The text itself, as well as descriptions of pictures and video files, meta tags, etc., can be filled to capacity with keys.
All this is done in the hope that the search engine algorithm will consider the page more relevant to these keywords. In fact, this method of SEO optimization has not worked for a long time. Webmasters who use it are more likely to get a ban for their site than to increase its position in the search results.
- Automatic redirect
This is an instant redirection of users from one page to another.
In this case, when visiting a page of a website, a person is instantly redirected to another site.
Often the user does not even have time to notice the redirect itself (since it happens automatically and very quickly). Most often, after a redirect, a person ends up on a page with advertising content that is spammed with links.
- Cloaca
In this case, for each of the promoted pages, the webmaster creates two versions at once.
- The first version of the page is intended for search engines,
- the second version is for ordinary users.
Thus, cesspools are different content for search engines and for users.
A special mechanism tracks who exactly visits the site - a search engine robot or an ordinary person. Based on this, one or another version of the page is displayed.
The page for search engines is very carefully optimized, it lacks all unnecessary elements and details, but there are a lot of keywords for search engines. The page for ordinary visitors is made normal, as convenient and beautiful as possible (in terms of design and appearance).
And it seems like “the wolves are fed and the sheep are safe,” that is, the search engines are happy and the users are happy. But in fact, by using cesspools, the webmaster deceives the search engine, which, in turn, does not forgive such things and bans “forking” pages.
- Swaping
This term means a complete replacement of the content of a website page immediately after its successful indexing in search engines. The primary task of a webmaster or optimizer using swap is to fill the page with unique and high-quality content, promote it in search results and get good traffic from search engines.
Then, after the next update (periodic update of the search engine), the webmaster completely changes the content of his page. Instead of unique content, text appears there, stuffed with keywords and links to promoted resources (sites).
It is clear that with the next update, search engines will detect the substitution and pessimize the page. But until then, it will continue to collect traffic (visitors), being in the TOP for some time.
- Invisible text and links
- You can use very small fonts,
- you can make the font color and page background color the same (for example, white text on a white background),
- You can use special CSS styling rules to mask links.
- You can insert single-pixel images containing a link, etc. into the page.
How search engines fight search spam
Search engines do not like search spam not only for deception, but mainly because search spam misleads the user, the user remains dissatisfied and therefore leaves (may leave) to look for information on his request to another search engine. Search engines fight for their users, so they try not to disappoint them and provide only high-quality information in response to their requests.
This approach implies an irreconcilable fight by search engines against search spam. Search engines try to find spam, remove it from their database and punish (ban) such a site or page.
As for the ways to detect search spam, there are only three of them.
1) Automatic
In this case, search engine spam is detected using search engine algorithms. Based on the signs of a particular type of spam, a search is made for sites that use dishonest methods of promotion, and their subsequent pessimization.
2) Semi-automatic
In this case, the task of search algorithms is to search for suspicious sites and pages. The final decision on whether to ban or pessimize a site is made by the moderator () of the search engine.
3) Manual
Here, checking the site for involvement in the use of search spam from beginning to end is carried out by a moderator (assessor). Most often, such checks occur on the basis of complaints received from the owners of competing sites.
