Thread: Unethical SEO

Recently I've been keeping tabs on my competitors and have noticed strange, unethical activity from one in particular. The first thing that caught my eye was clear, blatant keyword stuffing. I checked out the site to get a better idea, and then reported it to Google immediately.

The keyword was repeated in this site's description more than four times in a matter of two sentences. This trend continued throughout the site.

Look at that! Now, I won't go into page-by-page analysis of the website, but I will say that it's unethical SEO efforts are quite disturbing, and this is just one such example. I can only hope that Google will review my report and take the appropriate action. It hurts to know that I am doing everything by the book, and people engaging in these sorts of tactics are ranking highly.

For other keywords and niches I have seen a lot of blackhat SEO going on as well. I'm just hoping that by doing everything right, and by reporting these attempts at ranking manipulation, my sites can climb the ladder.

So - have you ever filed a spam report with Google?
Do you monitor your competition?
Do you engage in unethical SEO?

Originally Posted by Kovich

So - have you ever filed a spam report with Google?

No I haven't and I don't think I would even if they were doing unethical SEO personally I wouldn't report someones site if I am in competition with them it could possibly make you look bad in Google's eyes plus if it is as bad as you say I am sure google would find it sometime or someone else would report it.

Originally Posted by Kovich

Do you monitor your competition?

No I would rather spend the time focusing on my own site trying to push it up the ranks then spend time worrying about someone else's site although there are sometimes exceptions.

Originally Posted by Kovich

Do you engage in unethical SEO?

No I don't and I don't think I will anytime soon as I don't think it is worth getting your site hated by google.

Originally Posted by Kovich

So - have you ever filed a spam report with Google?

Nope. I would not do it for something as trivial as keywords stuffing. That is not blackhat SEO and probably not even unethical. It is just a very poor application of SEO that will likely get caught and penalized by the spiders anyways. I have known dozens of clients who have filed spam reports due to the practices of their competitors and have never seen Google take action on a single complaint. I think they simply ignore them due to the extreme volume.

Originally Posted by Kovich

Do you monitor your competition?

Nope. It is not worth the effort. If they are outranking me for an important search phrase I may check to see where they are getting their backlinks, but that is about as far as I need to go.

Originally Posted by Kovich

Do you engage in unethical SEO?

Nope. I am a straight white hatter and I never promise something that I cannot deliver. This is an odd question. No one who engages in unethical practices is likely to admit it.

There are still a lot of people who actually believe that techniques like keyword stuffing, hidden keywords, doorway pages, stolen content, autoblogs, etc., actually work. Sometimes they work for a few months, but eventually the site gets caught and penalized.

Over the years I have also noticed that my SEO competitors who tout the use of only "ethical SEO" practices on their web sites are the ones who are most likely to engage in dubious and unethical practices.

You are much better off focusing on improving your sites, rather than trying to knock competitors out of the box. The first works. The second only rarely works.

Hi

Originally Posted by Kovich

So - have you ever filed a spam report with Google?

No

Originally Posted by Kovich

Do you monitor your competition?

No I barely know how to monitor my own site.

Originally Posted by Kovich

Do you engage in unethical SEO?

No I am real curious who will say yes to that question?

Sami

It's always a fine line, but what I tell people is to focus on making a great site that people love. You get that right and you will crush the competition.

with them it could possibly make you look bad in Google's eyes

I'm interested in knowing how you would reach a conclusion like that.
How would reporting spam to Google make you look bad?

I would rather spend the time focusing on my own site trying to push it up the ranks then spend time worrying about someone else's site

But taking some time here and there to check out your competition can help you in the long run. Let's consider the fact that you can see where their backlinks are from, and get some from there as well. You can see legitimate tricks that they are using that you didn't know about before. You can potentially find advertisers by contacting those already advertising on a competitor's site. Etc.

No I don't and I don't think I will anytime soon as I don't think it is worth getting your site hated by google.

I agree. I only asked the question because I know that some people do - and I was curious if anyone would tell us, and explain why.

I would not do it for something as trivial as keywords stuffing.

I agree that keyword stuffing is pretty trivial, but that was just the first thing that caught my eye, which lead to me giving a deeper look into their site. Obviously, keyword stuffing alone is nothing to get worked up about - though I am certain it will get you penalized eventually.

It's always a fine line, but what I tell people is to focus on making a great site that people love.

I agree, and that's what I do as well. By doing the right thing, you'll eventually come out on top.

i check my competitors sometimes. especially when we're in and seo contest
but reporting isn't my thing as i 'm not sure if i also do unethical seo without knowing

I wouldn't care if my competition used keyword stuffing - it will be automatically penalized, end of story. That's not blackhat, that's simply being dumb, and not recognizing the year 2010

Originally Posted by Kovich

Recently I've been keeping tabs on my competitors and have noticed strange, unethical activity from one in particular. The first thing that caught my eye was clear, blatant keyword stuffing. I checked out the site to get a better idea, and then reported it to Google immediately.

The keyword was repeated in this site's description more than four times in a matter of two sentences. This trend continued throughout the site.

The keyword and description meta tags have no effect on search rankings in Google.

Google Confirms: Keyword and Description Meta Tag No Effect on Search Rankings

Yes, this is true bogart.

Wikipedia says: "Keyword stuffing is considered to be an unethical search engine optimization (SEO) technique. Keyword stuffing occurs when a web page is loaded with keywords in the meta tags or in content. The repetition of words in meta tags may explain why many search engines no longer use these tags."