11
Oct
07

Fake Blogs as an SEO Tool

By Joshua Steimle 17 Comments Categories: Marketing

Apparently Utah SEO firm Vizad is setting up various blogs with “fake” content as part of their SEO methodology. That is, they set up a blog, make it look as thought it’s some person, post all sorts of content related to their clients along with contextual links, and in this way build up incoming links for their clients.


I’ve found three of these blogs so far, Indie Wolf, Dev Boys, and SEO Gurl (which I highly suspect has no content on it that was written by a female).

Is it black hat or white hat SEO? Well…in my opinion I believe Google’s opinion would be that it’s more black hat than not, and after all it’s Google’s opinion that matters. However, whether Google can detect it or not and whether Vizad can get the results for their clients is what really matters, isn’t it? Since there are links to each other and to Vizad it’s easy for me to see that Vizad has simply set up this network themselves. And since these blogs contain articles about weight loss, health and beauty, SEO, business and careers, and women’s issues, it’s pretty easy to see this isn’t the type of content that would be generated by a human being without an SEO purpose in mind. But I don’t think Google can detect this. I don’t see how it could be possible for Google to figure out that this blog is set up merely to game the system while another blog is being written by someone who is legitimately interested in those topics.

While I don’t believe this method will cause any damage in the short run and probably does work for SEO purposes creating real content is still a better strategy for the long run because of the human factor. That is, because I can tell these blogs aren’t “real” there’s no reason for me to read them, link to them, or mention them to anybody, except in a post like the one I’m writing. That means the only incoming links these blogs are going to get are those Vizad creates themselves. Fake content just isn’t interesting.

It’s not as though my SEO firm doesn’t do similar things, but I try to create real content that also acts as linkbait. We’ve got an SEO blog, this blog you’re reading, the MWI corporate blog, an advertising blog in the works, and a blog about bad billboards. We’ve also got some directory sites including Utah Web Design Firms, Utah Advertising Agency, Utah Web Development, Utah Internet Marketing, and Utah Firms. These are all real websites with real content that provides real value. They take a bit more work to keep up, but not that much, and in the long run having real content makes them more valuable for MWI and our clients as a source of incoming linkage.

Lest anyone think I’m just dissin’ on a competitor, I’m not, I’m just thinking out loud. I didn’t even know what the second half of this post was going to be when I started the first half.

Related posts:

  1. MWI Giving Away Free, High-End Blogs for a Limited Time
  2. MyWebDesignCompany.com Contest
  3. Using Obama as Link Bait
  • http://www.smoothharold.com/2007/05/you-dont-know-jack-about-viral.html Blake

    When’s the last time a fake blog worked? Answer: never. See paragraph 10 of a recent post of mine for the detrimental effects:

    http://www.smoothharold.com/2007/05/you-dont-know-jack-about-viral.html

  • http://www.alexmcarthur.com Alex McArthur

    This is definitely a growing problem in SEO.

    BTW…MWI has always had great blogs/content worth following.

  • NiceOne

    So are these fake sites scrapers or what? I couldn’t find any duplicate content on them.

    As a side-note, I saw orangesoda doing some weird stuff with fake sites, too – http://www.midscape.com/contact.html

  • http://gthing.net sam

    I don’t get it. It looks like all those blogs have hand-written, original content. It might not be that interesting, but its not like they’re scraping.

    I don’t see how that tactic is a bad thing at all. SEOs generate content as part of the job, and that is all Vizad is doing here.

  • Registered User

    Nobody is saying it’s unethical, and nobody is saying it doesn’t work, it’s just that these websites aren’t “real” in that they aren’t what they appear to be. That is, they appear to be personal blogs containing the personal thoughts of one or more persons, but rather they are blogs created with one purpose–to game the search engines. What’s not ideal about this SEO tactic is that it’s obviously not what Google wants people to do, and there is an incentive for Google to figure out how to identify such sites or at least flag them for a closer look, and then the jig is up. That’s why creating real sites with real content that provides real value to human beings is the best way to do this type of thing. Even if a website is created specifically for SEO purposes, if it provides real value then there’s no reason for Google to penalize it, nor indeed any way for Google to identify the site as anything but a genuine site.

  • NiceOne

    So I guess what Google is looking for is sites like this one that you own? http://www.sublimited.net/

    (check out the links at the bottom right-hand corner ;) )

  • Registered User

    Well, yes, in fact. The Sublimited blog contains content that is genuine, helpful, and all of which is related to one topic–skateboarding. You won’t find posts about herbal supplements, infertility treatments, how to replace your China dishes, truck driving jobs, and the like, nor will you go to the “about” page and find this verbage “This is an example of a WordPress page, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many pages like this one or sub-pages as you like and manage all of your content inside of WordPress.”

