Web Page Spam Definition

Just when I'm wondering what to write about next, I see this -

Official - Mahalo is Spam, According to Google's Internal Spam Documents

"Wow," I think, "this is going to be good."

In a number of ways, this post on SEOBook.com is great blog fodder (or link bait, which ever you prefer). Let us count the ways:

#1 Final Notes on Spam
SEOBook.com quotes the leaked Google documents as follows:

When trying to decide if a page is Spam, it is helpful to ask yourself this question: if I remove the scraped (copied) content, the ads, and the links to other pages, is there anything of value left? if the answer is no, the page is probably Spam.

What is amazingly ironic about this statement is if you ask the same question about any Google search results page, you will undeniably determine that page to be Spam.

#2 Jason Calacanis Venom
I still don't get why so many people with the letters S, E, and O present and sequential in their job title (bestowed upon them or self-proclaimed) have so much built up anger toward Mr. Calacanis. Well, let me restate that. SEOs don't care for some of what Mr. Calacanis has had to say about them in the past, even though he tried to make ammends at SES NY this year. What I don't get is why everybody is so insecure. Surely these folks are true marketing professionals that have well rounded skill sets they can fall back on as the online link-baiting business slowly starts to fall apart. Right? Surely they're not worried that the true foundations of SEO are really quite simple and one day their clients will wise up and the demand for their sevices will decline dramatically as SEO practices become integrated into standard in-house site building / content creation processes.

#3 What should be indexed, anyway?
By their own definition, Mahalo is a search engine. A curious question, then, is why does Google index the Mahalo pages at all? Search results pages from Yahoo! or Ask.com or MSN aren't indexed by Google, and the favor is graciously returned by each of these sites. So why, then, are the Mahalo pages being indexed? As an alternative search engine, shouldn't they stand alone? As a user, there's marginal value to me if I exectute the Google search, only to be directed to another page full of externally pointing links. Unless, of course, the Google search results page is as relevant as it should be. The same question can be asked for other "aggregator" type sites which function, essentially, as search engines. Think of Shopping.com or PriceGrabber.com, for example - the vast majority of the content on those sites is unoriginal, copied from other sites (merchants or product review synidcation), and provide nothing more than a search function to their users.

Should results page from vertical search engines be indexed by the Big Boys? What about results pages from general "alternative" search engines? This is a tricky proposition that will become more complex as the major Search Engines move more toward becoming destination / content sites themselves.

Comments

[aaron wall]

The issue is not about professional insecurity (at least from me at this point in time anyhow). The issue is if someone tries to muddy the perception of your profession only to do a sloppy job of joining it themselves they need to be called out. It is a matter of principal.

This way the next time he tries to build himself up by talking trash about another industry people have something to reference and quickly debunk him.

[Doug Heil]

I personally found that article kind of ironic at best. Here we have a SEO who was caught spamming by Google and told by Matt Cutts he was doing "blackhat" things. Now we have this same person saying that Mahalo is spam.

Funny stuff.

Good article TinPig.

I did not find those pages to be spam whatsoever, and neither would Google. We all know I call spam as I see it and when I see it as well.

Oh sure, Jason has made some bold statements in the past. He is not a SEO. He is just like anyone else out there who is viewing this SEO industry from the outside. The perception of this industry is pathetic at best. We have LOTS of SEO blogs out there who teach how to spam and then people submit these articles to places like sphinn, which get voted to the front page by other delusional SEO's.

Then we all wonder why people like Jason Calacanis say what they say about the SEO industry.

I wish someone would tell me exactly what they think people outside the SEO industry should think? I cannot blame these people at all. I do blame the SEO industry itself for the perception that is out there. Just take a minute to think about the more "out there" places who teach and promote bad stuff. I already mentioned one of them, but how about other's like SEMPO who are given a seat at SEO conferences to tout their wares, and who take money from ANY firm in the world, no matter how that firm does things. SEMPO then refers SallyWebsiteOwner to that firm just because. Just look at many in the industry who take money from blackhats for advertising? How about how the industry touts and promotes blackhats at every turn?

And the SEO industry wonders why others perceive it as they do? Please.

[john andrews]

Wow Doug. You say Mahalo is NOT spam, when by my reading you have historically called all sorts of borderline competitive tactics SPAM. I'm confused. I don't know what to trust anymore.

For example, when you say Aaron Wall as doing black hat SEO stuff, what exactly are you calling black hat? Mahalo clearly auto generates content to achieve rankings in advance of creating any real content. Is it not spam because they claim it will eventually be edited and improved? Is it merely temporary spam? Test spam? Interim spam? perhaps placeholder spam is a good name, but you seem to consider placeholder spam to not be spam. Please clarify somewhere (I'm a fan and I try and read all of your stuff, so anywhere is fine).

[San Francisco SEO]

This document has been written to allow search engine marketers and other industry professionals to objectively evaluate actions to see whether those actions equate to spamming a search engine. It is hoped that quality search engines, ethical marketers and search industry professionals will agree that this document lays out standards which the industry should strive for.

-faith-

[Cael]

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