Google algorithms appear to change daily and whilst competing for popular phrases I notice who moves around and am always interested to figure out how a website got to the front page. I’ve been focusing on the term SEO Services for a while now – just researching, I’m yet to implement any optimisation until I launch my new site.

Anyhow I notice today there is a new player when you Google SEO Services. Number one is a company called Web Dynamic. They have a really good looking professional site, but scratch the surface a little and it’s no so professional.

If you click the first link you’re taken to a page titled SEO Services, still looks good, you’re in the Search Engine Marketing group, you click the tab and you’re taken to an equally as nice page talking about search, you can’t see a link back to the page you just came from, but that doesn’t really matter does it? Well, yes.

This is a well designed site, it doesn’t look like the kind of site that forget about a link. So a bit of investigating discovers there are more than 13 orphan pages all dedicated to the same subject:

1. SEO
2. SEO Australia
3. SEO Services
4. SEO Services Company
5. Search Engine Optimisation Provider
6. Search Engine Optimistion Consultant
7. Search Engine Optimisation Strategy
8. Search Engine Optimisation Company
9. Search Engine Optimization
10. Search Engine Optimization Services
11. Search Engine Optimisation Australia
12. Search Engine Optimization Australia
13. Search Engine Optimization Specialist

See them all live on Google and on their page, www.business-directory-online.com.au, where the SEO person obviously just got bored and just posted everything. They all contain pretty much the same content, just re-written in different ways and prominent use of the keyword.

I hear what you’re saying – it’s not spam and it’s not against Google webmaster policy to write the same page more than 13 different ways (I got bored of counting all of them). But, wait – there’s more!

These pages all have inbound links. From crappy domains. The spammy domains:

http://search-engine-optimisation.org.au/

http://web-designer.org.au/

http://online-marketing.org.au/

http://website-optimisation.org.au/ etc – there’s rather an impressive collection of .org.au’s.

All of these domains are registered to the same guy who has registered the webdynamic.com.au domain.

Whilst they may not have breached any guidelines what they are doing is filling the web with spam, actually no, they have breached, just looking at the Google Quality Guidelines – basic principles:

“Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you’d feel comfortable explaining what you’ve done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, “Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn’t exist?”

Mmm…I think not.

p.s. I’m not being a bitch – it’s all part of learning what makes a quality page one result. This ain’t it.

I know you’ve all been waiting, and even performing your own Google searches on the peeps at My Website Designer, and alas, these searches are returning nil poi.

I think their site must be fairly new, the archive is only bringing up a Plesk page from last year so perhaps they are just hanging out in the sandbox…nothing’s going to happen to them for a while so recheck in a few months to see how the keyword stuffing is working out for them.

At last weeks SMX in Sydney, two SEO experts stumbled across flightcentre.com.au cloaking their pages. Those naughty people had been presenting the search engines with different content to what was actually on some of the pages. Apparently the situation is now rectified and I’m sure their SEO agency is fired, but what a PR disaster. To have all of your dirty work revealed live in front of an audience.

Find out more from one of the discoverers, Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-dangers-of-cloaking-revealed-at-smx-sydney-4086#jtc55210

Update: Flight Centre has posted a response and explanation on Neerav Bhatt’s blog here

Actually, I lie. It’s not writing for search engines 101, it’s laughing at those who have followed parts of that subject religiously. I happened to stumble across this site this afternoon, http://www.mywebsitedesigner.com.au/

For those of you who are too lazy to click on the link, let me show you their first two paragraphs, I’ve gone to the effort of highlighting their keywords, just in case they don’t stand out for you:

Melbourne website design & search engine optimization services are just a few of My Website Designer Australia's award winning website design services.

We have worked with Melbourne website design clients, Sydney website design clients, Brisbane website design clients & International website design clients to create beautiful, easy to use, Google friendly websites that can help your business succeed online.

They’re offering search engine optimisation, which I’m sure includes their excellent copywriting services.

OK, the way Google’s ranking at the moment, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were on the first page. I’m going to monitor these guys and report back…soon…

I’m putting this spammer in my hall of shame for sheer laziness. Here is the offensive email:

Microsoft Award Team
20 Craven Park, Harlesden
London NW10
United Kingdom
FILE REF: HL/5564/06/07/MICS
BATCH: MC11/834/5PDH /EU  
OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION

The prestigious Microsoft and AOL has set out and successfully organised a Sweepstakes marking the new year anniversary for 2008, we rolled out over ?450.000.00 (Four Hundred and Fifty Thousand pounds sterling) Draws. Participants for the draws were randomly selected and drawn from a wide range of web hosts which we enjoy their patronage. Your email address as indicated was drawn and attached to ticket number 008795727498 with serial numbers BTD/9080648302/06 and drew the lucky numbers 14-21-25-39-40-47(20) which subsequently won you ?450.000.00 (Four Hundred and Fifty Thousand pounds sterling) as one of the jackpot winners in his draw. You have therefore won the entire winning sum of ?450.000.00GBP (Four Hundred and Fifty Thousand pounds sterling)  
These are your identification numbers:MCS-26799/097 CATEGORY NO.OF WINNERS WINNING PRIZES
1st. 2 ? 450,000.00 pounds each
2nd. 8 ? 350.000.00 pounds each
3rd. 13 ? 250,000.00 pounds each
4th. 27 ? 170,000.00 pounds each CLAIMS REQUIREMENTS:
1. Full names:
2. Residential address:
3. Phone number:
4. Fax number:
5. Occupation:
6. Sex:
7. Age:
8. Nationality:
9. Present Country:
10.Next of kin name/address: Mode Of Price Remittance. (1)Cash Pick-Up (You coming Down to Uk Personally to Pick Your Price). (2)Courier Delivery Of your Certified Winning Cheque Name and other Winning Documents safely to you. FOREIGN TRANSFER MANAGER
MR:LIQIN TIAH
MICROSOFT SECURITY DEPARTMENT (UK).
E-mail:dr_liqintiah@hotmail.co.uk The Microsoft Internet E-mail lottery Awards is sponsored by our CEO/Chairman, Bill Gates and a consortium of software promotion companies. The Intel Group, Toshiba, Dell Computers and other International Companies. The Microsoft internet E-mail draw is held periodically and is organized to encourage the use of the Internet and promote computer literacy worldwide. Once again on behalf of all our staff, CONGRATULATIONS! Sincerely,
MR.GERY BROOK
M.S.PRO. ZONAL COORDINATOR. 

The email comes from Microsoft Window XP Award, which is ligintiah_101@yahoo.co.uk – really – they let Microsoft employees have yahoo email accounts? I know there are talks of impending merge, but the least he could have done is have a hotmail address, like he does at the bottom of the email.

The grammar, well, let’s not get started, but can I just point out (You coming Down to Uk Personally to Pick Your Price).

Does that mean I get to pick the price? I’ll have 450,000,000.00 pounds please .