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More Link Spam Examples in Google

February 16th, 2011 by Ray "Catfish" Comstock

The New York Times published an article near and dear to my heart over the weekend about JCPenny manipulating Google results as a result of paid links. Apparently it’s news to many people that this kind of activity is taking place. But to those of us who optimize Web sites using “white hat” tactics it is certainly no surprise as we investigate why our competitors out rank us. I thought I would share some of the other common techniques that cheating sites are effectively using to game the system. Hopefully this article will help Google and Bing develop better algorithmic solutions to these problems and hopefully it will educate consumers about what types of activities their SEO firms should avoid.

For today’s example, I will be looking at the Hot Tub industry where one of my clients has a significant interest and ranks well for many of the most sought after terms including “hot tub”, “hot tubs”, “spa” and “spas” as well as many other related permutations. And while my client enjoys significant rankings across these terms, based on their link equity, it is dishearting to have to explain to them why a site like http://www.choosehottubsdirect.com is competing with them for listings given their back link profile. Unlike JC Penny, ChooseHotTubsDirect is using a number of other link spam tactics to artificially inflate their Google rankings. Let’s take a look at some of the methods they’re using including blog comment spam, blog spam (splogs), and forum spam. They may also be doing paid links but I won’t be focusing on those in this article.

*Note that some of these links may have a nofollow tag on them and therefore do not count for SEO purposes. However, the amount of link spam pointing to this site shows a clear and consistent intent to manipulate search results.

Blog Comment Spam:

This was supposed to die with the advent of the nofollow tag, but obviously it isn’t instituted on all blog platforms. Here is an example of some of the URLs where you can find links purposely created to establish keyword focused links back to ChooseHotTubsDirect even though most of these sites are completely unrelated.

  • http://www.startupnorth.ca/2010/09/30/xx-tech-founders/
  • http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2008/09/05/jim-clark-in-a-hot-tub-in-italy-somewhere/
  • http://community.adn.com/alaska/node/114236
  • http://www.adamia.com/about/world-of-adamia/the-city-in-the-sky
  • http://www.rvbuyersguide.com/Articles/post/Tips-for-towing-an-RV-safely.aspx
  • http://www.chinaexpat.com/2009/03/05/dont-get-married-in-hui-an.html/
  • http://magblog.audubon.org/node/339
  • http://www.slashfilm.com/chevy-chase-joins-hot-tub-time-machine-considering-fletch-rebootsequel/

I have no problem with getting links by adding value to a conversation happening on a blog. But when the comment exists solely for the purpose of SEO, its spam.

Blog Spam (splog):

These are blogs designed only to create links for the purposes of SEO. There is no value to the end user and most of the time the content is garbage:

  • http://homengardengoods.com/hottubs-spa-hot-tub.html (borderline content at best)
  • http://www.british-columbia-listings.com/
  • http://www.alouc.com/2010/08/
  • http://iniciativaacceso.org/
  • http://www.miramesanorth.com/
  • http://www.j-leaguefans.com/experience-the-best-of-hot-tub.html
  • http://www.condecon.net/daily-routine/
  • http://eviant.co.cc/2010/03/a-guide-to-buying-hot-tubs
  • http://kklocaladmin.org/2010/07
  • http://netflixkddworkshop2008.info/2010/07
  • http://www.groupe-loft.com/very-good-way/
  • http://www.triton-shop.com/2010/04/17/buy-spa-hot-tubs-on-internet/
  • http://www.e-redes.org/?p=78
  • http://www.ptvr.net/2010/07/
  • http://kiksmedia.com/hot-tubs/
  • http://www.ytbconsultants.com/like-hot-water-bathing-in-hot-water-baths.html
  • http://www.kukonlomamokit.net/
  • http://www.directtohomeappliances.com/
  • http://hmgf-ugm.org/?paged=2
  • http://www.ezprotocols.com/massage/

There are plenty more of these in their backlink profile but after 20 I figured I had made my point. The majority of their backlinks seem to be of this type.

Again, guest writing blog articles that provide useful information to users is a good way to get links. Writing garbage and posting it on sites filled with garbage is not.

