How Shady Web Design Sites Get High Search Engine Results

There exists an unwritten consensus among web designers that the most prized marketing space is Google's "we

There exists an unwritten consensus among web designers that the most prized marketing space is Google’s “web design” homepage. With over 300,000 monthly searches and substantial investments in search advertising per hour, securing a top position for terms like “web design,” “website design,” and “logo design” can be financially pivotal for web design businesses. One would assume that Google and other search engines like Bing would diligently monitor the top web design pages for link spam and other unethical, black hat SEO tactics.However, it seems that Google’s “web design” results are relatively unfiltered and loosely regulated, as a cursory examination of their inbound link profile would reveal. Equipped with Yahoo Site Explorer and a curiosity about the factors driving the most valuable keywords in the web design industry, I investigated the first page for any irregular rankings, unethical marketers, and intriguing search results. The discovery was rather startling: The same black hat SEO tactics that have been in use for years are still enabling short-term search engine marketers to gain a spot on the top search engine results page (SERP). From link spam (also known as spamdexing) to manipulative page widgets, there is a concerning amount of dark SEO tactics present in the web design sector.This article delves into the SEO techniques employed by a few disreputable web design companies and their implications for ethical web designers.Almost all of the top-ranked results for the search term “web design” exhibited some form of proactive search engine optimization. Many utilized HTML and content optimized for search rankings. In other words, most had content crafted to target terms like “web design” and “website design,” and the majority employed interlinked pages and strategic anchor text.While this is commendable in the eyes of Google’s auto-indexing bots, what is somewhat surprising is that many of the top-ranked web design sites seem to have at least partially built their inbound link profile by utilizing blog comment sections that allow commenters to leave a URL, as well as through the placement of links in blogrolls—a list of other blogs recommended to readers. This strategy has been in existence for years and can be used to enhance a website’s search engine ranking, but in Google’s terms, it is not considered natural link-building. It is unsettling to see such low-level SEO tactics work for these artificially promoted sites. Does this strategy truly work for highly competitive terms? Although it constitutes a small percentage of their total link profile, it is still an intriguing observation for authoritative websites.Google’s stance on manipulated anchor texts is somewhat ambiguous.The search engine has previously penalized websites for exploiting inbound link texts (e.g., the fake credit card story a few years ago), but generally acknowledges that site owners will attempt to influence users into selecting specific link text. However, some websites ranking for the term “web design” appear to be taking things to an extreme; far beyond Google’s motto of “Don’t be evil.” Notice how the first letter of the company name was omitted from the anchor text. A quick analysis of the backlink profiles of many top-ranked web design sites reveals that unscrupulous web design firms are utilizing their clients’ websites to build their backlinks. While third-party websites produce links with generic terms such as “website” or “info” to link out to commercial websites, most of the inbound links to design sites use highly specific anchor texts and seem to be self-generated.In 2006, the SEO community was obsessed with manipulating PageRank through MySpace by using graphics and widgets. The images, often embedded in a table, would appear on profiles and other high-value pages with an outbound link placed below them.This could theoretically increase the PageRank (PR) value of the linked website and elevate its placement in search results. For the most part, these manipulative tactics are no longer effective. Google’s algorithm has evolved beyond the era of PageRank manipulation, or at least the overt manipulation observed during the MySpace era.While outdated PR-boosting techniques have faded, some unscrupulous web design companies have discovered a new method to gain inbound links and disseminate PageRank through site widgets that display Twitter and Facebook updates. Take a look at the screenshot above for an example—the linked page has acquired most of its “web design” links by distributing a branded Twitter widget. What is intriguing about this example is how their outbound link is displayed—while it is technically branded as their business name, the first letters from their name have been excluded to ensure that PageRank is passed with the correct anchor text.This is underhanded, isn’t it? This type of manipulative inbound linking has been used across all major design-related terms, making it challenging for organic search engine results to rise above.While SEO is an effort-based marketing field, it is unlikely that Google and other search engines appreciate this kind of PageRank manipulation.It would be fascinating to see how long these types of links will remain valuable, as search engines tend to use disincentives and penalties to demote websites that manipulate their anchor text in this manner.What does this ongoing search manipulation mean for ethical web designers and web design companies? Unless you plan to target small, niche search terms like “affordable web designers that love cats” almost exclusively, the likelihood is that your website won’t rank well for volume-based keywords without the same SEO efforts. Are these disreputable web design companies impacting the relevancy of search results?Perhaps. While there are some relevant results on the first page for terms like “web design” and “website design,” such as the Wikipedia entry on web design and the About.com pages for web designers, many search results are of commercial websites that have engaged in unethical SEO practices. However, it is possible that Google actively monitors some of the more popular web design keywords, which could potentially mitigate the effects of these black hat tactics.Comment backlinks, manipulative links, and self-created links are one thing—and their effectiveness is questionable due to the rel attributes that most blogs implement—but spam, known as link spam or spamdexing in the context of SEO, is a different matter entirely.While most web design company sites appear to have gained their backlinks at least somewhat ethically, there are two results found on the first page alone that have achieved their positions almost entirely through link spamming. One is an offshore Chinese design site, which appears to have gained the bulk of its backlinks by publishing automated blog posts. It is not common to see “web design” listed alongside common spam terms such as “levitra” and “Louis Vuitton Replica” if your backlinks are organic.Check the screenshot above for a quick look into this website’s backlink profile; it is quite alarming for such a competitive search keyword. What is clear is that unethical search strategies—spammed links, PageRank manipulation, and other underhanded tactics—still work. And, often, very effectively.It seems unlikely that a legitimate and ethical design company website could ever rank well, let alone for a competitive and valuable search term like “web design,” if it is possible to gain a front-page SERP listing with little more than automated blog posts and spammy links.Can a natural link profile compete with the big players? Unlikely. Search seems to be a lucrative field for those with questionable ethics, given the number of websites ranking for high-value terms in the web design industry.It is troubling and disheartening to say this: It seems highly unlikely that a small site, particularly one that hasn’t been aggressively marketed due to budget restrictions or ethical beliefs in artificially boosting their search engine ranking, could ever rank well for major design keywords. And that is a shame because there are amazing web designers out there, but they are being outcompeted by those who would rather spend their budget on gaming the system rather than investing in things that improve their products (such as hiring talented designers). However, there is still hope for success on the front page.Advertising is available through Google AdWords, albeit at a considerable cost for those based in large markets like ours. Similarly, the amount of time and effort required to compete in organic search results is not realistic for many small web design firms. Freelance designers and small boutique studios, it seems, just can’t compete with big companies and unscrupulous spammers.Possibly.At this point, it is challenging to predict how Google will respond to the latest wave of link spam, although given their history, it appears that the links in question could be devalued. A case about search results in the UK last year suggests that Google does take an active approach to monitoring specific keyword phrases, although with the quantity of design-related link spam, it probably won’t happen soon enough. The ideal way to achieve good search results is by focusing on your products and hoping they are good enough to gain organic links from high-ranking, reputable websites that deal with web design topics; but with the current situation, it seems even that is not enough.