Spam recognition is a skill that is developed through practice and exposure. Open discussion of difficult cases in the
resolving stage in EWOQ will help you develop your skills.
Remember to look at the page as a whole. Spam pages usually have some of these characteristics:
PPC ads are usually very prominent on the page, and it is obvious that the page was created for them.
If you do a text search, you will find that the content has been copied.
If you visually remove all of the spam elements from the page (PPC ads and copied content), there is nothing
of any value remaining.
Good pages usually have these characteristics:
The page is well-organized. There may be ads on the page, but they are well identified and not distracting.
If you do a text search, the original page is usually the first result displayed.
The page will have value to the user. A good search engine would want the page in a set of search results.
Here are the spam flags that you will use:
Not Spam: If you do not believe that a page is spam, you should assign a Not Spam flag.
Maybe Spam: If you find a page to be “spammy”, but you don’t feel comfortable saying that the page is
definitely spam, you should assign a Maybe Spam flag.
Spam: If you believe that a page has been designed using the deceptive web design techniques described in
these guidelines, you should assign a Spam flag.
When unsure which flag to use, remember to ask yourself these questions:
Does the page provide the user with a good search experience?
Does the page contain original content that would be helpful to users?
Do you think the page should be included in a set of search results?
Is the page designed for users? Is there a human element to the page?
If you removed the PPC ads and copied text from the page, is there anything helpful left?
If you answer “yes” to these questions, the page is probably not spam.