New SEO Trick [Archive]

apisdesign

12-18-2003, 06:21 PM

... at least it's new to me. And very deceitful, too.

On this website (http://www.burstcorp.com/web_site_optimization_d.html) they implement a tactic that achieves the same effect as a META redirect, but without the actual META tag itself.

They use the following code in their <BODY> tag:
onmouseover="location.href = 'http://www.burstcorp.com/';"
Thus, when a user first hits the page, they see the optimized content, but as soon as they move their mouse anywhere on the page, they are taken to the page that this company wants you to see - the 'pretty' page (although it's not very pretty in my opinion).

Anyway, I've never seen this trick before, and I think it's pretty clever, but I'm sure it'll get them banned soon enough. Mind you, the page does have a page rank of 2, so this strategy obviously isn't accomplishing the intended results.

Just an FYI for all you SEO junkies out there.

flood6

12-19-2003, 11:03 AM

I haven't seen that technique before either.

Well that "optomized" page has been indexed by google as seen here (http://www.google.com/search?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.burstcorp.com%2Fweb_site _optimization_d.html&btnG=Google+Search&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1).

But, a google search for the first key phrase in their keyword tag, "Web Site Optimization", doesn't show them in the first three pages (I got tired of looking after that). So, like you said, it doesn't look like it has done them a lot of good.

ronniethedodger

12-19-2003, 03:18 PM

They use the following code in their <BODY> tag:
onmouseover="location.href = 'http://www.burstcorp.com/';"

This is nothing new. I have seen similar coding in the <body> tag like this, another is the use of the onload() event which would call a javascript or vbscript function that does the actual re-direction.

I have seen some even more sneakier than this one, and it exploits (again) the spider's inability to parse javascript.

A site (actually multiple sites) uses these lines of code following the <body> tag:

<script>

</script>

... then about 100 textual keyword links (one for each page of the site. Followed by this little tidbit immediately before the closing <body> tag.

<script>

</script>
Site is being loaded... please wait or click here (http://wetrack.it/scumbag-affilliate-accountname/af.cgi?aid=238&redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.scumbag-affilliateship-sitename-removed-to-protect-the-not-so-innocent.com%2F) to go directly to the main page.</a>.
<script>

</script>

For those of you who do not know what is going on here, an explanation.

Javascript is used to write additional Html statements to the browser after the page is loaded. Spiders cannot read this coding.

First, code is written to the document that positions all of the one-hundred plus links off-screen out of the browsers view.

Then it writes some text for the browser to view that says "please wait while the site loads...".
The site is not loading at all, it already is loaded. The wait is for the final piece of code that redirects the browser (via a tracking service) to a scumbag affilliateship site.

I have tracked down several sites using this method, and all of them are the same. One-hundred plus pages of nothing but keyword links (spiderfood) and absolutely no content.

They enjoy page one results on just about every keyword and variation on those words that is possible.

I have seen others before, but this one is by far one of the most ingenious ones to date. It has also lasted longer than the others at Google -- almost two months. It was there before the Florida Update, and still is there now.

As for the example cited at the beginning of this thread, they are not being dinged for spamming at Google. They are being dinged for bad copy, otherwise it would not even have a PR registering for it. Google will set it to zero, if it thought it was being spammed.

I will leave you with a few words from this page, and out of their own mouths. You can be the judge on whether it is truth, or if they are actually nothing but a legend in their own mind:

To succeed, you need to know what works and what doesnt. We go beyond the ordinary to bring you ideas that shimmer and shine concepts that burst out of the box. We fuse sales with marketing, leadership with management, vision with strategy and tactics.

awall19

12-26-2003, 11:51 PM

there are server side redirects and elequent ways of being a scumbag...what this site does with the java redirect is, in a word, STUPID