How To Report Spamdexing

[Kal]

Hi all - I know how time consuming it can be to report a case of spamdexing, but it's a lot easier if you have a standard email template and know the addresses to send it to. Have found a couple of the addresses and I'll edit this to add more as I find them :

Google: http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html or search-quality@google.com
Inktomi: reportspam@inktomi.com
AOL: http://search.aol.com/feedback.adp
MSN: http://www.msn.com/contactus.ashx
AltaVista: http://help.altavista.com/contact/search or search-support@altavista.com
Yahoo: Does not have a spam reporting email. Only wants to know of dead links, or user feedback (dead link report) http://docs.yahoo.com/docs/writeus/deadlink.html
Yahoo: (feedback)
http://cgi.yahoo.com/bin/feedback?t=experience
Looksmart: feedback@looksmart.net
Fast: send an e-mail entitled "Spam Report" to spam@fastsearch.com. In the mail please set out the search query you performed, and the URLs of the pages you believe consist of, or contain, Spam. Or use the spam report form (http://www.alltheweb.com/info/contact/spam.html)

Thought I'd share my "reporting a spamdexer" email template with you as I've sent a few lately:

----------------------------

Hi there - I would like to report a serious case of spamdexing within your search index. The following site:

[insert spammy URL here]

is using spamdexing techniques, including the use of ["stealth" CSS tags] and [hidden text] which may be an attempt to bypass your ranking algorithm and mislead the viewer regarding the relevancy of the site for matching search terms.

I report this to you based on your recommendations of Webmaster Do's and Don'ts at: [http://www.google.com/webmasters/dos.html]

On that page you say: [Don't Cloak. Don't Write text or create links that can be seen by search engines but not by visitors to your site.]

The above mentioned site is doing [both] these things in spades. A colleague from the ihelpyou Search Engine Forums suggested I report this to you (see our Spam & Ethics forum thread here: http://www.ihelpyouservices.com/forums/f5/s) because you value the quality of your index.

In this Forum, we (representatives of the SEO industry worldwide) discuss the use of spamdexing and post examples that we find in our travels. We report these examples to the relevant engines where we feel a serious breach has occured. If you do not want us reporting such breaches or if you feel this is not the most adequate way to do so, please email me or join us in the forums and let us know.

Thanking you
------------------------

The email above will need customisation depending on the breach and the engine guidelines, but it's easier than starting from scratch! If anyone knows the spam reporting email addresses for other engines, email me and I'll add them here...

[MazY]

Just a quick comment from a boring git who spent most of his younger life dealing with customer complaints. That simple complaint seems extremely verbose. Busy people don't have time for pleonasm and personal opinion. In fact, the latter half of it reads more like a stealth spam to advertise the forum!

Succint is always the best way to go when making any kind of compaint. Suggestion:

****

I would like to report a case of possible abuse within your search index. The offending page is [insert spammy URL here].

I believe this site may be using techniques outside of your gudelines published at [insert URL] in an attempt to bypass your ranking algorithm and mislead the viewer.

[MakeMeTop]

New spam reporting URL direct to Inktomi:

spamcrusader@inktomi.com

According to Inktomi at the Berlin conference - this will be taken seriously.

Try and give an example using a search term and indicate what happens. Advice on turning off javascript etc or using view-source would also be useful.

[ihelpyou]

The Google email is no more. In another thread I posted a new form Google has set up to report spam. Don't have it handy right now.

I do agree that Google is busy and does not care about anything more than who and what is spamming. But, you should give the details as to what technique is being used so Google does not have to guess or search for the spam.

[Kal]

Originally posted by MazY
Busy people don't have time for pleonasm and personal opinion. In fact, the latter half of it reads more like a stealth spam to advertise the forum!
I was trying to compensate for the fact that they may take one look at my email address and think I am just taking revenge on a competitor SEO. Just trying to demonstrate to the recipient that the report is legit and the accused is discussed in a forum of peers. But I agree, succinct may be better.

Thanks for the new Inktomi email MMT, PositionTech just emailed me the same one and said they forwarded my complaint to that address on my behalf.

Doug - I received a confirmation thanks when submitting to that Google address, so it definitely works. But perhaps there a more relevant one?

[Alan Perkins]

I don't know why MazY says "pleonasm", when what he really means is "The use of more words than are absolutely really necessary to express something. " :)

The question is, MazY, is pleonasm spam? :shocked:

Kal, it's a good idea. I'll make this thread sticky.

