Inconspicuous links:These links appear on a page, but they’re usually unnoticeable
because they’re represented as graphics that are 1 x 1 pixels in size.
Keyword stuffing:Loading the content or the meta tags of a web site with keywords that
are repeated over and over.
Meta tag stuffing:Stuffing meta tags with keywords that are repeated over and over.
Doorway pages (or gateway pages):These pages are designed specifically to draw search
crawlers but are essentially useless to visitors. Often, a doorway page will have only the
visible text, “click here to enter.”
Scraper sites:These are web sites that “scrape,” or copy their content from other pages on
the Web. Search engines don’t like scraper sites because they’re not original and because
they usually direct visitors to another site that’s less relevant to their search terms.
Machine-generated pages:These are web pages put together by a program that grabs the
content from other web sites. The content that’s grabbed could be from within the current
site or from sites belonging to other people. Usually these pages are considered spam
because they are of no value to web-site users.
Links in punctuation:This is a clever scheme. Some unethical SEOs create a hyperlink
that’s contained in a piece of punctuation. It’s done by using the following tag:<a href=link> </a>Include real words here</a> <a href=link>.</a>That little snippet of code will leave the words in the link (and you can replace link
with the web-site address of your choice) in plain text, but the period at the end of the
link will contain the link. It’s small, so most people won’t notice it, but the link is there,
so search engines will notice it. Cloaking:This technique is used to make a highly optimized version of your page appear
to search engines, but a more user-friendly page appear to site visitors.
Excessive cross-linking:Excessive cross-linking can be a sign that a company has created
multiple domains strictly for the purpose of building a false linking structure with a single
web site.
Hidden text:This text is the same color as the background of a web page so that users
can’t see it. Search engines can, and the text is usually an incomprehensible collection of
keywords and phrases.
Duplicate content:Duplicate content on a web site is construed as being a ploy to trick a
search crawler into thinking the site is more relevant than it actually is.
Link-only pages:These pages contain only links and should be avoided. The one excep-
tion to this rule is the site map that you make available to visitors so they can quickly find
their way around your site.
Redirect pages:Redirect pages are usually coded for SEO, but again, they’re useless to
site visitors. When site visitors land on this page, they’re asked to wait while they are
redirected to another web site. Search engines look down on this practice because very
often, the web page that is redirecting is optimized for SEO but not for people.241
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