Why do people keep asking me to link to Google?

[soxos]

I wasn't sure whether to put this in links building or here - but as is just concerns google i choose here!

This question has been bugging me for a while.

Why do people submit my link exchange request form for a link exchange with google?

For example
URL: [google.com...]
Link Text: Example
Description: Nice Site!

I am seriously missing the point of this sort of spam?

[edited by: engine at 2:46 pm (utc) on June 19, 2008]

[internetheaven]

It's a test for spam detection scripts I think. Probably an automatic link submitter. Do you use any spam protection such as "enter the following image" programs?

[5ubliminal]

Google's aiming for PR 11. That's why they link exchange now.

[netmeg]

This reminds me of something.

I read somewhere of one way to prevent form spam was to add an extra field, hide it with CSS, and then have a little PHP script or something such that after the submission, if there's anything in that field, just toss it out. Supposed to prevent automated spam bots who are just looking for fields to fill up. Kind of makes sense, and I hate captchas; I am getting too old to make them out.

But hiding the field with CSS - does that violate the Webmaster Guidelines?

[tedster]

I guess if you read the webmaster guidelines in a very literal and rigid way, that practice might appear to be a problem. However, I've been doing something like this for quite a while with no trouble.

Then again, I usually don't care about getting my form pages indexed anyway, so I tend to use noindex meta tags and rel="noindex" attributes in the links that point to them. I can't imagine this practice being any kind of problem for Google unless you are hiding keywords as well as the input field.

[netmeg]

Yea, I thought that maybe if I no-indexed it that might work. I don't put keywords in the input fields, no. It just seemed like it was too easy, somehow.

[Receptional Andy]

hiding the field with CSS - does that violate the Webmaster Guidelines

If your site is perceived to contain hidden text and links that are deceptive in intent, your site may be removed from the Google index, and will not appear in search results pages

Hidden text and links [google.com] (Emphasis mine)

To paraphrase: if a representative of Google (algorithm or employee) is of the opinion that you are misleading visitors, they can ban your site.

Of course, algorithms are allowed to have opinions too, these days ;)

a test for spam detection scripts

Or the other common one I see, which is the default text in spam programs. People genuinely send thousands of emails without realising they left stuff like this in.

[edited by: Receptional_Andy at 8:15 pm (utc) on June 19, 2008]

[CainIV]

Logical Q+A's work well for those that prefer this over captcha.

I think it would be nice to have an allinone script that allows the visitor to choose which validation format they would like. Perhaps this is something that is already out there.

Choose:

Captcha - enter code from image

or

Captcha - hear audio version and enter code

or

Logical question - 6 + 5 = (Must answer in word format)