A Google bomb is when a site’s search engine ranking is inflated by forcing it to appear at the top of search results for a specific phrase. This is done by using anchor text that is unrelated and getting many people to use the exact same anchor text. Google bombs have been used for satire, comedy, or political commentary. Some search engines have changed search results for certain keyword phrases to maintain their intent of returning relevant and useful information.
A Google® bomb or Googlebomb is an orchestrated attempt to inflate a site’s search engine rankings by forcing it to appear at the top of search results for a specific phrase. Google® bombs are also known as link bombs; the “Google®” is a reference to a very popular search engine. Many people have used Google® bombs for satire, comedy, or political commentary, and the practice became a larger topic of discussion around 2001, when several notable Google® bombs attacking then-President George Bush did international news.
Google® bombs exploit the fact that search engines tend to push sites up in their rankings when people repeatedly link to them with the same anchor text. Anchor text is the visible part of a hyperlink; for example, most people who log into wiseGEEK make “wiseGEEK” their anchor text. Because of this practice, wiseGEEK appears first in search results for this anchor text, because search engines believe it is the most relevant to searchers.
While most anchor text is related to the linked topic, many Google® bombs use anchor text that is unrelated. For the Google® bomb to work, hundreds and potentially thousands of people need to use the exact same anchor text. For example, a Google® bombshell used the anchor text “miserable failure” to link to the President of the United States’ website. As the trend caught on, more people started using the same anchor text for the same link, thus ensuring that the Google® bomb was even more effective.
A well-orchestrated Google® bomb can get a site to the top of a search results list in a matter of days. Google® bombs have been used for all sorts of things; the Jewish blogging community, for example, created a Google® bomb that propelled an article about Judaism to the top of search results for “Jew,” and many activist organizations used Google® bombs to make comments about politicians, governments and various policies.
The popularity of such link bombs has led to a change in strategy by some search engines. While a Google® bombshell is often humorous, some are extremely offensive, and some search engines have decided to change search results for certain keyword phrases when they became aware of the practice. These changes are designed to maintain the search engine’s intent, which is to return relevant and useful information.
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