What Is Spamdexing?
Spamdexing is a set of black-hat SEO techniques that are used to manipulate search engine results. While some spam indexing techniques are effective in boosting rankings, they trick search engines into believing the content is valuable when, in reality, it offers little value to users and violate Google’s webmaster guidelines.
The most common industries that use spam indexing are adult content, gambling and loans. Websites that use these techniques are aware that they can result in penalties, but often rely on various evasive measures to try and avoid detection.
However, search engines like Google are continually improving their algorithms to identify and penalise spamdexing efforts. SpamBrain is Google’s anti-spamdexing solution that help keep 99% of searches spam free.
Types of Spamdexing Methods
Spamdexing can be done through link schemes or the content itself. The most common methods include:
Content:
- Auto-generated content and article spinning
- Thin content
- Cloaking
- Hidden text
- Doorway pages
- Scraped content
- Keyword stuffing with irrelevant keywords
Links:
- Private blog networks (PBNs)
- Paid links
- Excessive guest blogging and link exchange
- Buying expired domains
- User-generated links (forums, comments, etc.)
- Website hacking/link injection
