Spamming

[joshlewis21]

I'm new to SEO and was just wondering what exactly "spamming" is. Thanks for your help.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Josh, welcome to Webmaster World.

Regarding spamming, it would depend who was answering your question but in its broadest sense spamming is using illegal techniques in an attempt to push a website to the top of the rankings. The term illegal is as defined by the search engines, not illegal as in the law of the land.

Anyone care to improve on this?

[jatar_k]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld joshlewis21,

given the fact that spam is actually unrequested email and has nothing to do with search engines but the term is used anyway....

then that is as good an explanation as we could give ;)

[pageoneresults]

SPAMMING - The act of spreading SPAM [spam.com] on your favorite substrate. It could be bread, crackers, or even your own web site, etc. ;)

I couldn't resist, especially after reading about Monty's Spamalot [montypythonsspamalot.com].

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Josh, did you mean spamming WRT websites or email?

[joshlewis21]

Thanks for answering my question; I was talking about spamming on websites

[Web Footed Newbie]

Welcome to WW Josh.
Spamming, used in context with SEO, is basically using black hat SEO techniques to increase your page's rank in search engines. Do a search for black hat seo and you will get a good idea of what NOT to do! A short list of "spamming" or black hat seo would include keyword stuffing, alt text keyword stuffing, over 20% keyword density, etc.
WFN

[Dave_A]

Hi Josh,
spamming a search engine usually isn't a wise thing to do.
We are used to text the same colour as the background to boost keyword scores, content like that is classed as spamming.
Having keywords that are nothing to do with the websites content is spamming.
I know of one website listed with google that when a search is carried of for the name of a childrens book, the top of the results list, is a gambling website.
That sort of stuff is spamming a search engine.
Seen pages full of repeated words, one website had the word Manawatu (A town in New Zealand) seventy times on one page!
Yep spammer click and it's gone..

All the best Josh
Dave A

[voices]

Spamming the search engines is what causes the constant algo changes.