What is SEO spam? It is an act that is considered fraudulent from the search engine side by doing excessive SEO.
Also known as “search engine spam”.
If it is judged as SEO spam, the possibility of receiving a penalty and lowering the search ranking or deleting the index increases.
On the other hand, SEO adheres to webmaster guidelines.
In this case, it is difficult to be judged as SEO spam.
If so, it will be evaluated by Google and the search ranking will rise, and search inflow will increase easily.
In order to make such a good situation, understand the behavior of SEO spam and take appropriate SEO measures.
Based on this point, this time, I would like to explain the points that are easy to understand for beginners, focusing on the types of SEO spam acts and countermeasures.
Table of Contents
What is SEO Spam?
What is SEO spam? It is an act that is considered fraudulent from the search engine side by doing excessive SEO.
Also known as “search engine spam”.
For example, creating a web page by copying the content of another website in its entirety without permission or syndication.
If this page is indexed, searchers are more likely to see the exact same page.
This reduces user convenience.
Actions that intentionally impair user convenience violate the Google Webmaster Guidelines.
The result is SEO spam.
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Why We Penalize SEO Spam
The reason we penalize SEO spam is because Google wants to improve user convenience.
For example, let’s say you’re increasing your content by copying it from another site.
Suppose Google leaves this act without penalties.
That way, sites that copy and augment their content from other sites will become rampant, and when users search, they will only see websites with similar content.
Google’s search engine is useless for users as the information they can learn from these websites is limited.
On the other hand, suppose that Google imposes penalties on sites that copy and increase their content from other sites, lowering their search rankings, or deleting their indexes.
This site will be created to stop copying content and increase original content so as not to be penalized again.
If that happens, the number of sites with a lot of original content will increase, so only unique websites will be displayed when users search.
Google’s search engine is useful for users because they can learn more information from these websites.
In other words, user convenience is enhanced.
Thus, Google penalizes SEO spam because it wants to improve user experience.
SEO Spam Criteria
SEO spam criteria are: Google webmaster guidelines (quality guidelines).
For example, Google Webmaster Guidelines (Quality Guidelines) define specific guidelines.
- Auto-generated content intended to manipulate search rankings
- Participating in the Link Program
- Creating pages with little or no original content
- cloaking
- bad redirect
- hidden text or hidden links
- Leading page
- Unauthorized content
- Affiliate sites that don’t add enough value
- Stuffing the page with irrelevant keywords
- Creating pages with malicious behavior such as phishing or installing viruses, Trojan horses, or other malware
- Abuse of structured data markup
- Submitting Automated Queries to Google
* Source: Webmaster Guidelines (Quality Guidelines) | Google Search Central | Documents | Google Developers
If you do these actions, it will conflict with the guidelines (standards) and will be judged as SEO spam by Google.
Types of SEO Spam
There are several types of SEO spam.
- Keyword system
- Link system
- Content system
Keyword system
As types of SEO spam, There are several keywords.
- hidden text
- keyword stuffing
Hidden text
For keyword SEO spam, It has hidden text.
For example, hide text sentences including keywords with CSS “display:none;”, or shift the position off the screen with “text-indent:-9999px;”.
That is hidden text.
This hidden text is a bad practice that hides certain text from the user and only makes it visible to search engines.
Thus, hidden text is one type of keyword-based SEO spam.
Keyword stuffing
For keyword SEO spam, There is keyword stuffing.
For example, the same words and phrases (SEO keywords) are repeatedly stuffed into meta tags such as title tags and meta description tags, and content sentences to the point where it feels unnatural.
In other words, keyword stuffing.
This keyword stuffing is a bad practice that leads to poor user experience as the text becomes unnatural and difficult to read.
Thus, keyword stuffing is one type of keyword-based SEO spam.
Link system
As types of SEO spam, There are several link systems.
- hidden link
- comment spam
- link farm
- Registration of directory sites and bookmark sites
- Widget link
Hidden link
For link-based SEO spam, I have a hidden link.
For example, design the anchor text with the same color as the background color, hide it with CSS “display: none;”, or shift the position off the screen with “text-indent:-9999px;”.
i.e. hidden link.
This hidden link is a bad practice that hides the specific anchor text from the user and makes it visible only to search engines.
Thus, hidden links are one type of link-based SEO spam.
