So, if SEO spam is so hard to define, how do you know whether what you’re doing is right or wrong? Good question. And the answer is that you don’t always know, but there are some guidelines that you can follow that will help you stay out of the spam category. Basic, good web-design practices are your best defense. If you’re handling your web-site search marketing using the guidelines provided by the various search engines you’ll target, you should be in a position not to worry about being classified as a spammer.

Don’t do anything that makes you worry that you’re doing wrong:

It sounds like simple advice, but when you think about it, if you’re doing something on your web site that you have to worry is going to get you banned from a search engine, you probably shouldn’t do it. This includes strategies like using hidden text on your web pages, using doorway pages or cloaking your pages, and creating false link structures. Even if you don’t know that these strategies are banned by search engines, when you consider the sneakiness of the strategy, you’ll be able to tell that it’s not likely a strategy that you should use.

Don’t make your web site appear to be something that it’s not:

It’s easy to “put a spin” on something to make it appear more attractive than it really is. People do it all the time where products and services are concerned. But using that same strategy on your web site may get you banned. Creating false link structures is one way you might make your site appear more popular than it really is. The problem with using that strategy is that it won’t take a crawler long to figure out that all of those sites are interconnected.

Don’t trust someone who says that a certain practice is acceptable, if you even suspect that it’s not:

Some unethical SEO people will tell you that it’s okay if you use certain obvious spam techniques as long as you use them correctly. Wrong. Spam is spam. It doesn’t matter how you use it, the search crawler will still see it as spam and you’ll still pay the consequences, while the unethical SEO consultant will take the money and leave you in the crawler’s bad graces. SEO spam is also called spamdexing (because you’re spamming indexes) and can come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. There are some spam techniques that are obviously spam. But then there are some that aren’t clearly spam, but that you should avoid. The list of spamming techniques is huge. But there are a dozen or so items on that list that are constant.

Transparent links:

These are links that are included in the page, but that users can’t see because they’re the same color as the background.

Hidden links:

These links are on the page but are hidden behind elements like graphics. They don’t turn the graphic into a hyperlink, but a search engine can find them and follow them, even when people can’t.

Misleading links:

Misleading links are those that appear to lead to one place but actually lead to another. An example of a misleading link is one that reads www.onewebsite.com but actually takes you to www.differentwebsite.com.

Inconspicuous links:

 These links appear on a page, but they’re usually unnoticeable because they’re represented as graphics that are 1 x 1 pixels in size.

Keyword stuffing:

Loading the content or the meta tags of a web site with keywords that are repeated over and over.

Meta tag stuffing:

Stuffing meta tags with keywords that are repeated over and over.

Doorway pages (or gateway pages):

These pages are designed specifically to draw search crawlers but are essentially useless to visitors. Often, a doorway page will have only the visible text, “click here to enter.”

Scraper sites:

These are web sites that “scrape,” or copy their content from other pages on the Web. Search engines don’t like scraper sites because they’re not original and because they usually direct visitors to another site that’s less relevant to their search terms.

Machine-generated pages:

These are web pages put together by a program that grabs the content from other web sites. The content that’s grabbed could be from within the current site or from sites belonging to other people. Usually these pages are considered spam because they are of no value to web-site users.

Links in punctuation:

This is a clever scheme. Some unethical SEOs create a hyperlink that’s contained in a piece of punctuation. It’s done by using the following tag: <a href=link> </a>Include real words here</a> <a href=link>.</a> That little snippet of code will leave the words in the link (and you can replace link with the web-site address of your choice) in plain text, but the period at the end of the link will contain the link. It’s small, so most people won’t notice it, but the link is there, so search engines will notice it.

Cloaking:

This technique is used to make a highly optimized version of your page appear to search engines, but a more user-friendly page appear to site visitors.

Excessive cross-linking:

Excessive cross-linking can be a sign that a company has created multiple domains strictly for the purpose of building a false linking structure with a single web site.

Hidden text:

This text is the same color as the background of a web page so that users can’t see it. Search engines can, and the text is usually an incomprehensible collection of keywords and phrases.

Duplicate content:

Duplicate content on a web site is construed as being a ploy to trick a search crawler into thinking the site is more relevant than it actually is.

Link-only pages:

These pages contain only links and should be avoided. The one exception to this rule is the site map that you make available to visitors so they can quickly find their way around your site.

Redirect pages:

Redirect pages are usually coded for SEO, but again, they’re useless to site visitors. When site visitors land on this page, they’re asked to wait while they are redirected to another web site. Search engines look down on this practice because very often, the web page that is redirecting is optimized for SEO but not for people.