"Spamming" Your Page With Key Words

[Amir W.]

You've seen it before - a page trying to rank for certain key words that has a seemingly endless list of these key words "hidden" on the bottom of the page, usually in an inconspicuous font color, sometimes more conspicuous.

These words serve no purpose whatsoever to the site's visitor, look tacky, and make the site look messy and unprofessional.

I've also heard that search engines will penalize a site for this.

Three questions -
1. is it true that search engines penalize for this?
2. if a page that has the above mentioned is actually ranking well, would removing them have a negative effect on ranking?
3. if you're trying to improve ranking for people searching for your product in several cities, would it be considered bad to include in the content something like: "We serve the following cities:" and list a whole bunch? or should you only list a few so as not to get penalized?

[Limozine]

1. Search engines penalize sites for hiding text through means like using the same color as the background.

2. I doubt that removing spam would have a negative effect on a page's ranking, but I don't know for certain.

3. I see nothing wrong with listing every city where you do business. If it's relative to your visitors and customers, it's relative to the search engines.

[ktaylor310]

If Google has not already penalized a site for this practice it will. Removing the text now, even if the site takes a hit, will save it from being banned or penalized in the future. That would have much farther reaching and long lasting effect.

I created a site for a bail bondsmen once and it was necessary to work in State names because the majority of people search for "bail bondsmen Florida" (example). We worked in state names by adding statues for each state with links. I can't imagine you could be penalized for that as it is relevant, but I can't guarantee the links actually count a ton.

[Logan]

If targeting a geo location is important to you, and it is providing the roi, then your situation may also be a good scenario to consider with Adwords/ppc. You can setup a campaign to target only those locations and control things tightly because of ppc.

Outside of ppc, and local directory listings I think on page optimization can be important. In your case Amir with your questions, as a rule of thumb consider if a human was viewing your site whether they would consider it spammy.

If you want to target keywords as you describe, then make sure it is relevant and you justify it based on the amount of content you provide. For example, could you get testimonials from customers in each city and then make a page for each location?

These words serve no purpose whatsoever to the site's visitor, look tacky, and make the site look messy and unprofessional.

That is a blank answer/scenario. It is spam in that case based on a human reviewing it which can happen anytime. Change your verbiage a bit and it should be ok

...

These words serve purpose to the site's visitor, look good, and make the site understandable and professional.

[spencer]

1. Yes
2. I don't think so
3. Just don't overdo it

[bonciutoma]

1. I think Google will start penalize things like same color on the background and text. Almost the same colors I don't think it will be penalize because could be a choice of design - not a good one but it's still a choice

2. if you are ranking because of those words removing in my opinion could damage the ranking

3. I've seen many cases where if you try to make sens all the enumeration than it's perfectly fine (if you are linking from those words try to keep their number under 100)

These are my opinions.

[jaugustat]

Man I am glad I am member here, I came across this thread right as I was about to begin changing my website to put hidden words. How silly of me. Thanks for setting me straight guys.

[SashaMike]

Three questions -
1. is it true that search engines penalize for this?
2. if a page that has the above mentioned is actually ranking well, would removing them have a negative effect on ranking?
3. if you're trying to improve ranking for people searching for your product in several cities, would it be considered bad to include in the content something like: "We serve the following cities:" and list a whole bunch? or should you only list a few so as not to get penalized?

1- Yes definitely!
2- Not necessarily, if your link building is strong, it shouldn't be a problem. But removing it is a must.
3- No not at all, but having it on everysible page with so many names looks odd. Better to create targeted small size pages for each state or GEO location

Thank you

[Amir W.]

Thanks everyone for the feedback!

[rvnet]

is it true that search engines penalize for this?

How will Google know certain site is hiding and listing keywords? It checks keyword font tags and text in between font tags?

Because I am seeing many sites with 30 - 40 words at the bottom of the pages. Somebody can explain?