Editing Metasearch engine (section)

== Spamdexing ==
{{main|Spamdexing}}
{{Off topic|date=May 2024}}
Spamdexing is the deliberate manipulation of search engine indexes. It uses a number of methods to manipulate the relevance or prominence of resources indexed in a manner unaligned with the intention of the indexing system. Spamdexing can be very distressing for users and problematic for search engines because the return contents of searches have poor precision.{{citation needed|date=November 2019}} This will eventually result in the search engine becoming unreliable and not dependable for the user. To tackle Spamdexing, search robot algorithms are made more complex and are changed almost every day to eliminate the problem.<ref>{{cite web | last=Najork | first=Marc | year=2014 | title=Web Spam Detection | url=https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/web-spam-detection/ | publisher=[[Microsoft]]}}</ref>

It is a major problem for metasearch engines because it tampers with the [[Web crawler]]'s indexing criteria, which are heavily relied upon to format ranking lists. Spamdexing manipulates the natural [[ranking]] system of a search engine, and places websites higher on the ranking list than they would naturally be placed.<ref>{{cite web | last1=Vandendriessche | first1=Gerrit | date=February 2009 | title=A few legal comments on spamdexing. | url=https://www.worldservicesgroup.com/publications.asp?action=article&artid=2801}}</ref> There are three primary methods used to achieve this:

=== Content spam ===
Content spam are the techniques that alter the logical view that a search engine has over the page's contents. Techniques include:
* Keyword Stuffing – Calculated placements of keywords within a page to raise the keyword count, variety, and density of the page
* Hidden/Invisible Text – Unrelated text disguised by making it the same color as the background, using a tiny font size, or hiding it within the HTML code 
* Meta-tag Stuffing – Repeating keywords in meta tags and/or using keywords unrelated to the site's content
* Doorway Pages – Low quality webpages with little content, but relatable keywords or phrases
* Scraper Sites – Programs that allow websites to copy content from other websites and create content for a website
* Article Spinning – Rewriting existing articles as opposed to copying content from other sites
* Machine Translation – Uses machine translation to rewrite content in several different languages, resulting in illegible text

=== Link spam ===
Link spam are links between pages present for reasons other than merit. Techniques include:
* Link-building Software – Automating the [[search engine optimization]] (SEO) process
* Link Farms – Pages that reference each other (also known as mutual admiration societies)
* Hidden Links – Placing hyperlinks where visitors won't or can't see them
* Sybil Attack – Forging of multiple identities for malicious intent
* Spam Blogs – Blogs created solely for commercial promotion and the passage of link authority to target sites
* Page Hijacking – Creating a copy of a popular website with similar content, but redirects web surfers to unrelated or even malicious websites
* Buying Expired Domains – Buying expiring domains and replacing pages with links to unrelated websites
* Cookie Stuffing – Placing an affiliate tracking cookie on a website visitor's computer without their knowledge
* Forum Spam – Websites that can be edited by users to insert links to spam sites

=== Cloaking ===
This is an SEO technique in which different materials and information are sent to the web crawler and to the [[web browser]].<ref>{{cite web | last1=Wang | first1=Yi-Min | last2=Ma | first2=Ming | last3=Niu | first3=Yuan | last4=Chen | first4=Hao | date=May 8, 2007 | title=Connecting Web Spammers with Advertisers | url=http://www2007.org/papers/paper111.pdf}}</ref> It is commonly used as a spamdexing technique because it can trick search engines into either visiting a site that is substantially different from the search engine description or giving a certain site a higher ranking.