This is going to be the start of a series of posts on how your competitors may be cheating Google by various means of Black Hat SEO manipulation. Just as you will either shoot a thief who steals from you, or call the Police, there are ways to catch and stop these rip offs, and  turn them in to Google, Yahoo, and Bing!  Make NO mistake, it is not "snitching" to turn these people in. Your very survival in the roof cleaning business may depend on it.

The very first thing you need to do on a competitors website is check for hidden text !
We do this by clicking on the cache of a competitors page, and hitting control A on our keyboards. This will highlight all text on the page, even the hidden text we are looking for. I seldom click on a competitors actual website. I click on the cache from the search results. Remember, the more you click on a competitors website, the more better for HIM What some of your competitors are doing is this. They will place hidden text invisible to only the search engines by making it the same color as the page background! We are not gonna let them get away with it, are we

How Search Engines Define Spam

In terms of SEO, the term "spam" or "spamdexing" is used to
describe techniques used to artificially inflate the perceived relevancy
of inferior web sites. Throughout history, various techniques have been
implemented with varying degrees of success. Examples of these spam
techniques include hiding links, cloaking, link farming, keyword
stuffing and using style controls to mask content. Since spamdexing
practices are constantly evolving, SEOToolSet^TM has decided to hold our Certified Analysts, Organizations and Partners to a common SEOToolSet^TM Code of Conduct
instead of outlawing certain bad practices. However, we believe that it
is important to know what the major search engines specifically say
about spam and what practices are definitely not allowed if you would
like to rank in top-tier search engines. Plus, every ethical SEO should
know how to properly report any spam that they see so the search engines
can correct their algorithm accordingly.

How Google Defines Spam

As part of their Webmaster Guidelines,
Google outlines techniques to use to help Google locate, index and rank
your website. They also specificially state that the following
techniques may lead them to remove your site from the Google index:

• Hidden text or hidden links.
• Cloaking or sneaky redirects.
• Automated queries to Google.
• Pages loaded with irrelevant keywords.
• Multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content.
• "Doorway" pages created just for search engines, or other "cookie
  cutter" approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original
  content.

However you should keep in mind that these aren't the only practices
that Google disapproves of. Generally, Google doesn't like their results
manipulated by deceptive practices. Their recommendation for webmasters
is:

Webmasters who spend their energies upholding the spirit
of the basic principles listed above will provide a much better user
experience and subsequently enjoy better ranking than those who spend
their time looking for loopholes they can exploit.

To combat common search engine spam practices employed by rogue SEOs,
Google has also posted a list of practices that should raise a red flag
when you are looking for a search engine optimizer. According to
Google, feel free to walk away from an SEO who:

• owns shadow domains
• puts links to their other clients on doorway pages
• offers to sell keywords in the address bar
• doesn't distinguish between actual search results and ads that appear in search results
• guarantees ranking, but only on obscure, long keyword phrases you would
  get anyway
• operates with multiple aliases or falsified WHOIS info
• gets traffic from "fake" search engines, spyware, or scumware
• has had domains removed from Google's index or is not itself listed in Google

NOTE: If you are having trouble finding an ethical search engine optimization specialist, take a look at our Directory of SEOToolSet^TM Certified Analysts and Organizations. Everyone certified by SEOToolSet^TM is audited at random at least once a quarter to make sure that they are not using practices that would violate our Code of Conduct or Code of Ethics.

How to Report Spam to Google

Google has a form that allows you to report spam to Google or you can e-mail Google at spamreport@google.com.
Note that Google rarely manually removes websites from the engine.
Instead, it tweaks the search engine algorithm and spam detection
software to try and eliminate the spam technique that is clogging up the
engines.

How Yahoo! Defines Spam

NOTE: Altavista, All the Web and Inktomi are all
owned by Yahoo!, so the Yahoo! spam policies and webmaster guidelines
also apply to these search engines.

According to Yahoo!,
search engine spam is webpages “that are considered unwanted and appear
in search results with the intent to deceive or attract clicks, with
little regard for relevance or overall quality of the user experience.”
Officially, Yahoo! does not want to index sites with:

• Text that is hidden from the user
• Misuse of competitor names/products
• Pages that have substantially the same content as other pages
• Multiple sites offering the same content
• Pages in great quantity, which are automatically generated or of little value
• Pages dedicated to redirecting the user to another page
• Pages that give the search engine different content than what the end-user sees
• Pages built primarily for search engines
• Pages that use excessive pop-ups, interfering with user navigation
• Pages that use methods to artificially inflate search engine ranking
• Sites with numerous, unnecessary virtual hostnames
• Excessive cross-linking with sites to inflate a site's apparent popularity
• Pages that harm the accuracy, diversity, or relevance of search results
• Pages that seem deceptive, fraudulent, or provide a poor user experience

How to Report Spam to Yahoo!

If you find a site that is spamming in Yahoo!, you can report the spam through a form on their website.

NOTE: In addition to reporting spam, you can also report copyright violations to Yahoo!. To request that they remove any content published in violation of copyright protection, e-mail them at copyright@yahoo-inc.com.

How Teoma / Ask Jeeves Defines Spam

One of the most definitive sources of the Teoma / Ask Jeeves spam policy is on their Site Submission Terms page. Among the techniques that will keep you from being ranked are:

• Having deceptive text
• Having duplicate content
• Having metadata that does not accurately describe the content of a web page
• Including off-topic or excessive keywords
• Fabricating pages to lead users to other web pages
• Showing different content than the spidered pages to users
• Using intentionally misleading links
• Using self linking referencing patterns
• Misusing affiliate or referral programs

How to Report Spam to Teoma / Ask Jeeves

To report search engine spam to Ask Jeeves or Teoma, e-mail them at jeeves@askjeeves.com

How MSN Defines Spam

MSN Search has recently added content guidelines to their website, explicitly stating that the MSNBot will see the following techniques as search engine spam:

• Stuffing pages with irrelevant keywords in order to increase a page’s keyword density, including ALT tag stuffing.
• Using hidden text or links.
• Using techniques such as creating link farms to artificially increase the number of links to your page.

Also, in an e–mail announcing the second preview release of the new
MSN search, Microsoft mentioned cloaking and having duplicate content on
multiple domains as things that will lead your site to being penalized
or removed from the MSN Search index.

How to Report Spam to MSN

To report search engine spam to MSN, use the form on their website.

Have you seen any search engine spam lately? Instead of submitting spam reports to each engine, you can also simply submit a spam report through SEOToolSet^TM.

NOTE: If you have seen one of our Certified Analysts
or Organizations engaging in spam practices, please report the spam
violation through a Certified Spam Report so we can conduct a spam audit of their practices as soon as possible.