[Alan Perkins]

The Google spam reporting page is at

http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html

[Alan Perkins]

More on Google, according to latest SearchEngineWatch...

e-mail: spamreport@google.com
Toolbar: http://toolbar.google.com/go?version=beta&hl=en

see http://www.cs.unc.edu/~cutts/toolbarbeta.html for more details on the Toolbar feature. This is written by Matt Cutts, Google's chief spamfighter. Sounds great:

If all goes well, you should have two new buttons on the toolbar: a happy face and a frowny face. From now on, you can click those buttons at any time to send a vote to Google about the page that you're on. For example, if you run across an interesting page on the web, click a happy vote. If you do a Google search and the results are really useless, then click the frowny face on the results page. Or suppose that you mistyped www.yahoo.com as www.yhaoo.com and you got taken to a spam page for 5thavenue.com--that's another chance to send a frowny vote or two. Got a spam email? Click on link they advertise, then send some frowny votes. Ha ha, that'll show 'em! :) Ideally, these buttons will be so easy that you'll vote on great or terrible pages a few times a day.

[Kal]

Originally posted by Alan Perkins
Ideally, these buttons will be so easy that you'll vote on great or terrible pages a few times a day.
Doug's gonna love this! :p

[ihelpyou]

yea, I can see lots of room for abuse with this but I do think Google will have many tricks and filters in place if anyone tried to abuse it.

[MazY]

Originally posted by Alan Perkins
I don't know why MazY says "pleonasm", when what he really means is "The use of more words than are absolutely really necessary to express something. " :)

As a fellow UKer, you should appreciate that it is for the very same reason that using a moiety of expression is far more prudent than a direct display of grammatolatry.

Now, if you choose to be of a more sesquipedalian nature, you are on your own, my friend. I am, as you can see, a pupil at the school of brevity. :D

Now if you shall excuse me, I shall return to my Anglist pursuits. :hi: And, young meladdio, I am shocked at your abuse of the verb "say". "Says"? Surely you meant to convert it to a past-tense and use "said"? In fact, while I'm here, I didn't say, I stated or wrote. :)

Can you tell what a fun, fun child I was at school? :D

Maintenant je dirai au revoir.

Pet hate of the week:
The use of the word "offer" when trying to write sales literature. Example: "We offer a comprehensive range of...." So, the question is do you offer it or provide it? There is a difference!

[Alan Perkins]

LOL! You've been watching too much Black Adder meets Dr. Samuel Johnson.

[Kal]

Originally posted by Alan Perkins
LOL! You've been watching too much Black Adder meets Dr. Samuel Johnson.

Perhaps its like one of Baldrick's "cunning plans": on offer but rarely taken up?

[pageoneresults]

so circumlocutious (http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=circumlocutious)?

[ihelpyou]

Or how about this?

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=ambagious

:D

[pielover]

I have a competitor that is "spamdexing" and has #1 on about any search term in the industry. They are a used-equipment dealer, which makes it worse. I have used the Google reporting method, but of course nothing happens.

Check them out:

www.lre.com

Before their splash page goes away, right click to get the source code. Whoever said that repeating the same word will get you banned is wrong. If you can see the page long enough, you'll see that the text is cloaked, too.

Do I send an email to all my associates around the country to get them to report it, too, hoping that it rises in importance at Google as the number of complaints rises?

[RandyDotcom]

Google has tried this before. They will just ignore it.
Maybe if a Site gets a lot of votes, they'll que it for another index run

[Kal]

Originally posted by RandyDotcom
Google has tried this before. They will just ignore it.
Not true. There are many members in here that have reported spammers and had the sites removed by Google within a few weeks.

[RandyDotcom]

Originally posted by Kal
Not true. There are many members in here that have reported spammers and had the sites removed by Google within a few weeks.

Actually I was referring to the Vote system.

there have been some removals, but for the most part the change the algorythm.

[RandyDotcom]

Originally posted by pielover
Check them out:

www.lre.com

[/B]

I did, I think their entry page content has very little to do with their listing, it might be The Incredible Marketing Job they hae done, and superior link building.

What's between the tags, just gets you returned based on the keywords. What gets you to the top is link popularity.

[pielover]

Randydotcom...Howdy.

The lre.com site got dropped by Google for about one month. They didn't change a thing. I've read elsewhere that (marketingfix.com, I think, although I am sure here too) about Google getting serious about spam recently.

Its a long-run game. We can't get to short-sighted.

[rockynate]

Originally posted by RandyDotcom
I did, I think their entry page content has very little to do with their listing, it might be The Incredible Marketing Job they hae done, and superior link building.

What's between the tags, just gets you returned based on the keywords. What gets you to the top is link popularity.

So you're saying that the gigantic load of spam on that splash page has nothing to do with their rankings? I beg to differ...

