May 2004

Optmisation my a*se - more cowboy SEO tactics revealed

Last September we highlighted some of the cowboy tactics used to promote websites. This month we are continuing the theme and highlighting more disreputable tactics that are still being used, as well as what to consider and look out for when buying search engine optimisation (SEO) services.

1. Cloaking

Cloaking is quite a controversial way to promote a website. Basically, it involves serving one page to the search engine spiders, but the visitor actually sees another page.

This means that unknown to the average surfer, a page may have loaded between clicking on the search result and the page that actually appears in front of you. On this 'in between' page could be a page stuffed with keywords and links relevant to the search query you typed in.

This practice is very much seen as unacceptable to those who market websites ethically as it "attempts to distort search engine rankings. This can mislead users about what they'll find when they click on a search result" (Google).

There are even companies who sell software to help you cloak your web pages - but our advice is not to go anywhere near them. Search engines are wise to this tactic and, if found out, the website practising cloaking is likely to be banned from the search engines.

2. Invisible Text / Greyed Writing

This was one of the earlier ways of getting to the top of the search engines.

It involves adding keywords in the same colour as the background of the web page: in this way, search engine spiders can read the keywords in the html code, but the words remain invisible to visitors.

Search engines can easily spot this spam technique. Nonetheless it is still used by some SEO practitioners. Often a giveaway as to whether a website is using invisible text is a large gap at the bottom of the web page. If you try to highlight this area, you can see if there is any invisible text.

Another way of getting keywords onto a web page is to use grey writing at the bottom of the web page. Visitors to the website can see this, so it is not invisible text, however, it looks awful and unprofessional and should be avoided.

3. Stuffing comment tags, keyword tags and other meta tags

Again, this is an old method that was commonly used to get a top ranking.

Firstly, most search engines now ignore the meta keyword tag. You don't really need to use it in your optimisation, although it does no harm leaving it in. However, stuffing it full of as many keywords that you can think of will make absolutely no difference to your optimisation. It would make it far too easy to rank highly in the search engines and they would never let that happen.

The comment tag is often abused as another way of keyword stuffing. Used properly, it is useful for web designers and developers to make the code easier to read and find areas of the web page. It should not be used in an attempt to try to artificially inflate your website's rankings. Search engines are also wise to this and will ignore the contents of a comment tag.

Other meta tags that have been abused in the same way are the meta description tag and title tag. These are still read by the search engines, and really it does not help rankings by stuffing them full of keywords either. It just makes your web page description look really awful in the search engine results.

4. Other tactics used by some SEO companies

There are still some very unscrupulous SEO companies out there.

Here is a selection of the tactics they use. Be warned: unless you're happy being associated with the cowboys, you should make sure any company you use, or are thinking of using, does not practice these techniques:

1. Guaranteeing top positions or instant results on the search engines.
   
   Nobody can guarantee a number 1 position on the search engines. They are constantly changing their algorithms to ensure users get a variety of search results, otherwise every time anyone went to do a search on a particular key phrase the results would be exactly the same.
   
   You may gain a number 1 position for a period of time, but this will always fluctuate. The only way to guarantee high rankings is by pay per click, and always bidding to be at number 1 for your key phrases.
   
   The same is true of the 'instant results' promise. It takes several months for an SEO campaign to bear fruit, so the quick way is via the pay per click search engines.
   
   
2. Obtaining high rankings by optimising the website for obscure keywords.
   
   Yes, this does happen. Some SEO companies will optimise a website for key phrases nobody is searching on because they are so obscure. The search results may be very high for those key phrases, but will you ever get any visitors?
   
   
3. Optimising microsites or landing pages hosted on the SEO company's server.
   
   Some SEO companies host landing (or 'doorway') pages or microsites they have made for various keywords in a variety of industry sectors, on their own servers.
   
   Instead of optimising the actual web pages, they send traffic to the client website via the landing pages and microsites, therefore the client website receives instant traffic.
   
   However, not only do these companies not actually optimise your website, if you decide that you no longer require their services, all your traffic will be switched off and the traffic is then sold on to another company using similar key phrases.
   
   Not only is this technique unscrupulous to customers, it is spam in the eyes of the search engines.
   
   

When engaging the services of a search engine optimisation/ search engine marketing company, it is vital that they tell you exactly what they are going to do to optimise your website. If they talk about 'special' techniques, or are very cagey about it, then do not use them.

Ask for case studies and testimonials from other clients - particularly if they are known to you or reputable - you don't want to get testimonials from clients who may be as dodgy as the SEO company themselves, or just happy with the quick results provided by the dodgy tactics.

By engaging a company using any of the above techniques, not only can it harm your reputation, but it could see your website getting banned from the search engines altogether.


Further reading on the cowboy SEO tactics:

BlackHat SEO - good resource listing unethical SEO techniques.

Spam Rules Require Effective Spam Police - from Searchenginewatch.com