What Are the Types of Spam Which Search Engines Look Out For and Which You Need to Avoid?

Some of the desperate web owners want to succeed in search engine optimization, but they do not realize that doing so causes their site more damage. It’s no doubt that a lot of website owners use illegal techniques in order to fool the search engine just to have a higher listing on the results pages even if it’s not deserved to be ranked. This is what is known to be as spam. You may think that spam can only be the junk emails you receive on your inbox, but frankly, we discuss it as falsely deceiving the search engines into what the real site is about. What would be the general intent of the one creating the spam and to what means and extent is it being used? There are different types of spam being maliciously applied and that you need to be aware of to avoid being penalized even if the act was unintentional.

If you are overstuffing your content with a lot of keywords more than what is needed on your pages, then that’s called spam. Some spammers use hidden texts and links on the web page’s HTML code but are not even visible to the viewer’s naked eye. This can be a long hidden array of keywords such as white links or texts on a white background page. The only way to see this would be to highlight the text. On the other hand, some spammers create a layer using CSS to cover the content which contains these hidden texts and links. Unlike the former, the latter cannot be seen even when highlighted.

Another method of spam is called doorway pages. Aimed specifically for spiders to spam the search index, doorway pages make use of a page to stuff it with a lot of keywords and phrases to rank highly. When viewers click on this on the results page, they are redirected to another page or a website that does not even rank well by itself. There are instances wherein spammers create doorway pages even with relevant content which can be seen and viewed by the spiders, but not by the search engines.

Other types would be deceptive redirection. I am sure you are familiar with this. Once you click on a link, you are entirely redirected to a page or site you don’t even wish to visit or that has nothing to do with what you are looking for. Cloaking is also another type of spam in which the content you see as a viewer is entirely different from the content which the search engine spider perceives. Spammers who use cloaking have the intent of having their sites indexed, while directing you to a landing or registration page.

In terms of spamming, keyword stuffing and unrelated keywords are also very prominent. Sometimes, multimedia files like images, video and even metadata may be irrelevant to the real content. Keyword stuffing on the other hand, becomes abused when the exact same words are used over and over on metadata and alt tags. Last but not the least, link farms also counts as spam which abuse the usage of hyperlinks.

Knowing all of these various types of spam are very critical because not only will your site be penalized, but it will be removed completely from the search engines. Spammers never succeed, so the only way to run an online business would be to make sure you play fair and square to the search engine rules.