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Bad SEO: The Blacklisted
If you want to know how to do bad search engine
optimization, this is not the place. There are plenty of other sites that teach
you how to cheat. This section of our SEO guide is created to let you know what
not to do and who not to hire.
Definition: Spam
Tricks or schemes intended to
unfairly manipulate or trick search engine results.
 Definition:
Cloaking
Presenting a different page to
the search engine spider than to your website visitors.
Definition: Doorway Page
An entry page--often stuffed
with keywords or links--that is lacking in content, that has no benefit
to a website visitor and that has no other purpose than to manipulate
search engine results.
Definition: Link Farm
Web page(s) consisting solely
of links created specifically to boost the link popularity of the
included web pages.
 Definition:
Hidden Text
Text that is visible to a
search engine spider but cannot be seen by a website visitor because the
text is the same color as the background of the page.
Definition: Automated Submissions
Using a computer program to
submit your website to multiple search engines and directories.
Definition: Shadow Domain
Similar to doorway pages, but
much more advanced. With this technique an entire website (not just a
single page) is presented to search engine spiders in lieu of the true
website. This website is created strictly to manipulate search engine
results and is never seen by an end user. The website is actually
located on a separate shadow domain.
Definition: Page-Jacking
Stealing parts of properly
optimized web pages that are ranking well in search results and placing
them on your website.
 Definition:
Mirror Websites
Copying the same website (or
the same website with very few changes) onto one or more separate
domains.
Definition: Cookie-Cutter Pages
Multiple pages on the same
site that are identical or almost identical. |
If an SEO mentions any of these words, you should drop them like
a hot potato:
-
Cloaking
-
Doorway Page
-
Link Farm
-
Hidden Text
-
Automated Submissions
-
Shadow Domain
-
Page-Jacking
-
Mirror Websites
-
Cookie-Cutter Pages
These techniques may get you good rankings for a while. But
eventually search engines will catch on, and you will be banned from search
engines forever. You will become: The Blacklisted.
If you're lucky, SEO firms will tell you before they plan to use
these spam techniques. At least that way, you have the opportunity to say "No".
Other times, they don't warn you before they decide to play Russian roulette
with your site. So make sure you know what your SEO is planning on
doing.
How to Recognize Bad SEO
A general rule of thumb: With the
exception of META tags, if your website visitors can't see it, it's bad SEO.
Here's another one: If you're doing
something that has no benefit to the website visitor, then it's bad SEO.
But how do you know if your SEO is doing some of these things?
If you are unfamiliar with bad SEO, you might be wondering what some of these
things look like in search engine results.
Doorway Pages and Cloaking
These two techniques are often combined.
A doorway page without cloaking often looks something like this:
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this is my doorway page. it's just stuffed with keywords search
engine optimization SEO search engine optimization SEO search engine
optimization SEO and links links links
links links links links links
links links links links links links links links links links links
links and more keywords website promotion website ranking
search engine results and website promotion. we do search engine
optimization and how to get website rankings. click
here to enter now. yep this is
where we put more keywords and if we're really sneaky we'll make
this bottom part green text on a green background so they won't know
where we are putting in more keywords and more
links and MORE keywords and MORE
keywords and MORE links and more
keywords and more keywords...muah, hah hah hah ha.... |
A cloaked doorway page, will never be seen by the end user. The website
visitor is, instead, whisked away to a nice user-friendly web page.
Mirror Websites
Mirror websites are fairly easy to catch. They look alike. Occasionally you
will see that the entire first page or several first pages of search engine
results list websites that look suspiciously similar. If each of these websites
has a different domain, they are probably mirror websites. They are all owned by
the same company and are probably selling the same product or service.
Flooding search engine results this way is not cool and will definitely get
you banned.
Link Farms
Link farms are also fairly easy to recognize. They're just a bunch of links.
They've probably annoyed you in search engine results before. Ever been looking
for information and got a list of links instead? If so, you've been to the farm.
A great many "link popularity" programs are link farms. If you join any sort
of link-exchange program, you should be very, very sure that you are not asked
to link to any page that looks shady.
In Google's words: "Don't participate in link schemes designed to
increase your websites ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web
spammers or "bad neighborhoods" on the web as your own ranking may be affected
adversely by those links."
Cookie-Cutter Pages
Ever been to a website where all the web pages look similar? Where they
repeat the same things over and over again? And where you constantly get a sense
of deja vu? This website is built on cookie-cutter pages. The owners were too
lazy to create real content, so they decided to fool the search engines into
thinking they had a lot of content by repeating the same thing over and over and
over...
Automated Submissions
Does this look familiar?
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There are a TON of firms out there that advertise things link this. It's a
good way to blow $25, and it could get you in trouble with search engines as
well. There is no way that someone is going to manually submit to 1000s of
search engines for $25. They take your $25 dollars and your website URL and
they run an automated submission program.
Not only is this considered spam by search engines, but it isn't likely to do
you any good. If your website isn't optimized to rank well in search
engines, it really doesn't matter if you are included (listed) or not. After
all, what good does it do you to be listed when you come up number 100,000 of
500,000 results?
In Googles words: "Don't use unauthorized computer programs to submit
pages, check rankings, etc. Such programs consume computing resources and
violate our terms of service. Google does not recommend the use of products such
as WebPosition Gold™ that send automatic or programmatic queries to Google."
Reporting Bad SEO
If you see Bad SEO in search engines results, you can
report it to Google. If you feel that you've been cheated by an SEO
company, you can report it to the
Federal Trade Commission.
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