All those links at the bottom of the page are part of the spam campaign to artificially increase their PR. And with that PR6, they boost their relevancy to all those hidden words on the page. Though, if I were going to go ahead and spam like that, I'd put more than just "link" as the anchor text....

[pielover]

I assumed Randy was being a little sacastic.

BTW: Google has dropped this site from their index again...sometime in September. Hope it lasts more than a month this time. :p

[WilliamC]

Does anyone here realize the importance of the form you posted in the first post?

This form could be mailed out by an intelligent person complaining about any page any SEO here has optimized. Seeing the optimization on a page is not dificult, and pointing it out using this form would be simple. Lest we forget, all SEO is spam.

[JuniorHarris]

Dude that post is over two years old!

The majority of email addresses [and engines] don't even exist any more. And that post is not providing tools that anyone with evil intent could not achieve on their own accord. There are tons of information in here, how one chooses to use it is up to the individual. Some will use the information for the right purposes, whilst others will use it with less then best practices.

[qwerty]

Lest we forget, all SEO is spam.
I don't want to debate this, but I will say that I don't agree with that statement.

[ihelpyou]

Yeah, obviously I don't agree either and also don't wish to debate it. It's been debated to death already.

The problem is, any spammer out there would love to turn the conversation and abscure the facts to that statement. It's not in anyone's best interest to go down that road and give spammers another way to confuse people. Just like "what is cloaking?" Spammers blur the facts on that as well by saying stuff like "Google cloaks".

And yes, this thread is 'very' old. :)

[WilliamC]

Originally posted by ihelpyou
Yeah, obviously I don't agree either and also don't wish to debate it. It's been debated to death already.

The problem is, any spammer out there would love to turn the conversation and abscure the facts to that statement. It's not in anyone's best interest to go down that road and give spammers another way to confuse people. Just like "what is cloaking?" Spammers blur the facts on that as well by saying stuff like "Google cloaks".

And yes, this thread is 'very' old. :)

Yeh, I didnt look at the date of the thread. It was on the first page for this forum, and it caught my attention :)

[raymond4unc]

Does anyone have a compairison of doing this is SEO but when you take it to this degree is becomes spam? And who (such as search engines) counts such things and to what degree?

[ihelpyou]

It's spam when the search engines say it's spam. It's written in their guidelines as to what is spam. btw, Google does NOT cloak. Hence, NOT spam.

[Quadrille]

This form could be mailed out by an intelligent person complaining about any page any SEO here has optimized. Seeing the optimization on a page is not dificult, and pointing it out using this form would be simple.Sure. But if the page cited is clean, then Google will ignore the complaint - except maybe to ban the complainer, if it's a regular trick. :D

You can bet that G expects a fair number of nuisance mails, but I'm sure each page offered (or provided) is initially checked by software, not a person, and only those that ring a bell get examined. And, like everything else at G, complaints will rarely lead to penalties; much more likely is a tweak of the algo - and a penalty once the system is next upgraded.

Frustrating, perhaps, but justice usually prevails in the medium term. ;)

On the terms of complaining, I'd go for short'n'sweet, too:

1. A search for "XXX" produced this site "XX" at number "X"

2. This looks wrong, please investigate

3. I think it may be doing this "XXXX"

Just top'n'tail with a "Hi" and "Best wishes"

I don't think SEs care where the info comes from; they'll check the site, not you. :)

[neodemes]

Ideally, these buttons will be so easy that you'll vote on great or terrible pages a few times a day.

This may be an old thread, but I just learned something and put it to good use.

I hadn't realized those vote buttons were there.

I just frowned upon a couple of pages that were definitely in need of it...if you have read my recent posts (or even if you haven't) you will know why.

traffic-power.ws/traffic-power.ws_friends.html :mad:

traffic-power.us/traffic-power.us_friends.html :mad:

[RandyDotcom]

Added My Vote :p

[Comeran]

I hate posting on such an old topic but I had to throw in my 2 cents.

I have been working with a local golf company on their site for years, they have great traffic and a really good ROI.

When I first started they wanted to use spamming techniques because there were 3 sites on the top of the SE's that used clear and obvious spamming techniques. I got them away from it and years later we are way above them.

I reported each of those sites spamming numerous times to G, and still to this day 3 years later they are still in the top 10 for many rankings and still use the spamming techniques. Each time that I reported them I was clear in what they were doing, and I am sure that if reviewed G would see that they were spamming.

Has anyone used the reporting tool and seen justice?

I don't want to give them any link popularity but this is just an example:

Site : the ace of clubs dot com

Go to the bottom and highlight everything, they use a grass background, and green text is hidden on almost every page.

