Rank Rage - on search engine spam

By Steve Winkler

Special Guest Writer Steve Winkler takes a look at the proliferation of search engine spam, the consequences for the marketer, and what to do about it.

While the Search Engines do their best to ensure the end user receives relevant search results you should do your part to protect against marketing bullies.

These inconsiderate marketers have difficulty positioning their sites properly so they turn to techniques, tricks and tactics that have been banned or prohibited by the prominent and popular Search Engines.

Only a few years ago Highway Patrol units and Police departments began profiling our roadways for "aggressive" drivers in an attempt to curb the phenomenon of Road Rage. More than a few drivers take out the stress of their daily lives on the roadways causing hazards to all other drivers.

The connection between Road Rage and overly aggressive marketing are correlated in their common lack of regard for surrounding individuals.

Road rage has moved to the Internet as certain Guerilla Marketers have shown little regard for legitimate marketers who follow the rules prescribed by the Search Engines.

Website marketers are throwing down the gloves and showing aggression in their haste to catalyze their Search Engine ranking processes.

Much like in the situation of Road Rage this new anomaly of Rank Rage has potential risks to the initiator of unscrupulous marketing techniques as well as to ethical marketers such as you and myself who do play by the rules.

Definition

Rank Rage can be defined as aggressive marketing that circumvents common and prevalent Search Engine requirements in order to gain an advantage in the Search Engine ranking process.

Origin

The adult and gambling industries have pioneered, dominated and essentially destroyed the opportunity to circumvent the rules and regulations of the major Search Engines.

It was not too many years ago where a doorway page for what you thought would lead you to a page on 4 Head Hi-Fi VCRs actually led you to the front page of an adult site.

Redirect pages and doorway pages were the first incarnation of Search Engine Spam.

The Problem

Rule conscious marketers lose business to less legitimate marketers looking to gain an unfair advantage and to make a quick dollar through the use of forbidden or prohibited Search Engine ranking techniques.

In a similar fashion to being broad sided by a truck in an intersection, the work of an unethical Search Engine Marketer can leave you with a mess to clean up. The reason that you are not ranked as well as you should be may not be entirely your fault.

The practice of Search Engine Marketing/Search Engine Optimization (SEM/SEO) has lately become a function of what not to do as much as it is a function of installing the proper components of factual information into a site to create positioning.

In defense of the honest business person who simply wants to have a fair advantage in the online marketing game the major Search Engines have offered "Dos and Don'ts" and general rules of conduct in order to position well with in their indices.

Google states that they can and will manually remove violators of their stringent requirements. Once removed there is no guarantee of being included again in the index even if the site is cleaned of violating factors.

As a marketer the cost of not being a top ranked Google result can be devastating. A recent study states that Google now controls over 50% of the Search Engine market. To cancel your chance of reaching such a large portion of the Search Engine market is not a worthwhile risk.

Whether it be through the use of generic doorway pages, user invisible text, link farming or cloaking certain marketers find it more important to obtain results than worry of the risk of being removed from indices.

Recently I have noticed that firms within the SEM/SEO industry now have page rank 0/10 or "current page is not ranked by Google" messages. This is unfortunate and should send a red flag to potential customers that there is more than just a slight chance that rules have not been adhered to in order to obtain positioning.

As a marketer being disadvantaged by the lack of adherence to the rules you will perhaps have legal footholds in the future with which to retaliate against those that unfairly steal business.

Recognizing Overly Aggressive Marketing

While SEM/SEO has been viewed by many as the ultimate tool for guerilla marketers, the environment of SEM/SEO is now more mature and requires attention to detail and consideration of others seeking to use this medium for business promotion.

In fact and theory this has been true throughout the history of online marketing. In the past 2 years the Search Engines have taken great strides to ensure relevant search results by establishing rules of entry into the major databases.

Spam in the email world typically refers to UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email). In the Search Engine world spam refers to any separation from strict adherence to the rules of positioning set forth by the Search Engine.

Fortunately for legitimate marketers and SEM/SEO firms recognize what to do and what NOT to do. The practices which had worked and had been state of the art even a year ago may not be so today and understanding the rules which you need to follow in order to maintain proper positioning may be best handled by a professional Search Engine marketing firm.

While Rank Rage takes many forms it typically includes the following techniques:

• Cloaking
• Hidden Text
• Nearly Invisible Text
• Doorway Pages
• Plagiarized Text
• Link Farms or Link Schemes

Helpful Resources

When making marketing decisions always air to the side of caution and closely adhere to the rules set forth by the properties on which you desire proper positioning.

Below are a few resources that are worth paying mind to in your optimization process, or if you do have a professional firm conducting this work for you, insist that they follow these rules.

• Google
• AltaVista
• Fast/AllTheWeb
• Inktomi

Your Obligations

In order to protect your rights and the validity of Search Engine results you can utilize the following contact information to report spam violations and overly aggressive marketing techniques. Report incidences of Rank Rage as appropriate to secure your legitimate online positioning.

Listed below are a few contacts to where you may report alleged spammers.

• AltaVista
• Google
• Inktomi (mail to reportspam@inktomi.com)
• Fast (mail to spam@fastsearch.com)
• Teoma (mail to info@teoma.com)

See also the article Search Engine Damage Control for more information on spamming and how to get back into the search engines when booted.

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