David Fiske A subtle blend of affiliate marketing and web development

A while ago, there was a push on unique content. Then, keywords became more important. Not only should you write unique content but you should include an array of relevant keywords.

Spammers took this too far and the amount of Made For Adsense sites with poor quality, keyword stuffed articles exploded.

I thought we had moved on from keyword spamming but alas, we have not.
 
I'm guilty of using keywords. I'm crafty in ensuring I can pack them in but I'm also smart enough to stay away from abusing them.

Whilst working today (I do do some work Dad!) I visited a handful of sites, all employing the same tactic of "otherwise known" keyword spamming.

To illustrate my point, I'll pick on a couple.

MyVoucherCodes.co.uk

This is what's on the bottom of the home page:

Voucher Codes,otherwise known as discount codes, promotional codes, e-vouchers, online coupons or discount vouchers. Voucher Codes are a great way to save money on your online purchases. The MyVoucherCodes.co.uk discount code website is the biggest, most updated and has more traffic than www.vouchercodes.co.uk , www.vouchercodes.com , www.voucherheaven.com , www.vouchercodes.org , www.gcodes.co.uk , www.discountcodes.co.uk , www.shopcodes.co.uk , www.discount-voucher.co.uk , www.sendmediscounts.co.uk , www.mydiscountcodes.co.uk other sites include www.hotukdeals.com or money saving expert. My Voucher Codes is the best place to look for Sale deals, Valentine’s Day Offers for her or for him, Valentines Day 2008 February 14th Sales, hot uk deals

Firstly, carefully written content could incorporate a lot of those keywords, thus eliminating the need to have the "otherwise known" block. Oh, and using the anchor text for competitor URL's seems somewhat shady in my opinion.

Visit the Boots page and you'll see "Common Mispellings of Boots: Promotional code for boots.co.uk, www.boots.co.uk". Another "otherwise known" block. But surely this information could be written into the main content of the pages?

In all fairness, MVC doesn't seem to be as bad as some others I've seen.

A Client's Site

Naming no names but I am sure their logic is "other people do it so I can too". Here's one example:

Also known by the following Teenager s online, Teenager s covers, Teenager s, subscription to Teenager s, Teenager s magazines, Teenager s magazine subscriptions, Teenager s com, Teenager s magazin, Teenager s magazine co uk, Teenager s magazine subscription, Teenager s competitions, Teenager s magasine, www Teenager s co uk, Teenager Magazines, www Teenager s, Teenager s subscription Teenager s mag, Teenager s subscribe, Teenager s awards, Teenager Magazines uk, Teenager s discount, Teenager s articles, Teenager s co uk, Teenager s subscriptions, Teenager s website, Teenager s uk, Teenager s website,

Surely this kind of keyword stuffing is exactly what Google and co are trying to eliminate. I can see why someone would add this kind of content to a page (more opportunities to be indexed for more keywords) but is it worth the risk?

A Question For You

Does this kind of keyword stuffing make sense given the efforts by Google et al to reduce the amount of indexed spam? Are sites like MVC going to fall foul of the rules or is it up to affiliates to take a lead from such sites and start implementing "otherwise known" blocks?

Personally, I would draw the line at keyword rich articles. "Otherwise known" are only a step away from mis-spelling blocks which would look like this:

Also spelled like: avid fiske, advid fiske, ddavid fiske, savid fiske, favid fiske, eavid fiske, ravid fiske, xavid fiske, cavid fiske, dvid fiske, dvaid fiske, daavid fiske, dsvid fiske, dzvid fiske, dqvid fiske, dwvid fiske, daid fiske, daivd fiske, davvid fiske, dacid fiske, dabid fiske, dafid fiske, dagid fiske, davd fiske, davdi fiske, daviid fiske, davud fiske, davod fiske, davjd fiske, davkd fiske, dav8d fiske, dav9d fiske, davi fiske, davi dfiske, davidd fiske, davis fiske, davif fiske, davie fiske, davir fiske, davix fiske, davic fiske, davidfiske, davidf iske, david fiske, david iske, david ifske, david ffiske, david diske, david giske, david riske, david tiske, david ciske, david viske, david fske, david fsike, david fiiske, david fuske, david foske, david fjske, david fkske, david f8ske, david f9ske, david fike, david fikse, david fisske, david fiake, david fidke, david fiwke, david fieke, david fizke, david fixke, david fise, david fisek, david fiskke, david fisje, david fisle, david fisie, david fisoe, david fisme, david fisk, david fiskee, david fiskw, david fiskr, david fisks, david fiskd, david fisk3, david fisk4,

Who knows - maybe no one thought of adding bulk misspellings - yet!