    I highly advocate setting up blogs and microsites for clients for SEO purposes, but if I had a client who was a wedding photographer, I would set up a blog that focuses exclusively on wedding photography and which contains information that human beings would find interesting and helpful. This type of website is more likely to get bookmarked, incoming links, and rank higher for terms related to wedding photography, therefore helping the client more than a website that is full of other stuff that has nothing whatsoever to do with that topic.

    Although Vizad could even improve on what they’re doing. Read the content from a post on one of their blogs:

    My business recently implemented an Avaya IP 500 Office. After tirelessly looking for quality office equipment, we found Avaya to be the most reliable and user friendly. The equipment was a great buy because it provided all the same features as more expensive models such as archiving conversations, mobile twinning, and off-site transfer. Best of all, in 20 years our office equipment will still be working great because of the 25 year design life, free upgrades, and the ability for the system to grow with our small company.

    It’s obviously marketing language and therefore only those who aren’t intelligent enough to see the fluff for what it is are going to be affected by it. Coincidentally, I can compare this to a testimonial I posted on my blog regarding a phone system we recently purchased:

    While there are certainly other companies doing the same thing, I’ve been testing out the system from Jive Communications and have decided to take the plunge. For not too much per month I get four phones that I can plug into any network connection and be instantly networked as though I were using a PBX system in the office. The system has auto-attendant, voicemail, transferring, conference calling, and all the other features your standard phone system has at a fraction of the price. In our case it means our phone bill is going from $460 per month to about $200 per month, while the quality of the service has improved. When our clients call in we will actually look more professional than we did previously, despite ditching our office.

    I suppose it’s a matter of opinion, but that seems more human friendly to me. The principle difference here is that Jive Communications is not a client of mine. I wrote this because I’ve been genuinely pleased with their service.

    But anyway, that’s kind of beside the point. The real point is that it is more effective in terms of SEO to develop sites that are exclusively related to your clients’ industries and which contain content that is genuine, relevant, and helpful. Make the site good for humans and it stands a better chance of being good for SEO. Vizad’s blogs do very little, if anything, for human beings and that’s where I think they and their clients are missing out. It’s not bad, it’s not wrong, it’s just not the best option.

  • http://www.seogurl.com seogurl

    Hey Josh – thanks for the feedback. I agree – specialized, niche sites are the most effective marketing tools.

    Hopefully I can at least dispel one myth for you – I am, in fact, a girl. ;)

    http://www.seogurl.com/archives/guess-what-girls-do-seo-too

    Cheers!

  • http://www.seo.com Dave Bascom

    I don’t see how those blogs are any different than what you’ve been doing for years, Josh. There may be a difference in quality of writing or topic choices, but it’s all pretty much the same thing. It might not be the most effective, but is it black hat? No. I don’t even think your unrelated links on the skateboard site are blackhat, but they do make me wonder how you can criticize these other blogs and Vizad so easily…

    Oh, and btw – you really really screwed up by including SEOgurl in your attack. Obviously, she is a girl, and she is a real person (with feelings).

  • Registered User

    Who’s attacking anyone? I never said I thought what Vizad was doing was bad, I simply put forth the opinion that content can be developed in a better way. As for not believing the website was written by a real girl, I’ve always had trouble with women. I didn’t even kiss a girl until I was 22. My mistake, madam, I apologize.

    But ok, you forced me to it. Here’s .

  • http://seojive@seoblog.com Pamela

    In regards to the comments on scraping, many low quality blogs use original content, they just pay writers about $3 an article for them, you can see the “job offers” all over the net. At least they have content, I have seen some blogs and forums that are just full of linked keywords, I call it link dumping, it happens a lot. But if you are trying to run a business that is going to be around a while it just makes you look bad in the long run.

    As mentioned though, since the site offers nothing for real visitors you may get an initial boost from SEs by having links in, but if they are not used often, the benefits will taper off.

  • http://freelancemd.com Freelance MD

    I can see that you used ‘nofollow’ on your links to these sites… So I guess they didn’t get even that.

  • http://www.myutahinternetmarketing.com jameson

    I have seen this problem before as well, I agree.

  • http://www.sawgrassshack.com Web Design Enthusiast

    If there are sites like that then are they making sense? whats the purpose of doing so? if nothing to be seen any content in their site then whats the sense of making one? where the money comes?

  • http://www.dvdzip.org Brent@dvd to avi

    This post is very nice and useful for SEO.

  • http://www.swintonphoto.com Swinton@salt lake city wedding photographer

    Interesting topic. I learned something from it. I really appreciate for people sharing their ideas and views that will be help to blogger and who’s just starting on this business. It helped a lot of people. Kudos to this site.

  • james

    This was a actually fantastic post. In theory I’d like to write like this also – taking time and genuine effort to make a good post… but what can I say… I procrastinate alot and never seem to get something carried out.dvd to ipad converter.