They are on MANY big top 10 golf related rankings.

Anyone else seeing this?

[ihelpyou]

LOL That's bad stuff.

Maybe Google just doesn't care about that site as it's butt ugly anyway? Who would actually spend any time on it no matter how many visitors they received? It's a scroll to the right screen to begin with. It's so ugly that why would someone buy a club from it? Their 1999 spam technique is just as outdated as the amateur site they have. :)

I don't have a direct answer to why they are still there.

Maybe find a good thread in Matt's blog that is talking about spam and post the link? I do agree that it's so bad, and the site is so bad that it doesn't deserve to be there even if it would be there in spite of the spam.

www.mattcutts.com/blog/

[Comeran]

Thanks Doug!

I will post and see what happens.

It is so strange seeing them with such high rankings for so long with such bad design and seo practices.

It is people like them that make it hard to explain to customers that it doesn't pay.

I'll let you know what happens.

Comeran-

[Irony]

Matt will delete that comment, most likely :)

He always does.

[grungee]

With Google I have had many sites removed from their index, yahoo and msn don't seem to care, but I find google usually within a couple of weeks and the offending site has been removed. I also managed to get 1 large offender who was committing a alrge amount of doorways to be removed as I made a huge list of offending sites that they had done the seo work on some 2000 and they removed their site as well even though they hadn't used any spam techniques on their site.

BTW they just changed url and started all over again.

[Comeran]

It was posted and deleted :|

I have reported them MANY times with no luck :p

I gave the URL above so you can look and clearly see that he spams the bottoms of his pages by using green text on a green grass background so it is hidden. This is clearly spam but yet they have been there for years.

Sometimes they just get lucky I guess.

Comeran-

[Rockrz]

What's stopping competitors from lying to get your website removed from major engines?

[Dave Hawley]

The SE's themselves I would say.

[Rockrz]

Originally posted by Dave Hawley
The SE's themselves I would say. How do we know they care?

It's not like there is a shortage of sites for them to have in their database

[Dave Hawley]

You kidding?

Of course they care and want the most comprehensive data base to draw from. It's what's makes then money! If they did as you suggest, there wouldn't be many sites left in any SE.

[Quadrille]

As we've heard in this thread, they don't even remove all the ones that NEED removing.

I doubt they even look at them manually until they get a bunch of complaints; too resource-heavy to justify it.

But I'll bet they have a couple of specialist spiders that tick a few boxes for them; too many and they're either out, or considered manually. A fair number, and they are noted for future algo changes.

Of course I'm guessing, as are we all - but to suggest you can get an honest rival removed so easily is silly ... if it were true, there wouldn't be an honest site left in the top 400 :D

[Rockrz]

Originally posted by Dave Hawley
Of course they care I doubt it because as I said earlier, there are millions upon millions of website that are still in their database so why should they care if someone reports a business competitor's site to get it removed?

I wouldn't be naive about it, as the world as we know it is not quite that rosy.

There's no reason for them to care as a few of these instances would not harm their bottom line, and after all...it's all about money!

[Quadrille]

On the other hand, why would they play into the hands of spammers by blindly following a removal request?

Assume Google are evil, if that's your thing, but please don't assume they're stupid.

[Rockrz]

I wasn't suggesting that they are evil or stupid, I was just saying I don't think they CARE!

In my experience with people in general, I've come to realize that most people only care about their own business and bottom line...and couldn't care less about anybody else.

Unless, it somehow effects their bottom line somehow.

My whole point is, I doubt very seriously that they have a program to make sure they aren't deleting good sites from their database....because it doesn't effect their profits and continued growth.

[Quadrille]

Of course it does affect them.

And don't you think if any Tom Dick and Harry could request their rivals delisting, evry spammer in town would know?

Do you think any of the mods here would have a site left?

It's a ludicrous suggestion, and we can only be grateful that Google aren't quite that stupid. Just go and think about it, please.

[Rockrz]

I'm not saying the problem is wide spread, I'm saying I'd bet it does happen occasionally because they have no interest in spending time checking to make absolutely sure the site they are deleting should be deleted.

I've heard of quite a few instances where sites mysteriously quit showing up in Google and/or Yahoo. Sites that aren't spamming anyone or otherwise doing anything wrong.

If the SE really cared, these instances wouldn't be happening would they?

Anyway, I'm getting like the SE on this as I'm beginning to not care myself because none of this effects my bottom line just like this doesn't effect their bottom line.

A few sites being removed doesn't hurt Yahoo or Google in any way, shape, or form. Their revenues continue to grow so they have no problem one way or the other.

