Rank Rage
by Steve Winkler
While the Search Engines do their best to ensure the end user
receives relevant search results, you should do your part to
protect against marketing bullies. These inconsiderate marketers
have difficulty positioning their sites properly so they turn to
techniques, tricks and tactics that have been banned or
prohibited by the prominent and popular Search Engines. Only a
few years ago Highway Patrol units and Police departments began
profiling our roadways for "aggressive" drivers in an attempt to
curb the phenomenon of Road Rage. More than a few drivers take
out the stress of their daily lives on the roadways causing
hazards to all other drivers. The connection between Road Rage
and overly aggressive marketing are related in their common lack
of regard for other individuals.
Road rage has moved to the Internet as certain Guerilla Marketers
have shown little regard for legitimate marketers who follow the
rules prescribed by the Search Engines. Website marketers are
throwing down the gloves and showing aggression in their haste
to catalyze their Search Engine ranking processes. Much like in
the situation of Road Rage this new anomaly of Rank Rage has
potential risks to the initiator of unscrupulous marketing
techniques as well as to ethical marketers such as you and I who
do play by the rules.
DEFINITION:
Rank Rage can be defined as aggressive marketing that circumvents
common and prevalent Search Engine requirements in order to gain
an advantage in the Search Engine ranking process.
ORIGIN:
The adult and gambling industries have pioneered, dominated and
essentially destroyed the opportunity to circumvent the rules
and regulations of the major Search Engines. It was not too many
years ago that a doorway page you thought would lead to a page
on 4 Head Hi-Fi VCRs actually led you to the front page of an
adult site. Redirect pages and doorway pages were the first
incarnation of Search Engine Spam.
THE PROBLEM:
Rule conscious marketers lose business to less legitimate
marketers looking to gain an unfair advantage and to make a
quick dollar through the use of prohibited Search Engine ranking
techniques.
Analogous to being broadsided by a truck at an intersection, the
work of an unethical Search Engine Marketer can leave you with a
mess to clean up. The reason that you are not ranked as well as
you should be may not be entirely your fault.
The practice of Search Engine Marketing/Search Engine
Optimization (SEM/SEO) has lately become a function of what not
to do as much as it is a function of installing the proper
components of factual information into a site to create
positioning. In defense of the honest business person who simply
wants to have a fair advantage in the online marketing game, the
major Search Engines have offered "Dos and Don’ts" and general
rules of conduct in order to position well within their indices.
Google states that they can and will manually remove violators
of their stringent requirements. Once removed there is no
guarantee of being included again in the index even if the site
is cleaned of violating factors. As a marketer, the cost of not
being top ranked in Google can be devastating. A recent study
states that Google now controls over 50% of the Search Engine
market. To lose your chance of reaching such a large portion
of the Search Engine market is not a worthwhile risk.
Whether it be through the use of generic doorway pages, user
invisible text, link farming or cloaking, certain marketers find
it more important to obtain results than worry about the risk of
being removed from indices.
Recently, I have noticed that firms within the SEM/SEO industry
now have 0/10 or "current page is not ranked by Google" messages.
This is unfortunate and should send a red flag to potential
customers that there is more than just a slight chance that
rules have not been adhered to in order to obtain positioning.
As a marketer being disadvantaged by the lack of adherence to
the rules, you will perhaps have legal footholds in the future
with which to retaliate against those that unfairly steal
business.
RECOGNIZING OVERLY AGGRESSIVE MARKETING:
While SEM/SEO has been viewed by many as the ultimate tool for
guerilla marketers, the environment of SEM/SEO is now more mature
and requires attention to detail and consideration of others
seeking to use this medium for business promotion. In fact and
theory this has been true throughout the history of online
marketing. In the past 2 years the Search Engines have taken
great strides to ensure relevant search results by establishing
rules of entry into the major databases.
Spam in the email world typically refers to UCE (Unsolicited
Commercial Email). In the Search Engine world Spam refers to any
separation from strict adherence to the rules of positioning set
forth by the Search Engine. Fortunately, legitimate marketers
and SEM/SEO firms recognize what to do and what NOT to do. The
practices which had worked and had been state of the art even a
year ago may not be so today and understanding the rules which
you need to follow in order to maintain proper positioning may
be best handled by a professional Search Engine marketing firm.
While Rank Rage takes many forms it typically includes the
following techniques:
* Cloaking
* Hidden Text
* Nearly Invisible Text
* Doorway Pages
* Plagiarized Text
* Link Farms or Link Schemes
HELPFUL RESOURCES:
When making marketing decisions always err on the side of
caution and closely adhere to the rules set forth by the
engines on which you desire positioning. Below are a few
resources that are worth paying mind to in your optimization
process or, if you do have a professional firm conducting this
work for you, insist that they follow these rules.
Google: http://www.google.com/webmasters/index.html
AltaVista: http://addurl.altavista.com/addurl/new#rls
Fast/AllTheWeb: http://www.alltheweb.com/info/about/spam_policy.html
Inktomi: http://www.inktomi.com/products/web_search/websearch9.html#user
YOUR OBLIGATIONS:
In order to protect your rights and the validity of Search
Engine results, you can utilize the following contact information
to report Spam violations and overly aggressive marketing
techniques. Report incidences of Rank Rage as appropriate to
secure your legitimate online positioning.
Listed below are a few contacts to where you may report alleged
Spammers.
AltaVista: http://addurl.altavista.com/help/contact/search
Google: http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html
Inktomi: reportspam@inktomi.com
Fast: spam@fastsearch.com
Teoma: info@teoma.com
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Steve Winkler is the Business Development Manager of the
www.KeywordRanking.com team of Search Engine and marketing
professionals. Steve Winkler has experience in demographic based
marketing, interactive marketing programs and business efficiency
consultation. For more information, a free ranking report or a
free in depth consultation please visit:
< http://www.keywordranking.com/index.cfm?ref=24a >
Steve can be reached via email: swinkler@keywordranking.com
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