By now it is clear to almost everyone that the 
©Google Search Engine
has a pretty serious problem with its SPAM FILTERS.
In the category of Ibiza, for example, an increasing number of
SPAM sites with very litte or no content about ibiza, are getting high rankings, with simple little (dirty) tricks.
I am not an expert in the workings of the ©Google
Algorithim, but we do know that the algorithim
contains a SPAM FILTER which is supposed to block sites which meet a certain
number of these criteria:
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Hidden text or links-
Misleading or repeated words
Page does not meet Google´s description
Cloaked page(s)-'stealthing or switching showing different pages depending
on browser IP ..' This technique shows the search engine robot a different
page than a normal user would see.'
Deceptive redirects-'The user is automatically redirected to a different
site from the company with whom the user thought he was dealing-
Doorway pages-
Duplicate site or pages
False advertising
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The ©Google Algorithim , at the present time,does not seem to know how to handle the newer threats to the validity of key-word searches.
The technique of listing hundreds of sites with the sole intention of
linking the index page of these domains between themselves,
is tricking the Google Algoritim into recording these links as 'incoming
links'....which is the major part of how Google ranks pages.
Take these sites, for example, which have recently shown up in the
category of Ibiza: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=ibiza
CASE 1.
www.ibiza-island.spain-online-hotel-reservations.com/
This site has enjoyed the NUMBER 3 PAGE RANK in the category
of Ibiza, for almost a year.
NOT however, because of its rich content about Ibiza........in fact it has NO CONTENT about Ibiza......The Page Rank of this page is also
not due to
its deep database of hotels on Ibiza.....in fact it only has ONE hotel (unauthorized) which you can supposedly book online. Nor can it be because of its insightful geography...the
head photo is of Salamanca, Spain and the first paragraph tells us
(incorrectly) about the whereabouts of the City of Ibiza: "....the center
of the island is the City of Ibiza"
Worse, when you try to make a reservation in the one online hotel you are
redirected to: www.hotelclub.net/directhotel.asp?id=3895
in other words this entire site is a 'back-door' for www.hotelclub.net
So the only conclusion can be that this high Page Rank is do to the 2,080
incoming links.
So WHO, we ask, would link to a site which is so poorly
equipped to inform us about any aspect of Ibiza.?
Well, thanks to the Google toolbar, we can plainly see that over 98%
of 2080 incoming links come from:
www.france-online-hotel-reservations.com
and that every link differs from the others only in the fact that it
is nested within a sub-directory which carries the name of a different
city. And they are all cross-linked within themselves.
VIOLA!.......Top Page Rank! Google has plainly beeen spammed.
CASE 2.
www.ibiza.hotels-europe.ws
This site uses the above mentioned technique of hundreds of registered
domains for the purpose of cross-linking between themselves.
FIRST: We are informed that: " Ibiza.Hotels-Europe.WS offers up
to 75% discounts on all hotels in Ibiza Island"
A claim that is patently false advertising.
SECOND: The site offers NO CONTENT ABOUT IBIZA.
THIRD: The site offers only ONE Ibiza Hotel which can be booked
online
FOURTH: The 280 incoming links shown by Google all come from domain
name sites which differ only in the fact that each domain is preceded by
the name of an American City, like fresnohotelstoday.com and chicagohostelstoday.com
whose index pages consists of little more than links back to the different
variations of hotels-europe.ws like: ibiza.hotels-europe.ws or amsterdam.hotels-europe.ws ad nauseum.
FIFTH: Efforts to make a reservation in the ONE hotel on Ibiza
will get us re-directed to: b2b.hotelclub.net. a sub-domain of hotelclub.net....in other words, the same deceptive re-direct as the site mentioned above.
The disturbing part of all of this is that:
1. As these techniques spread, and Google continues to offer no solutions,,
all searches about cities which use the name of the city as the search
word will soon be dominated by spam sites such these.
2.Legitimate content rich sites in our category like www.ibiza-hotels.com will sink lower and lower
in the rankings.
THE SOLUTION?
Possibly, Google could modify their algorithim to take into consideration
only a limited number of OUTSIDE incoming links which come from
sites with basically the same domain name and/ OR page name.
Thus, effectively banning sites like these.
We think that as Google reinforces its NUMBER ONE position, it also increases
its obligation to its users to 'Get it RIGHT' Lets' face it....Google is still the best thing out there, but these kinds of spammers cause Google to loose credibility, just as badly as other search engines have lost credibility by selling page rankings.
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