Forum Spam:

Similar to blog commenting spam but takes place in a forum:

  • http://www.aeva.asn.au/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=892&PID=26104
  • http://www.hostingsindia.com/topic153.html
  • http://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/376275
  • http://www.discussionsworld.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=23144
  • http://www.webmasterforumsonline.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=16223
  • http://forums.adobe.com/thread/594208
  • http://intgovforum.org/cms/discussionspace?func=view&catid=5&id=30
  • http://forums.zoho.com/topic/issue-with-zoho-mobile-on-nokia-e71
  • http://forums.registeredrep.com/forums/clients/google-boys
  • http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=564641
  • http://forum.bodybuildingpro.com/member.php?u=10761
  • http://www.honeymoonforums.com/showthread.php?t=6255
  • http://www.mytractorforum.com/showthread.php?t=113473
  • http://www.theopia.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2295&start=0
  • http://www.webdesignchat.org/link-exchange/928-good-i-heard.html
  • http://www.swordfishingcentral.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13828
  • http://www.becomehealthynow.com/vblite/showthread.php?p=5252
  • http://www.mma-fighter.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28969
  • http://forums.joeuser.com/376275

Again, there is way more of this stuff in their profile but after 20 instances I think the point has been made.

Another interesting “black hat” tactic that I found is the use of clone sites which are essentially duplicate sites with different skins:

  • http://chooseportablespas.com/
  • http://chooseportablehottubs.com/

The funniest part about this whole thing is that one of the links that ChooseHotTubsDirect.com does have that is legitimate is their press release about the secret to their success. Apparently, it’s all thanks to their in-house, world class SEO Team:

  • http://www.prweb.com/releases/choose-direct/seo/prweb3199884.htm

Hopefully as search technology advances these techniques will become less effective. It’s really frustrating to explain to clients why their competitors are ranking well in the engines using cheap and underhanded link spam techniques. Especially when you are recommending much more costly link development campaigns that center on providing useful content to users and then marketing that content through relevant channels. I don’t envy Matt Cutts and his team at Google as they have an extraordinarily difficult job to do in hunting all of this stuff down. Hopefully this will help.

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Posted in SEO Observations, Search Engines, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Google Instant Doesn’t Change Much

September 9th, 2010 by Ray "Catfish" Comstock

Quick, there is a huge change at Google today!  Sound the sirens, the SEO sky is falling!  Er…wait, how exactly does this new Google Instant functionality change SEO?  That’s what I was asking myself today as this big to do from Google was announced.  Other than potentially decreasing the number of long tail searches as users may find something interesting as they type and don’t finish their initial thought before they click a result (and a potentially inflated number of PPC impressions), I don’t believe that Google’s new instant search changes much in the way of SEO best practices.  The recent increased effect of localization has a much stronger implication.  This is really a usability play by Google and probably after testing, resulted in a better user experience (and / or more ad revenue).

This article today from PC World seems to imply that somehow Google has changed the SEO landscape, and done so in dramatic fashion: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/205055/google_instant_will_save_you_seconds_but_not_for_seo.html?tk=hp_new#addyours .  But how do quicker search results change the need for authoritative content and links?  They don’t.   It’s like my friend Benj Arriola said yesterday, “it’s like auto suggest on steroids.” It may cause users to see more information before they click, which may mean that text snippets become that much more important in driving clicks, but this just reinforces current behavior.

The one thing I will say about the article in question is that no one does see the same results anymore.  But this is already been the case for a while now because of personalization and localization having such a strong influence on search results.  But the public is just now starting to understand this.  It doesn’t really affect how we optimize with the exception of paying a lot more attention to localization and localized content and link strategies for key markets.  However, that doesn’t have much to do with Google instant.

I think it’s exciting that Google keeps pushing the envelope for search.  And certainly the “May Day” update had an impact on what the SEO process looks like.  Not so much for Google Instant.  Google Instant isn’t an algorithm change, it just helps you find things faster (in theory).  And of course, that in itself is cool.  It just doesn’t have that much affect on what we do as SEO practitioners.

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Posted in Industry News, Local Search, SEO Observations, Search Engines | No Comments »

To App or Not to App: The Mobile Dilemma

August 24th, 2010 by Andrew Devine

There’s a lot of buzz around mobile apps these days, and for good reason. You can do some pretty amazing things with these native programs, like access nutritional information for chain restaurant menus or get the title of a song playing at the coffee shop simply by holding your phone up to the speaker.

