Module 8 · 8.2
Pitfalls: SEO spam, bought links and promises
Module 8: Measuring, pitfalls and maintenance · Reading time: 12 minutes
Learning objective: After this lesson you can recognise the main forms of search engine spam described in Google's spam policies, explain what a manual action is, and tell an unreliable SEO offer apart from an honest one.
Key concepts: Google's spam policies, hidden text and links, keyword stuffing, cloaking, doorway pages, link spam, bought links, rel="sponsored" and rel="nofollow", scaled content abuse, site reputation abuse, expired domain abuse, hacked content, manual action, reconsideration request, "guaranteed number 1"
What is search engine spam?
Google publishes spam policies for its web search results. They describe tricks meant to mislead search engines rather than help visitors. Google detects them with automated systems and with people who review sites. According to Google, sites that break the policies can rank lower or disappear from the results altogether. Bing has similar rules in its Webmaster Guidelines.
The common thread: anything you do only to rank higher, which doesn't help visitors or even misleads them. Below are the forms you're most likely to come across as a business owner, often because someone offers them to you.
The forms you need to know
| Form | What it is | What it looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Hidden text and links | Text or links that a search engine sees but a visitor doesn't | White text on a white background, a row of town names in a 1-pixel font size |
| Keyword stuffing | Filling a page with keywords or numbers that appear unnaturally or out of context | "Bloemist Amersfoort, bloemen Amersfoort, goedkope bloemist Amersfoort, bloemist Amersfoort centrum ..." (florist Amersfoort, flowers Amersfoort, cheap florist Amersfoort ...) at the bottom of every page |
| Cloaking | Showing search engines something different from what visitors see | Googlebot gets a page full of text, visitors get a page with just a photo |
| Doorway pages | Lots of near-identical pages created to rank for many variations of a search, all sending visitors to the same place | "Bloemist Amersfoort", "Bloemist Leusden", "Bloemist Soest" with the same text and only a different town name |
| Link spam | Creating links to or from your site mainly to influence rankings | Buying links, large-scale link exchanges, link packages, automatically generated links, guest posts full of keyword links |
| Scaled content abuse | Creating many pages mainly to rank, with no value for visitors, however they are made | A thousand articles in one week, generated with AI, with no checking or input of your own |
| Site reputation abuse | Placing third-party content on a strong site to piggyback on that site's reputation | A news site hosting another company's discount code pages without oversight |
| Expired domain abuse | Buying an expired domain and putting low-value content on it to exploit its old reputation | The domain of a disbanded sports club filled with casino texts |
| Hacked content | Content placed on your site without permission through a security hole | Suddenly pages about medicines or lotteries in your sitemap |
About links: buying is fine, if you say so
A link is a recommendation. That's why Google treats bought links that pose as recommendations as link spam. According to Google, paid links are fine as long as they are marked with rel="sponsored" (or rel="nofollow"). An advert on an industry site, a paid listing in a directory or a sponsored article is therefore fine, as long as the link has that attribute. What isn't allowed: giving money, products or services in exchange for an ordinary link that passes on ranking value. Lesson 7.5 goes into this in more detail.
About AI texts
Google doesn't ban AI texts. The policy is about purpose and value: creating lots of pages to rank, without adding anything for visitors, is spam "no matter how it's created". A page you write with the help of AI, check and add your own experience to is not a problem. A thousand automatically generated town pages are.
Hacked? That's your problem too
Hacked content is covered by the spam policies, even though you didn't do it. Google may then rank your site lower or show a warning. Keep your software up to date (the WordPress course explains how) and check Security issues in Search Console.
Manual actions
A manual action is a measure taken by a Google employee after they have established that pages break the spam policies. Usually it means pages or the whole site rank lower or disappear from the results. You can see it in Search Console in the Manual actions report; if there's a green tick, there's nothing wrong. You also get a notification when a new action is taken.
If there is an action:
- read which rule and which pages it concerns;
- fix the problem on all the pages listed (fixing only some of them doesn't help);
- make sure Google can view those pages (no login, no block in robots.txt, no noindex);
- request a review in the same report, describing the problem, what you have done and the result.
According to Google, a review usually takes a few days to a few weeks, often longer for links. Don't send a new request while the previous one is still being processed. Note: not every drop is a manual action. Falling in the results can also happen because others create better pages or because Google updates its systems.
"Guaranteed number 1 in Google"
Almost every business owner gets them: emails and phone calls from agencies promising to get you to the top. Google itself says this on its page about hiring an SEO:
- No one can guarantee a number 1 ranking on Google. If someone promises that, look for someone else.
- Be wary of agencies that email you out of the blue.
- Be wary if a company is secretive or doesn't clearly explain what it is going to do.
- You never have to link to an SEO agency.
- Avoid agencies that talk about link popularity tricks or about submitting your site to thousands of search engines. Google calls that useless for your position in the major search engines.
- Advertising with Google has no effect on your position in the regular search results, and Google never accepts money to include a site or rank it higher.
Recognising an honest offer
Hiring an SEO specialist can be very useful: fixing technical problems, improving your content, helping with your business profile. Google suggests a few questions you can ask beforehand:
- Can you show me examples of previous work?
- Do you follow Google's guidelines (Google Search Essentials)?
- What results do you expect, and within what timeframe?
- How do you measure whether it's working?
- What experience do you have in my industry?
- How long has your company been in business?
A good answer is concrete ("first we'll fix the 40 pages that aren't indexed, then we'll rewrite the five most important service pages; we measure with Search Console") and doesn't promise positions. Be especially alert to: a fixed price per "link", a "500 backlinks" package, a "secret method", tools supposedly "approved by Google" (Google doesn't review or endorse third-party SEO tools, and those tools have no access to Google's internal data) and promises of results within a few days. If an agency wants to audit your site, give it read-only access in Search Console.
In practice: when someone else builds your site
Whether your site was made with the AI Builder, WordPress or another website builder: the builder can't create spam for you unless you add it yourself. The pitfalls lie in what you add: a plugin or theme that puts hidden links in the footer, an "SEO block" with dozens of town names at the bottom of every page, or a copywriter who copies the same page for each town. After any change made by someone else, take a quick look at the source code of your homepage (right-click, View page source) to see whether there are links or text you don't recognise.
Summary
- Google's spam policies are about tricks to mislead search engines: hidden text, keyword stuffing, cloaking, doorway pages, link spam, scaled content abuse, site reputation abuse and expired domain abuse, and hacked content.
- Paid links are allowed if they have
rel="sponsored"orrel="nofollow". AI texts are allowed if they add value. - You can see a manual action in Search Console; fix everything and then request a review.
- No one can guarantee a number 1 ranking. Advertising with Google doesn't help your regular position.
- Ask an SEO agency for examples, a plan, expectations and a way of measuring.
Quiz
Exercise
Exercise A8.2: Spam or not? Read the eight situations in the example file spam-of-niet.md. For each situation, choose whether it is spam or fine according to Google's spam policies, and if it is spam, which form. The program compares your answers with the fixed key and explains why for each situation.
Further reading
- Google, Spam policies for Google web search: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies
- Google, Do you need an SEO?: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/do-i-need-seo
- Google, Manual Actions report: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9044175
- Google, Qualify your outbound links: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/qualify-outbound-links
- Bing Webmaster Guidelines: https://www.bing.com/webmasters/help/webmaster-guidelines-30fba23a