Spamdexing; also referred to as Black Hat SEO sounds sinister. It is seen as a SEO crime and the consequences can be a disaster for an online business or whatever other kind of website falls into this trap. Spamdexing has given the Internet a bad name over the past decade. People still insist today that they can outwit the search engines and cause problems for others through this.

What is this culprit called spamdexing?

This is usually a deliberate act by submitting to the search engines pages that are designed in such a way that they lower the quality of the results given by the search engine. It is also done through deliberate indexing. A person creates keywords that are irrelevant to his product or service to generate more traffic.

It is also done by indexing a huge amount of the same content to try to push down a competitor. Another inventive form of spamdexing is to flood a page with minute text in he same colour as the page background. he human eye cannot see this text, but it can fool the Internet crawlers.

This is all done to try and outwit the search engines and lure people in. As time goes on people try more inventive ways to fool the search engines. It is all about that coveted high ranking on the first page of search results. A searcher often stares bewildered at his search results. For days he wonders how he ended up on a lingerie website when he was looking for speedboat accessories. That happened due to Spamdexing.

Search engines fight back

People tend to forget that search engine owners are businessmen like any others. They want people to keep using their search engines. If searchers keep getting irrelevant search results they will soon move their home page to another search engine. Google has become THE search engine giant with an estimated 46+ percent of all searchers using their software.

Spamming can damage their business totally, that is why search engines have evolved to fight back. The engines now include various methods of detecting what they consider to be abuse embedded within their automated software. Once the search engine has picked up any of the forms they consider abuse you face penalties. Search Engines are not kind to spamdexers. You can have your page deleted and could face a lifelong ban.

The innocent beware

Due to the persistent abuse of those who indulge in spamdexing, search engines keep learning. They have become incredibly sensitive. This creates problems for the unwary that in all innocence ring the search engine abuse bells. Once they see your website as an abuser, it is not easy to get them to change their ‘minds’.

This is grossly unfair to the innocent, but this will not change as long as people use unethical ways to make a fast buck. The best advice to all website owners is to educate themselves about the methods of abuse. This way the innocent can steer clear and not become a victim due to the unscrupulous behaviour of another.

Get Involved