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Polish Man Faces Jail Time For Alleged “Google Bombing” Practices
Surprising Arrest Sheds Light On The Dark Side Of Do-It-Yourself SEO
Twenty-three year old Marek W. from Cieszyn, Poland, faces up to three years in prison for alleged defamation of character of Polish President Lech Kacyznski.
Mr. W, a self-described “software geek,” decided to test his search engine optimization, or “web positioning,” software to see if he achieve a top Google page rank for a select keyword associated with a specific website. The problem: the select keyword was reportedly the Polish term for a certain part of the male anatomy, and the alleged site was the official website of the President of Poland.
Using his home computer, Marek W. was reportedly able to achieve his goal of first page results, using decidedly black hat SEO practices, also known to some as “Google Bombing,” or “Link Bombing.” This involves the linking of sites to any and all other websites with similar or related domain names—whether or not they contain similar or related content or are part of similar or related niches and industries.
In other words, whenever Internet users searched for President Kaczynski’s website, they were inundated instead by Marek W’s chosen keyword, which had achieved first page search result rankings.
Mr. W was located after police traced his IP address, and subsequently arrested. During his preliminary hearing, he defended his alleged actions, saying “I just wanted to verify my skills and check if this software works.”
Link Bombing, or “Google Bombing,” takes unfair advantage of Google’s search engine algorithm, and while it may achieve faster search result rankings initially, once the search engine “spiders,” or automated link checkers, become aware of this practice, the website in question faces stiff penalties, including total loss of all page rank and potentially, permanent blacklisting.
This is one of the major reasons that so called “do-it-yourself search engine optimization practices are not recommended, since an experienced SEO firm will specialize in the building of website links utilizing more organic, “white hat” practices, such as proper link building and keyword optimization.
Spokespersons for President Kacynzski were not available for comment at press time.
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