Search Engine Pitfalls

The main objective of search engine marketing is to be in the top few results. Being in the top few results of a search engine can be vital to driving traffic to your website because most adults who buy things online rely on search engines to research their purchases. The problem with search engine optimization is that marketers can try to buy specific key word positions (buy their way to the top) as opposed to previously receiving a top standing was based on optimization techniques. While some people play by the rules, there are others who try to manipulate or trick their way to the top of search engine lists. Some of these tactics include hidden text or hidden links, cloaking, doorway pages, phishing, malware, and other types of badware.

Hidden text or hidden links can be explained as white text on a white background and is something you want to steer clear from. Some forms of hidden texts or links are hidden text that also happens to by hyperlinked, using CSS to make tiny hyperlinks (1 pixel high text), and hiding links in the text (a period in the middle of a paragraph). This is a violation of many search engine guidelines and the sites that you are directed to are most commonly inappropriate sites. Another form of manipulative behavior is called cloaking and big time company BMW was caught using this by Google and their page rank was reduced to zero. You are not to deceive your users or present different content to search engines then you display to users, however when a user clicked on the link displayed in Google’s results window they were redirected to a regular BMW Germany page containing far fewer of the key words. The spokesman for BMW insisted the company’s intentions were honorable but on Google’s website the guideline was in violation because BMW designed the webpage for the search engine, not the users. Due to the breaking of the guideline BMW was hit with the zero ranking list result. Another deceptive technique is phishing. Phishing is done through sending emails from seemingly credible senders such as well-known bank institutions or online payment processing for online vendors. What goes on is the messages sent by phishers usually have a fake link to a credible company and the website contains a form that visitors need to fill out. The information that is gathered from the page can contain credit card information and other sensitive data. So in all, the competition for top search engine results can be a very competitive game and many people can get caught up in the destructive tactics that some businesses chose to use.