Spam blog
Spam blog
(also splog, auto blog)
Spam blog definition
A spam blog is a website (typically a blog) that exists for the purpose of manipulating search engine rankings to promote another page or service. The name “spam blog” is derived from the practice of link spamming — posting a gratuitous number of links to the promoted page to trick search engine crawlers into believing it is relevant.
Spam blogs should not be confused with spam content, which refers to low-quality online pages that make money by serving ads or affiliate links to unsuspecting visitors. Both spam blogs and spam content abuse search engine optimization (SEO), but spam blogs boost other pages whereas spam content promotes itself.
See also: spamming
Common traits of spam blogs
- Many spam blogs are created using automated tools or AI assistance. As a result, they often provide only vague or irrelevant information.
- Spam blogs may appear unnecessarily verbose and repetitive due to keyword stuffing (the practice of adding an excessive number of specific phrases to manipulate search engine rankings).
- Spam blogs contain a large number of links to the site they wish to promote — for example, a website on some generic issue (such as car repair) may only contain links to one specific manufacturer.
- A spam blog usually only stays active for a short period of time — once the website is discovered and penalized by search engines for its dishonest practices, the spam blog’s creators will take it down to avoid negative association and save on bandwidth.