There are many unacceptable techniques tried by webmasters to attempt to fool search engines into listing and ranking their websites.
New software and services emerge which promise lots of ways to get to the top listings, and all of them are 'trickery' attempts. Search engine technology can now identify these unacceptable techniques, and soon discovers any new tricks as they emerge. If you want to avoid search engine stumbling blocks, here are some things you should know about:
Cloaking, Redirection and META Commands
Don't be tempted to use cloaking software, redirection scripts or META commands. These unacceptable techniques are known to be used by spammers and could result in your site being rejected or banned from the index.
Cloaking
Cloaking is a technique where you include information within your web page which can't be seen by viewers but which is intended to influence the search engine robots. This might be:
Hidden Text
Repeating keywords in a tiny font or in the same colour as the background colour to make the text invisible to browsers is spamming the search engines.
Search engine robots are designed to quickly find 'cloaked text', and immediately reject or de-list the site. Be sure that your HTML text is "visible."
Stealth Pages
The term cloaked or stealth pages refers to a method of using software redirects to deliver from the same URL address one page to your normal viewers and a different page to the spiders.
The search engines are unanimous in their judgment that presenting different pages to their spiders other than the one your viewers see is spam and they will penalize your site severely if you are caught.
Redirection Scripts, Auto Refresh or DNS Redirect
Pages that contain Auto Refresh codes, Redirects, or a DNS that instantly points the user to another domain location are sometimes excluded.
An Auto Refresh page is a specific first page a visitor sees for a few seconds, which automatically takes the visitor on to another webpage.
Many search engines do not like this type of action and may reject the page or website from inclusion in their search engines results.
Instant DNS Redirect can prevent inclusion in a search engine. Generally they will index the page that it is redirecting TO, but if it thinks you are trying to "trick" the engine by using "cloaking" or IP redirection technology that it can detect, there is a chance that it may not index the site at all.
It's better to submit your "real" home page if at all possible.
META Commands
The Meta Refresh Tag has been so abused by a certain industry that it is now considered spam by the search engines. Maybe it is not really a stumbling block, but the spiders have been programmed to come off these websites.
Spoofing is a technique where you adjust your Meta tags and other page elements to make the search engine think the page or site is about one subject, when it really is about something else.
This is a common technique used by the porn industry. They create a page of text which describes legitimate information, but hidden within the page are ads and images promoting porn.
Easily coded (using images rather than text) and easily detected by search engines (which usually look for at least three pages of related information on a site).
You can read
Acceptance Guidelines for each search engine and directory by going to their websites, or see a selection including Google, DMOZ, Inktomi, LookSmart, AltaVista and Lycos in our
Some Search Engine Acceptance Guidelines article.
Learn more about how to avoid search engine stumbling blocks on these related pages:
More Search Engine Submission Stumbling Blocks
Avoid Search Engine Stumbling Blocks
Website Design and Construction Stumbling Blocks
Website Content Stumbling Blocks
Navigation and Inbound/Outbound Links Stumbling Blocks
Web Hosting and IP Address Stumbling Blocks
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