The substantial advantage that mobile apps have is  they aren’t restricted by the limitations of the browser since they are launched directly from your mobile OS, allowing the application to have more powerful features.

The downside for developers is that an application has to be tailored to each mobile operating system out there. And although iPhone and Android offer the two most popular smartphone platforms out there, Blackberry, Palm and Nokia collectively own significant market share in the mobile space.

If developing multiple app versions doesn’t bother you (you’re fine just developing for the iPhone), be ready to face numerous barriers that stand in the way of mobile app victory:

  • App store publishing fees – normally $100-200 per app submission for review
  • Carrier revenue share – the cut the app store takes per paid app sale
  • Stiff competition – gaming and banking are fiercely competitive
  • Big brand dominance – people aren‘t searching for you if they don’t know you exist
  • Short app shelf life – user engagement generally wanes quickly
  • The dominance of paid placement – including both featured store placement and search placement (PPC)

In contrast, developing a mobile website does simplify the development process by requiring only one version of the site (great for accessibility), cuts out the middle man (app store), and offers a greater propensity to rank in organic search results compared to the volatile app store environment.

Although the gist of this article is admittedly dissuasive of app development, an impressive app can go a long way in strengthening one’s brand and engaging potential clients or customers. The question is, does your organization have a valuable service that would best serve the user via mobile app? More often than not, an app store regurgitation of the mobile website will not attract a following and will be lost forever in app store oblivion, along with all of the blood, sweat, and tears that went into its development.  This is why knowing what your audience needs and what could be of value to them will help answer the question “to app or not to app”.

Posted in SEO Observations | No Comments »

Five Things You Didn’t Know About Baidu

August 13th, 2010 by Alice Wansi Chen

by Alice Wansi Chen

Baidu is the dominant search engine in China. It provides users with a wide range of results and information, including multimedia content (MP3 music, movies, etc,), and displays it in a well written Chinese language. Baidu is also the first to offer WAP and PDA-based mobile search in China; however, there are a few things you may still be unaware of. Below I have listed five things you may or may not know about Baidu.

  1. Pin-yin. Pin-yin is the standard Romanization system for Mandarin, and the most dominant Chinese language used in China. Baidu provides “pin-yin” search that allows users to type in Chinese keywords using the English alphabet. This feature allows users to bypass the English, Chinese, and Pin-yin input options, because Baidu recognizes each of these formats already. Additionally, it helps those users who may not know the traditional written form of the Chinese word, and instead can type it in English or pin-yin. You don’t need to optimize your site in pin-yin. However, Baidu could figure out and rank your Chinese keywords for the pin-yin search.

  2. Chinese Handwriting Input Method.  Baidu recently started to provide a handwriting input method, which allows users to search the web via handwriting Chinese characters using their mouse.
  3. Quantity Over Quality. At this point, Baidu is not as sophisticated as Google when it comes to figuring out link relevance, therefore, Baidu heavily depends on the link quantity instead of quality to make a decision for ranking. Thus, there are still a lot of link farm issues existing.
  4. Linking is Not Always King. In Google, external linking is considered king. However, Baidu considers various elements in your site besides external links to decide your ranking; for example, internal linking, information architecture, keyword density, etc.
  5. Language. Most of the search queries inputted in Baidu are Chinese, while Google China has a higher percentage of English queries. This means that if you want to optimize for the Chinese market, the Google keyword tool is not localized enough. Actually, Baidu provides some useful tools for your Chinese keyword research. For example, Baidu Index is a tool that provides insight on the search queries in Chinese.

Baidu optimization is less standardized than Google, since it keeps improving its algorithm. Because of this, it’s extremely important to be aware of the latest updates, and constantly refine your site to meet Baidus ever-changing standards.

Posted in SEO Observations, Search Engines | No Comments »

Yahoo Displaying DMOZ Title? Also Not Following NOODP

November 10th, 2009 by Benj Arriola

Just a few minutes ago, colleague Laura Beatty here at BusinessOnLine notices something on Yahoo, and says Yahoo is not showing the correct title tag. I took at look at it searching BusinessOL  and yup, it does look different.

Yahoo Title different from the HTML title tag.

Yahoo Title different from the HTML title tag.

