SEO and spam

Google are having their own problems: Spam. This is their biggest enemy. Back when Google was started there was very little spam and relevancy based on the links that point to a site was quite high. Google was thinking that if many link to a site with an anchor in it then that site is relevant for the link's keywords. As Google grow people wanted to have their sites placed higher in ther serps and figured out ways to bust their ranks. Google is constantly trying detect spammers and take them out of the index.

This is the reason they invented the Sandbox. Here is a definition for those of you who don't know:

allegedly used by one large search engine as a probation period for new sites.
Gaining a high PR is inhibited during this period.

Recently one of the Google employees made a blog where he said how to report spam and have that report taken into consideration; I quote:

Reporting spam in Google's index
I especially want to hear
about webspam that you see in Google. The best place to do that is to go to http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html
. In the 'Additional details:' section, I would use the keyword ''jagger1"
(that's 'jagger' and the number one with no spaces in between).

His site: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/update-jagger-contacting-google/

In the past months I have noticed that Google is giving a significant boost to the old, well established sites. Lets take an exemple: when you search for a movie title the first or second result is from imdb. I have also noticed that as the time passes my site (roportal.ro / roportal.com) is getting stronger on various competitive keywords.

It is getting harder to make a site that ranks well in Google. How can you beat the better known sites without an inflated budget for advertising?
You can use the link networks like the one found at digitalpoint: http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/ad-network/

The problem with this is that the links are partially static - partially dynamic and Google is not counting the dynamic ones. But the network provides a good initial boost.
Hopefully there are some static links networks but I am not telling which; maybe I'll do it in a future post :).

The problem with these networks is that you have to constantly get weight into the site in order to maintain the top position and if/when you take out the code from you site you instantly drop.
I have seen posts that people are kicked off yahoo for using link networks (add network as they call it) and probably it is a matter of time until Google will figure out the sites that use these systems so I advice you not to use them on your primary site. Make a site only for this and add the links on those pages. I think you are safe doing this because Google will not punish you for something that it's not on you site - doing so opens up doors for taking out competition. So be careful what you put on your site: no add networks, no hidden text and in the longrun you will be a winner. Consistently adding content will slowly but surely get you there. Take care.