In all honesty, I planned this as a blog post on how ineffective automated spamming is. It’s unethical and annoying. It’s poorly targeted, rarely varies anchor text, and can’t get past a site that moderates comments (as all sites should). On top of that, Google recommends against it. In light of all these, it is amazing that anybody would even waste the time to set up a program to generate comment spam that would provide zero benefit.

To prove that auto-spam is a complete waste of effort, I went through a drew a random sample of 50 obviously automated spam comments that I have received to my personal blog over the past 6 months. I compared the sites that were being represented to the anchor text that the spam posts were trying to push and I then analyzed the rankings. The results were surprising, if not outright shocking. Some sites create and push this generic (and often offensive) spam…because it works.

Results (note: given the nature of many sites that spam, and the internet in general, some of the targeted anchor text is a bit risque, so please don’t click on the jump if that is something that you would prefer not to read):

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Mayday!  Mayday! We are sinking!

Matt Cutts did a Google Webmaster Central  YouTube video post on the recent Google algorithm Mayday update.

In his reply to the update on rankings for long-tail searches, Matt stressed the impact on the improved “quality” of search queries.  He also stressed that the “change” was “algorithmic” and not temporary.  The change is separate from the upcoming caffeine update, and that the caffeine update is  still on track.

What exactly is the main thrust of the Mayday algorithmic change? We do know that long tail rankings went down which may have something to do with a dampening of PageRank for internal on-page site maps. Doing a survey across websites with PageRanks of 4 or less, I’ve noticed a pattern of site map links in the footer not passing PageRank. Although the pages are indexed, there is not the expected ranking boost associated with having a site map link off the home page.  It may be very likely that additional stop words have been added to the algorithm to not allow anchor text to pass PageRank for a site that has a low score for trust.

I’m sure the algorithm change is not that straight forward but  I do believe that site trust plays a major factor.  A new combination of factors are now in play that affect long-tail search queries.

Pubcon is the Las Vegas conference that deals with Web Marketing, Social Media, Search Engine Optimization, Web Tools, and every intersection of the aforementioned.  For three days, we spent 8 hours going from session to session to get advice and interact with some of the biggest names in the industry (Matt Cutts, the exalted one himself from Google, was in attendance).

So what did I learn in my time in Vegas? Good question. Contrary to what may be popular belief, it had nothing to do with a roulette wheel, the sports book (although I am kicking myself for not laying down $50 on the Spurs over the Mavericks), or how to spot a lady of the evening along the Strip. No, my new knowledge is more boring, but applicable to the job that I do. First, I learned that Beacon is well ahead of the curve on many industry practices. With only six months here, I expected to get a bit overwhelmed with new knowledge and competitors’ insights. Instead, I saw that many presenters were reinforcing practices that we already do (i.e. extensive keyword analysis) and many of our competitors were asking questions that I could have answered with ease.

On the new information front, I did get exposure to some programs, such as Majestic, that I have not been using that I am itching to try moving forward.  In addition, while they may not be practices directly suggested by the speakers, I was able to step away from some of my standard techniques and look at how I can introduce some new items with my current clients.  Sometimes, one can get so wrapped up in SEO that he forgets that it is a means to an end, not the end itself. I have some great ideas that will be very applicable for some of the companies I work with heading into the winter season.

Overall, it was a very worthwhile trip.  I am looking forward to going back next year.  Next time, I will remember to bet on the Spurs.

(logo courtesy of pubcon)

- EW