Unsubscribing now as this is becoming pointless.
Good luck with that!

[Connie]

I've never reported a site, but it's my understanding you have to be very specific about the spam you are reporting.

Whether they try to deal with the spam by an Algo, or actually look at the site, if you were not guilty, you would have no worries IMHO.

[Quadrille]

Originally posted by Rockrz
I'm not saying the problem is wide spread, I'm saying I'd bet it does happen occasionally because they have no interest in spending time checking to make absolutely sure the site they are deleting should be deleted. You can't 'not say' that - if it worked, it wouldn't be widespread, it would be universal.

Just think about it - a spammer could go offshore and hire someone to report everyone in the top 1000, except him.

If Google were as stupid as to 'carelessly' take their word for it, they'd have the worst serps on the planet.

As it happens, they have the best. Go figure!

[mhm]

I wonder what space.com did for them to be completely removed from Google's index?

They used to be number 1 for just about everything in that area for the last 7 or so years.


-- Max

[Quadrille]

They're still around - they don't feature, I suspect, because all their content seems to be syndicated to/from a myriad other sites, plus there's very little plain ole fashioned text there these days - all links, images and gimmicks.

I reckon they do all right through their network of related domains; space.com seems to be just a traffic redirection center.

But you may know better ...

[correction:] You are right; they have been excluded, not just 'supplementalled' ... I dunno ...

[Connie]

Originally posted by mhm
I wonder what space.com did for them to be completely removed from Google's index?

They used to be number 1 for just about everything in that area for the last 7 or so years.


-- Max

I have no idea about "space.com" The only site I see dominating the Serps is "Amazon.com".

[Dave Hawley]

Rockrz, you used the word "naive" which is exactly what I think you are being.

Of course Google are not perfect and nobody is suggesting they are. What you are stating though makes no sense on any level. ALL publicly listed businesses care about making $ and what you are stating would cost them $ and not make them $.

I doubt it because as I said earlier, there are millions upon millions of website that are still in their database so why should they care if someone reports a business competitor's site to get it removed?Think about what you are saying! In one breath you state they could remove legit sites based ONLY on a competitors say-so. Then, in the next breath you say there are many spammy sites still in their SERPs.

Google RARELY removes sites from their SERPs. What they most likely do is use algos to detect spammy elements and NOT credit the spammy elements.

Sooooooo, it's very likely a spammy page, ranking on page 1, would be there anyway WITHOUT any spam. Google puts it's USERS 1st (smart business IMO) and wants as MANY pages in its database as possible.

The vast majority of Google searchers don't care if the page they find via Google has some hidden text at the bottom, or keyword stuffed Meta tags etc. ALL they care about is IF the page is relevant to their search.

[Dave Hawley]

MySpace are still strong in Google's index Site:www.myspace.com (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=GGLJ%2CGGLJ%3A2006-28%2CGGLJ%3Aen&q=site%3Awww.myspace.com&btnG=Search)

Why do you say otherwise?

[mhm]

Originally posted by Quadrille
[correction:] You are right; they have been excluded, not just 'supplementalled' ... I dunno ...

Well, now they are suddenly back after being gone for a couple of weeks. Probably a glitch or something...

[Quadrille]

That's space.com, not myspace.com.

Yes, they're back - a few hours ago there was nada.

[Dave Hawley]

Sorry, my bad :)

[ihelpyou]

Hi Rockz;
I've heard of quite a few instances where sites mysteriously quit showing up in Google and/or Yahoo. Sites that aren't spamming anyone or otherwise doing anything wrong.
ah yes. I hear this about two times per week. But gee wiz, guess what? If a site is indeed "removed" from a se, I can usually find a reason that it happened. MOST ALL website owners "always" claim they have NO idea why and have NEVER spammed the se's. MOST do not understand that what they did "is" se spamming. They learned some little trick from some guru out there, and thought it was just dandy and are now penalized or banned. It happens all the time.

Trust me; as someone wrote; if it was that easy to get sites removed from Google, don't ya think these forums would have been removed 6 years ago? LOL

If a site is NOT spamming, you best not report them. Doing so will get "your" site red flagged as a se Spammer.

[jbpostal]

What is Spamdexing??? First ever I heard this term!!


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[Removed URL]

[Connie]

Welcome to IHY. :hi: I removed your link. You can add the site to your profile if you want to.

In regard to this thread the term is in reference to reporting websites that you believe are spamming the the SEs, or doing something in violation to their guidelines.

[coolbudy]

Hi
very help full info.

[coolbudy]

Hey I Know Google spam reporting.

http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html