The dangers of spamming search engines

Making url submissions for pages that have content designed to manipulate or cheat the 'search engine ranking algorithms' is known as spamming and if a search engine finds you doing it they will very likely ban you from their index, or at least reduce your overall page weight. They try to be very vigilant on this issue, the reason for this is that they have a need to serve up to searchers the most accurate results possible

So, how do you know if your tripping any search engine spam filters? It's a good question and one that needs to be addressed if you want to ensure you're not loosing a significant number of visitors because you no longer rank anywhere on several of the most favorite search engines

Although the search engines operate in their own individual way, they're all similar in the way that they keep their 'algorithms' secret. Therefore finding out what constitutes a spam infringement can be a problem. Fortunately here is a list of some common faults that many webmasters have made over time

Things that can trigger the spam alarm

Stuffing lists of keywords into tiny -1 size text
Use of colored text on same colour page background or table background
Duplication of pages with different URLs
Use of different pages that bridge to the same URL
Use of keywords that do not relate to the content of the site
Overuse or repetition of keywords
Use of fast meta refresh, search engines don't like it when pages 'meta refresh' really fast. This is due to the abuse this tag has received in the past
Using competitor's trademarks and/or names
Making multiple URL submissions to the same search engine on the same day
Cloaking your web site so that search engines and end users do not view the same page

The importance of the ALT tag

Although you won't be banned for not using them, ALT tags are there for a reason (apart from being a place to stuff lots of relevant keywords). The primary reason for their existence is to help people who have their graphics turned off, are unable to view graphics due to the type of browser they are using, or are visually impaired and are using a speech synthesizer to read the pages. It's for these reasons that search engines can look at pages without ALT tags and grade them lower than comparable pages with ALT tags, therefore you should include them with all your graphics

If you don't know how to implement the ALT tag an example is provided below

Some search engines look across tags for long string repeats. Make sure you mix up your keywords in the ALT tags to be sure they are not identical in sequence to the meta tags

Overusing keywords

Repeating your keywords in the content, as long as it is within a reasonable sentence construct and has appropriate context, will not be considered spamming. However, if you have a lot of keywords in the title, meta-keyword tag or meta-description tag which are obviously not on your page and have nothing to do with your product or service, you will probably trip the spam filter. However, having something minor like "the" instead of "or" isn't a big deal

What can I do if I've been banned

Knowing you've been banned is one thing, reversing the situation is another. If however you find that your site has been penalised you need to find out why. Make sure that your not making any of the mistakes outlined above. When looking at over use of keywords, you need to analyse your keyword density, consider using Web position Gold for this, it gives accurate reports on how your pages would be interpreted by different search engines

After you have removed the offending problem, you should resubmit your web pages. If this doesn't seem to work e-mail the search engines you think have banned you and say "I removed what I believe to be an offending spam problem, which was added prior to me understanding the search engine process. Please reinstate my site." They are really good removing the ban after you have done that, as long as it was the first time, spam them again and they may just ignore you

Keep it simple

Try not to use lengthy JavaScript, frames or dynamic content as they can be a problem for search engine spiders as well as diluting your pages keywords

Style sheet embedded font files can be a problem as well, visitors have to wait for the font to download before the page displays and they may also receive security warnings depending on their browser settings. Avoid security warnings at all costs as they frequently deter visitors from progressing through a site

Summary

Anything that is excessive can be looked at as spam, start your search engine optimization campaign off gently and become more aggressive when and if you still aren't making a high enough ranking
Make sure you're not making any common errors like using lots of small text and text that is the same colour as the background. Watch you're keyword density as well
Ensure that you're using the ALT tag with all graphics
Remember the more esoteric the technologies used on you're pages the more problems you may get. Keep it simple if good search engine placement is important to you