Web spam

Discussion of Web spam techniques (that may or may not work — use at your own risk). No warranties are guarantees are implied. Readers should not attempt to use these techniques.

How not to use bridge content for SEO

Posted by Michael Martinez on July 7, 2008 in Content Theory, Web spam

We have been quietly asked if we would be willing to place other people’s bridge content on our Web sites. It is not my personal policy nor the policy of my employer to sell space on our content networks.
Quite frankly, I would not regard third-party content as “bridge content”. It’s third-party content. [...]

Blog Farms and Black Hat SEO

Posted by Michael Martinez on June 17, 2008 in Web spam

One of the queries that consistently sends a fair amount of traffic to SEO Theory is “blog farms”. I mentioned blog farms in a post I wrote more than a year ago without really going into detail about them.
Another query which is sending us a lot of traffic is black hat SEO. I’ve [...]

Contract law and the web - How enforceable are Webmaster guidelines?

Posted by Michael Martinez on June 1, 2008 in Web spam

Disclaimer: What follows does not constitute legal advice. I am not a licensed attorney nor engaged in work related to the practice of law in any capacity. This post asks questions and does not imply or suggest specific answers.
The body of Internet case law is growing and there are now Web sites which [...]

Blogpooling for beginners

Posted by Michael Martinez on April 8, 2008 in Web spam

A lot of bloggers got themselves into trouble last year by participating in various “SEO meme” schemes. Richard Dawkins coined the term “meme” in 1976 (so far as I know) to refer to a “cultural copying unit”. He modeled the idea on genes (gene / meme), where a meme is a “unit of [...]

SEO Spammers run amok on Gmail

Posted by Michael Martinez on March 19, 2008 in Web spam

Google says that spammers haven’t cracked their Gmail captcha system yet, that the spammers are paying low-cost labor in overseas markets to sign up for Gmail accounts.
All I can tell you is that I have now banned Gmail registrations from two forums. A lot of people with Gmail accounts send me legitimate email but [...]

Experten Tricks

Posted by Michael Martinez on March 5, 2008 in Web spam

Disclaimer: Neither I nor my employer endorses, condones, or recommends the use of search spam tools, networks, or resources.
The Outing
As many of you know, generally speaking, I have a “hands off” attitude toward the Web spam community. Nonetheless, every now and then I find a spammer has gotten in my way and I feel [...]

The new link spam raises its ugly head

Posted by Michael Martinez on February 19, 2008 in Web spam

I’ve been receiving an increasing number of inquiries both here at 1st Query and through my private contact form on Xenite.Org from people wanting to buy links. I don’t sell links and I’m pretty sure I have stated that publicly in many places but I suppose what I say may seem like a smoke [...]

Four critical components for Web site success

Posted by Michael Martinez on February 13, 2008 in Web spam

Web spam works well when it’s done right. Most spammers don’t do it right. Most SEOs don’t realize when they are doing it.
Take Topix, for example. This well-known news and discussion community resource has been around for years but it has all the hallmarks of a traditional made-for-advertising site: it republishes content [...]

Tom Fakery and the Spam of Web

Posted by Michael Martinez on November 29, 2007 in Web spam

Fake blogs, fake forums, fake directories. Spammers have resorted to all sorts of interesting means for fooling the search engines.
I’ve been wondering if it’s possible to create a fake Web site. You can certainly create a spammy Web site, but can you fake one?
What sparked my curiosity on the topic was the post [...]

Here is a stupid blog-spam tactic you should avoid

Posted by Michael Martinez on October 19, 2007 in Web spam

“This is based on the SEO theory that links to posts inside your blog are more important than links to your home page.”
An increasing number of blogs are using this language and other very obvious spam justifications to surround link spam they are creating in order to inflate the value of their own blogs.
There may [...]

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