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Today I visited the WebProWorld forums and stumbled acrossa topic "New Google Bombing Technique" and was startled tosee that the topic had been viewed over 22,000 times! It isby far the most active of the forums in the "Search EngineInsider Reports" section.This article is simply my response to that discussion threadand I hope it helps cool off the heat being generated there.Google Bombing DiscussionThe general gist of the conversation suggests that appendinga question mark ? or a pound sign # followed by a keyword phrase, to the end of an embeddedlink in a web site could lead to ranking a site at the top for that search phrase. An example is given of top rank for aparticular phrase, then immediately forum members post theirown URLs in the discussion replies, using the technique tolink back to their own sites with their own targeted searchterms in an attempt to gain advantage with the technique,many times with odd or obscure terms. This "new" so-called "#Google-Bombing" technique is simply aroutine SEO strategy that has been used for years by pros. When we optimize a site for a client, we include keywordswherever possible within the visible page text. The toppriority is ALWAYS page text and title tags. From there on,ALL uses of additional techniques are only incremental invalue and dont dramatically affect ranking for targetedkeyword phrases. I demonstrate the ease of ranking for obscure terms on a pagewhere I discuss the foolishness of SEO guarantees by includingthe phrase, "screeching camels" one time on the page in visible text. Screeching Camels Thereare no keyword or description metatags on that page, yet itranks number one at Google when you search for "ScreechingCamels". That is not Google bombing. A one-time use of akeyword phrase on a page got this number one ranking for thatphrase simply because it is an absurdly rare phrase. Use of irrelevant and misleading keyword phrase stuffing inkeyword metatags, in comment tags (leading period used in examples to allow display withoutembedding links in HTML email) and in ridiculous "invisibletext" (using text the same color as the background) gotabusive and so the search engines began to penalize thosewho did those things. They will always attempt to ban theobsessive cheaters and keyword stuffing liars.The ? and # technique has always been used legitimately for?tracking-referrers, calling ?search-terms and #jump-linksto take you to a named anchor within a page. Now obsessivewebmasters are attempting to use the technique to increasetheir own search engine rankings. Sometimes when I link OUT to a site, I append ?WebSite101to the tail end of the URL simply to let them know where thevisitor came from (referrer) when they view their logs or usea traffic analysis or tracking service. The ? technique for tracking traffic is even recommended byPay-Per-Click engines which give instructions to advertisersusing the technique to track clickthroughs from PPC ads.Appending "?overture-keyword" to the end of PPC destinationURLs makes that visior who clicked your ads show up in yourlog files and allows you to know the phrase that deliveredthat visitor and that the visitor originated from Overture. SEOs have always used # and ? to advantage in an incrementalfashion to optimize client sites. The jump links to namedanchors is routinely used by SEOs by placing keywords in the#named-anchor links. This works particularly well on long FAQ pages and on glossaryof terms pages. Instead of doing what most do and using Keyword Phrase instead we use Keyword-Phrase. Of courseyoull need to use it again in the anchor tag at Again, just an incrementaltidbit to increase the use of the keyword phrase by a slight margin THROUGHOUT the site in that same incremental fashion,without being excessive. The same is done with image filenames second level directory names /keyword-phrase/keyword.html,page filenames, and embedding links in visble page textkeyword phrases Keyword Phrase rather than the worthless ClickHereEvery once in a while someone re-discovers these incrementallyvaluable techniques and attempts to abuse them a la "GoogleBombing" (as discussed in the WebProWorld forum) and they getabused obscenely by overly agressive folks that risk beingbanned in order to gain short term advantage for their ownsites.This leads the search engines to downgrade or penalize thosewho abuse the techniques. SEO is not made up of a singletechnique used to compulsive levels. Wholistic SEO is usingmany techniques moderately for incremental gains. When you getobsessive about any one technique it leads to trouble.Stay out of trouble please!

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