After looking at it deeper, of course the first think we checked was Yahoo Directory since Yahoo is already known to do this, in the same way how (more…)

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Posted in SEO Observations | 10 Comments »

Should I Trust Bing’s Search Engine Results?

August 7th, 2009 by Benj Arriola

Bing has gone all out with it’s marketing campaign, not only with online efforts, but also offline claiming itself to be the first decision engine, whatever that means. Before Microsoft came out with Bing, it was MSN Search, then Live Search and many people in the SEO field still believe their algorithm did not change significantly since live.com. In my opinion their algorithm does not even come close to the power of Google and Yahoo’s search technology. This explains how beneficial the new business partnership of Bing and Yahoo is. Yahoo will have a wider reach, use more resources, and Bing will have a more powerful search engine and both increase their their combined search market share.

Let’s do a quick search exercise on Google, Yahoo and Bing. (more…)

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Posted in SEO Observations | 2 Comments »

SEO Videos from OMS – Internal and External Link Building Strategies

July 23rd, 2008 by Ray "Catfish" Comstock

Hello again everyone. Sorry I have been MIA this week, although I did do a guest blog over at the OMS site about the 4 most common way that marketers squander resources for SEO. But I have been incredibly busy with client work, developing new internal processes for the SEO team, and putting together my OMS presentation for next Tuesday in Houston. I am happy to say that my band has been selected for Hyperfest 2008 in New Mexico which is very exciting for us, but the planning of that event is cutting into my free time (think blog time..lol). So that’s my long winded apology for taking so long to get these new link strategy videos up.

Obviously these videos are not comprehensive guides to linking but I think there is a lot of solid advice on the subject of both internal and external links that you hopefully will gleam a couple SEO tips from. Let me know what you think!

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Posted in SEO Observations | 7 Comments »

Why a Top 10 Listing in Google Continues to Mean Less in SEO

June 2nd, 2008 by Ray "Catfish" Comstock

So you’re thinking, Catfish you must have had way too much to drink at your birthday show Saturday night if you think that top 10 listings in Google are not important. Well I will plead the 5th on the extent of my celebration except to say I had a blast and I was very appreciative of so many of my friends coming out to celebrate with me. Turning 39 isn’t easy…lol. But, my original point in the title of this post still stands. A top ten listing in Google continues to mean less. And the reason is, because it gets harder and harder to (more…)

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Posted in SEO Observations | 2 Comments »

Build Links Fast! There Is No Penalty In Getting Many Links Quickly

May 13th, 2008 by Benj Arriola

Build Links Fast Without Search Engine Ranking Penalties

Now just before I said that, I am already wearing my bulletproof vest armor and mask with my forcefield on just in case people slam me right away without reading.

Links help in ranking

Here are a few SEO fundamentals that are considered SEO facts already my a majority number of people in the SEO industry.

  1. Incoming links to your website increase ranking. They are like votes of authority, trust, credibility.
  2. Google and many of the other search engines are against artificial link building. This is trying to influence search engines by creating so many links yourself trying to pretend many people like your site, thus linking to you.

Thus any form or kind of way you are trying to influence ranking artificially, like buying links only for the purpose of having a link for search engine ranking, or participating in various types of automated link exchanging and farming are frowned upon by search engines. And Google and other search engines are getting better and better in detecting these artificial link building activities.

Getting too many links too fast is bad! (more…)

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Posted in SEO Observations | 11 Comments »

Top 5 Ways American Express is Losing Money on SEO

March 17th, 2008 by Ray "Catfish" Comstock

So before I slam American Express today for being clueless (stay tuned), let me recap my awesome weekend. Although I couldn’t play flag football this last weekend because of my elbow injury, I coached our squad (The Vultures) to an opening day 29 – 6 throttling of team Havoc. We are now 1 – 0 in our second season in A League of the San Diego Men’s Flag Football League :)

Additionally, my band Dive Bomber won our first round of the Emergenza Battle of the Bands and we are moving on to round 2. Not bad for a band that doesn’t have a vocalist, although we did finally find one, but he hasn’t performed with us yet.

Ok, so now that I have bragged a little about how cool my weekend was, let’s look at the ridiculous SEO advice that American Express (who last I checked was a credit card company..lol) is distributing to people. Today I was doing a little reading at WebProNews and I read this story about American Express and their small business handbook in which they claim: (more…)

Posted in SEO Observations | 5 Comments »

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