Spam is a term that has been around since the conception of the internet, meaning an unethical and unusable form of content that has the sole purpose of deceiving a user or search engines. This problem certainly hasn’t gone undetected by the major engines and browsers, with the likes of Google and Microsoft constantly adapting their algorithms to beat the spammers.
The unfortunate side of spamming is it seemingly does bring success if only in the short term, as some companies see it as a worthwhile risk if only to get a single keyword to the top of the listings for one day. This however is poor practice and will only create a negative reputation in the long term.
Here are a few kinds of spam that you need to be aware of if you are running an ethical Search Engine Optimisation campaign.
Content Spam
Keyword stuffing is the practice of adding large numbers of keywords into webpage content, making the quality of the text significantly poorer and sometime unreadable. Obvious effects of this are seen by the visitor, and therefore keyword density is another SEO practice that needs to be considered carefully.
Hidden Text
Hiding keyword content is another form of spam, having text the same colour as the background will make it invisible and again serves no purpose to a visitor to the site, when discovered by a robot the search engine will have no qualms in completely delisting your site as a penalty.
Link Spam
Overuse of linking on keyword anchor text will also be deemed as Spam by the search engines.
Comment Spam
If a field for comments is available on a forum or blog, its common for major Spammers to create their own robot to add a comment containing an external link in attempt to build their own authority (normally containing Viagra or Porn). Fortunately platforms such as WordPress and Blogger can detect and block recognised IP addresses.
Email Spam
Perhaps the original and most widespread form of spam, companies will send unsolicited emails to thousands of scraped addresses, in a hope that you will click on the link to visit their site. Legislation is cracking down on this, but it will certainly be around for a few years to come. Thankfully no impact on SEO.
Spam
The canned processed meat, delicious with chips and tomato ketchup!
It may confuse some exactly what is deemed as spam and what’s acceptable, as long as you keep at the forefront of your mind what is helpful to a visitor to your site, what do you want to see when looking for search information? This will keep your site honest and well within the guidelines set out by Google.
This blog was written over 6 months ago and Internet Marketing and SEO is an always changing industry which means the information within this blog may be out of date. Use caution when using any methods or suggestions within it.
