Spamming with respect to search engines
refer to the use of any illegal means to
improve the ranking of a page in search
engine results. Search Engine Optimisation
(SEO) refers to the placement, positioning
and ranking while designing a web page such
that it can be easily indexed by search
engines, thus improving its chances of high
ranking in search engine results. SEO
spamming is thus the designing of a web
page using illegal means such that its
rankings are improved. This can be done
using various means and the popular ones
are mentioned below.
Keyword Stuffing
This refers to the addition of relevant and
irrelevant text in the ‘keywords’ meta tag
and often on the visible page text also.
Often many words are added and repeated
thus trying to get a higher ranking for a
page.
Webmasters often repeat words and phrases a
number of times, usually at the bottom of
the page. To make this text look irrelevant
to the site visitor, the font is often
small and may be in a color that is
invisible. For example, a white background
may have white text which though gives it a
higher ranking by search engine spiders, is
invisible to the reader.
Page redirection
Here the site visitor visits a particular
page but is immediately redirected to
another one. Redirection to another page
can be easily attained by using the refresh
meta tag or by cloaking. Here usually what
occurs is that the first site that the user
wishes to see is usually a spammed one,
consisting of many words in keywords,
description meta tag and also the title
tag. The text of the page may also be full
of keywords in both visible and invisible
form. Also known as doorway, gateway,
bridge or entry pages that cheat the search
engines and direct traffic to the specific
site.
Mirror domains
This is another popular technique, which
comprises of building many mirror domains
that have the same content but different
URLs. This helps to find the manner in
which the algorithm of a search engine
works and how it can be cheated. A company
with various domains can thus dominate
listings on the results displayed by search
engines.
Spamming is tempting, and whether we accept
it or not, it does work by getting high
rankings and traffic for sites. But the
truth of the matter is that the high
attained by spamming techniques is
temporary, until the site is banned for
using unethical means.
