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Friday, June 1st, 2007 by Jordan McCollum

Search Engine Land Spamming?

A thread at WebProWorld points out something interesting in Search Engine Land’s stylesheet:

text-indent: -9000px;

Hm! Danny Sullivan didn’t know about the line of code, which was designed to replace the image logo for SEL with text for those with images and stylesheets turned off (like a certain bot we know?).

Once he was notified of the thread, Danny took a look at the code and replied:

Still scratching my head, I then wondered, “Wait a minute. Is this about my site?” Surely not. But yep, there in our style sheet was the damning code. It’s true. We were totally hiding text and technically might be considered spamming the search engines. Curses — just when I hoped not to be counted among those other search spammers like Google and Yahoo that have been outed for using hidden text.

Danny also said on the thread that he doesn’t approve of this technique and they will fix it once things calm down after SMX.

via the awesome Tamar at the doubly awesome SERoundtable

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14 comments on “Search Engine Land Spamming?”

  1. Andy Beal Says:

    June 1st, 2007 at 3:44 pm

    Any bets that some blogger is at this minute, checking the code of every popular SEO blog, looking for a “Top 10 SEO blogs that are spamming” linkbait post. :-)

    I need to go check our code. ;-)

  2. Barry Schwartz Says:

    June 1st, 2007 at 4:51 pm

    Nice find Jordan. ;-)

  3. Jordan McCollum Says:

    June 1st, 2007 at 5:22 pm

    I thought so, too. Good call hiring Tamar ;)

  4. Barry Schwartz Says:

    June 1st, 2007 at 5:27 pm

    okay

    via via :)

  5. huphtur Says:

    June 1st, 2007 at 6:22 pm

    That’s called the Fahrner Image Replacement technique, absolutely NOTHING to do with spam. More info about that can be found on ala: http://alistapart.com/articles/fir/

  6. LSF Says:

    June 1st, 2007 at 6:22 pm

    This is a standard image replacement technique used extensively across the web. If the image reads what the header text says it’s difficult to see how it can be described as spamming. Some people ought to grow up.

  7. Bill Says:

    June 1st, 2007 at 6:29 pm

    As long as they’re not using it maliciously, it’s a common image replacement technique and is actually helping the web become a better place.

  8. Bill Says:

    June 1st, 2007 at 7:38 pm

    Poor guys, they even edited their CSS file to read:

    //honest, we didn’t mean to spam. need the explanation?
    //see http://www.webproworld.com/search-engine-optimization-forum/60110-ethi cal.html#post322526

    And I’m assuming they removed their H1 text, because it now contains a nobreak space. This is even worse! Put your company name back in there, you’ve done no wrong.

  9. Andy Beal Says:

    June 1st, 2007 at 8:27 pm

    LOL@Jordan - I see you updated the “via”. Don’t mind Barry, he’s harmless as long as you link to him. ;-)

  10. SEO Refugee Blog Says:

    June 2nd, 2007 at 7:12 pm

    See that’s why I make sure everyone knows that I’m not a coder. If something like this happens on my site, I can honestly claim ignorance ;)

  11. James Says:

    June 2nd, 2007 at 8:25 pm

    Yes, as the comments are trying to point out, but “SEO people” seem to be ignoring, is the fact that this is NOT spam. This is a completey acceptable web development technique. Please acknowledge this.

    http://alistapart.com/articles/fir/

  12. Dario Says:

    June 4th, 2007 at 7:38 am

    I don’t think Google will penalize a PR 7 site for this teeny tiny set back. Oh, well… time will tell! :)

  13. Is this ethical? - Page 2 - WebProWorld Says:

    June 5th, 2007 at 3:16 pm

    [...] Re: Is this ethical? It seems this technique is very reasonable, according to many others: Search Engine Land Hiding Text & Spamming Search Engines, Said Sullivan Search Engine Land Spamming? | Marketing Pilgrim Quote: [...]

  14. Rin Says:

    June 10th, 2007 at 10:50 pm

    I agree James. The SEO staff has the smell of blood now, they won’t back down from the false charge that this is spam. Stop the disinformation: This is not SPAM. This is part of a designers commitment to creating blind-accessible websites.

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