Comment spam
For link-based SEO spam, I have comment spam.
For example, in the comment field provided on the web page of an external site, write a message unrelated to the content of the web page with a link to your own site.
Also, I mean comment spam.
This comment spam is a bad act that ignores the convenience of users browsing the web page.
As such, comment spam is one type of link-based SEO spam.
By the way, if there is comment spam in the comment section of your website’s web page, it may be difficult for Google to evaluate that page as user-generated spam content.
Link farm
For link-based SEO spam, I have a link farm.
For example, create a partner page for the sole purpose of mutual linking, and post a large number of irrelevant links between websites.
In other words, build a link farm.
This link farm is a bad act that ignores the convenience of users browsing the web page because it is a collection of unrelated links.
As such, link farms are one type of link-based SEO spam.
Registration of directory sites and bookmark sites
For link-based SEO spam, There are registrations for directory sites and bookmark sites.
For example, get links by using a service that accepts and categorizes low-quality site registrations.
In other words, register directory sites and bookmark sites.
Registration of directory sites and bookmark sites is often registered in the collection of links to low-quality sites, so it is an act of link acquisition aimed at manipulating rankings.
Thus, directory site and bookmark site registrations are one type of link-based SEO spam.
Widget link
For link-based SEO spam, I have a widget link.
For example, let’s say you have a web page with a tool that allows you to check your search ranking.
Let’s say that we’ve made a simplified version of this tool into a widget, issued an iframe tag with a link to the web page containing the tool, and provided it for copy-paste and embedding.
Distribute the widget link.
This widget link is an undesirable link-building practice as it will contain unintended links when users embed it on their site.
As such, widget links are one type of link-based SEO spam.
Distributing links that can be embedded in the footers and templates of various sites is just as unnatural as widget links.
Content system
As types of SEO spam, There are several types of content.
- cloaking
- poor quality content
- Content that behaves maliciously
Cloaking
For content-based SEO spam, There is cloaking.
For example, using unauthorized redirects to present users with content that is different from what search engine crawlers recognize.
In other words, cloaking.
This cloaking is bad practice with unexpected consequences for users.
Thus, cloaking is one type of content-based SEO spam.
Poor quality content
For content-based SEO spam, You have poor quality content.
For example, create a page with a lot of words but little or no original content for the purpose of boosting the ranking of the page.
In other words, create poor quality content.
- Auto-generated content (such as word salad)
- thin affiliate page
- Unauthorized reproduction of the content (copy content)
- Leading page
These low-quality content are acts that serve a page of no value to the user.
Thus, cloaking is one type of content-based SEO spam.
Content that behaves maliciously
For content-based SEO spam, Contains content that behaves maliciously.
For example, repositioning or manipulating content on the page so that the user believes they are clicking a particular link or button, but actually clicks on another part of the page (such as an ad) so that
In other words, create content that behaves maliciously.
This maliciously behaving content is bad behavior that forces users to download or execute files without their consent.
Content that behaves maliciously like this is one type of content-based SEO spam.
SEO Spam Countermeasures
SEO spam countermeasures Start by checking to see if your search ranking has dropped significantly.
For example, if the search ranking changes suddenly after a certain day, or if the ranking does not recover due to a gradual downward trend, there is a possibility of SEO spam.
This SEO spam is divided into two broad categories: manual and automatic penalties.
If it is a manual penalty, a warning message will be sent to the search console, and the website will be improved according to the content of the warning message.
On the other hand, with automatic penalties, no warning message is sent to the search console, so you can improve your website by finding areas that seem to be penalties on your own.
In other words, we will find out the cause of the penalty and modify the website to improve the cause.
In this way, identifying the cause of the penalty and modifying the website to improve the cause is the countermeasure against SEO spam.
Summary: Understand SEO spam behavior and take appropriate SEO measures
Know what SEO spam is doing, Do proper SEO.
To that end, it’s important to consider Google’s webmaster guidelines.
On the other hand, if you don’t know what the webmaster guidelines are, you won’t know about deception or cheating.
If so, the possibility of doing wrong SEO measures or excessive SEO measures will increase.
As a result, you will be penalized for violating the webmaster guidelines.
To avoid such a bad situation, understand the behavior of SEO spam and take appropriate SEO measures.