Bad Linking Trick Boosts Google Rankings
Black hats are often experts at manipulating code to stay a step ahead of the search engines, and the latest issue of the Axandra newsletter reports that some webmasters are using a new bad trick to get higher Google rankings.
The latest trick takes advantage of a hole in web search scripts that are used by some company web sites and search engines. Webmasters can force other web sites to link to them if they use the correct code in a link to the search feature of the other web site:
- A webmaster links directly to a search request page on a reputable web site.
- The link code contains information that causes the search script on the reputable web site to include a link to the web site of the webmaster.
- When search engine spiders (including Google’s spider) index the linked search results page, they find a link from an authority web site to the webmaster’s site.
- As a high authority web site links to the web site of the webmaster, his web site gets higher rankings on Google.
In addition, the link also adds a H1 tag with the important keyword on the page and it also adds the keyword to the title.
This is NOT the fast track to better rankings on Google. The Axandra newsletter strongly recommends that you not use this trick (and we second that). They warn that you might get short term results with this technique if you find enough web sites that can be exploited that way.
However, search engines don’t like to be tricked. As soon as search engines find out that you tried to trick them, it is very likely that your web site will be banned from the index.
Instead focus your efforts on ethical search engine optimization techniques that get you long-term results.
More information:
Axandra’s SEO code of ethics
Google Webmaster Guidlines
