TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Companies Subvert Search Results to Squelch Criticism

Companies Subvert Search Results to Squelch Criticism

Monty Solomon (monty@roscom.com)
Sun, 12 Jun 2005 14:49:15 -0400

It's not illegal, but it's SEO gone bad. Companies such as Quixtar are
using Google-bombing, link farms and Web spam pages to place positive
sites in the top search results -- which pushes the negative ones
down.

By Mark Glaser

Someone tells you they have the opportunity of a lifetime for you. A
way to make money by becoming an independent business owner through
Quixtar. You're not sure about Quixtar and want to learn more, so you
consult your favorite Internet search engine -- Google, Yahoo, MSN,
Ask Jeeves -- and type in the word "Quixtar."

What you see next are search results, and most likely you'll just
check out the first page or two of links. But the first result you see
in Google is a Weblog called Quixtar Blog, and in fact, the official
Quixtar site, Quixtar.com, doesn't even appear on the first page of
results. What's going on here? How could Google rank an independent
blog that is not even affiliated with Quixtar as the top result?

The answer isn't a simple one and can't be answered directly as Google
and other search engines will not spell out exactly how their top
secret algorithms work. But after reading through Quixtar Blog, the
picture becomes clearer: The company, a revamped online version of
Amway, has had trouble with critics online and decided to fight them
by unloading an arsenal of search engine optimization (SEO) techniques
that go against accepted marketing techniques and into the muddy world
of Web page spam, also known as link farms and Google bombing.

To put it simply, Quixtar enlisted various people to help create
dozens of Weblogs that linked to each other and were filled with
positive stories and key words. The idea is to help put these newer
blogs at the top of search results for phrases such as "Quixtar
success" and "Quixtar opportunity," while more critical sites such as
Quixtar Blog and Amquix.info would drop down.

But Quixtar is not alone. Every major company, non-profit and
religious group now has to worry about their Web reputation and has to
pay very close attention to that first page of search results.

http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/050601glaser/

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