Dangerous Thinking

Someone asked me yesterday what I meant by a ’spammy’ site - see my last couple of posts. So I thought I’d have a go at a definition.

I started thinking about the kind of sites that were very popular earlier this year in some quarters. The ones that scraped content and links from search engines and other sites. The sites didn’t contribute much, if at all. They were built to attract visitors, who when they found there was nothing of interest on the site, would click on a PPC ad. The site owner would then receive Adsense revenue.

Strangely enough, after a while making hay, the sites dropped from the search engines, traffic plummeted and so did revenue.

Then, there are the sites that use dubious bits of technology to try to fool the search engines that they have some proper content… I could go on.

But, in fact, the definition of a spammy site is quite simple.

OK, it’s unashamedly White Hat in attitude, but I always keep in mind the fundamental idea of what a search engine is for - it’s simply to show people the content they’re looking for.

So a spammy site is one that doesn’t deliver what it promises. One that pretends to be something it isn’t.

If your site is using something other than its content, popularity and clean coding to merit its position in natural search, watch out. The search engines are these days big business. They have huge resources to pinpoint underhand practices.

If your spammy site escaped Jagger and/or the recent Yahoo! update, be aware there’s another coming along soon. And another, and another. If you want a long-term future for your site, read the rules and understand them - or hire someone who does.

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