Search Engine Optimization All-in-One For Dummies, 3rd Edition

Chapter 6

Spam Issues: When Search Engines Get Fooled

In This Chapter

• Finding out about the different types of search engine spam
• Understanding the consequences of using spam
• Avoiding search engine penalties
• Being wary of guaranteed results and other false promises
• Understanding ethical SEO

When you hear the word spam, what comes to mind? You probably think of all those annoying emails with their poorly worded and often obscene messages that clutter your inbox daily. That’s spam, all right, but there’s another kind of spam that’s directed at search engines.

In this chapter, you find out about spam techniques that some websites use to fool or trick the search engines into delivering a higher listing on the results page. Any time you think you can achieve higher rankings by deceiving the search engines, you’d better think again! Google and the other engines get better all the time at sniffing out spam, and the penalties can be harsh. Even inadvertent spam can get a website in trouble, so in this chapter we go over some of the more popular and dangerous methods that have been used. Then we delve into the guidelines search engines use to define what they consider spam, as well as our search engine optimization (SEO) code of ethics to help keep you and your site in the clear.

Understanding What Spam Is

When you normally think of spam, the first thing that comes to mind is either the canned meat product or the junk email that’s clogging up your inbox. (Or the Monty Python skit … ...