How to Report Keyword Spamming to Google

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By Diane Cass
User-Submitted Article

Article Rating: (18 Ratings)

Keyword Spamming

Google is serious about getting rid of keyword spamming. People who engage in spamming steal titles and content from your popular articles, websites or blogs and hide it in their own pages. This cheats the system and brings their page up higher in the search engine rankings. Google WANTS you to report these cheaters and will take action on any report filed. Stop keyword spamming, report it to Google. Here's how...

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Step 1

Follow these instructions if you already have Google Webmaster accounts. If not, then skip to Step 9. In either case, you should also have a list ready of the websites that you are reporting, their names and URL addresses, and the exact words you used in the search that brought up this site.
Step 2

Click on the first link in the Resources section below. This will take you to the Authenticated Report Form. You can only use this form if you have a Google webmaster account.
Step 3

In the first box, state the name of the website you are reporting.
Step 4

In the second box, copy and paste the exact words you used in your search that produced the keyword spamming website in the results.
Step 5

In the third box, copy and paste the exact URL from the keyword spamming website in the second box.
Step 6

Check all of the boxes that apply. Are they cloaking your content, hiding text or links? Are they deceptively bringing people to this page and offering something different than what people think they are going there for? Google doesn't give a definition for what all of these things mean, I wish I knew all of them. In general, the first three are what you are reporting. Report all of the keyword spamming methods this person is using.
Step 7

Add any additional details, in the next box. Google may want to know details about the keyword spamming you found. If the site made your computer crash or gave you a virus, report this also.
Step 8

Click Report, and you are done. The only problem is that you have to report each incident individually. If you are reporting many of your articles being hijacked, it may take a while, but it will be worth it. Google takes these reports seriously and will take action against the offending website, often shutting them down in short order.
Step 9

If you do not have a Google account, you can use the second link in the resources below. It is for unregistered users, and it may not be treated with the priority that registered users have, but at least Google will have it. Fill out the form in the same manner as instructed above.

Comments

mrasey said

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on 11/18/2009 The problem I'm running into is how do I prove my content was published first and predates the spammers? I used Copyscape tools for the 'way back machine' and nothing came up.

eHow doesn't time/date stamp articles in a way that others can see and their links don't contain dates. So...????

I feel like my hands are tied. eHow is going to kill my account for plagiarism while at the same time making it impossible for me to defend myself.

M

jpwriter said

on 9/6/2009 Err, not that I think this article is spam at all. It has been an incredible help to me and many others who have had our articles and titles stolen. Just didn't think it'd come in house. Just wanted to clarify!

on 9/6/2009 Hey I hope you can somehow change this article so it doesn't get considered "spam" you know for mentioning a website. Since eHow is now deceptively using at least two of my links I'm reporting them to Google.