What is Google Bombing?
Google bombing is the practice of manipulating search rankings to make a site rank for an unrelated term on Google search results pages. This tactic is also known as Googlewashing. When it occurs on search engines other than Google, it is referred to as link bombing.
Google bombing is considered a black hat SEO technique. It involves multiple black hat SEO tactics, including:
- Anchor text manipulation
- Blog comment spamming
- Keyword stuffing
- Unnatural links
However, unlike other black hat SEO techniques that are done with the intent of increasing a site’s ranking, Google bombing is typically done as a joke, to spite a rival, or both.
For example, during the 2004 U.S. presidential election, the profile of then-president George W. Bush showed up when visitors searched for “miserable failure.” Fortunately for the victims, Google has improved its algorithm to reduce the efficiency of Google bombs.
How Google Bombing Works
Google bombing worked back when Google heavily relied on anchor texts and backlinks to understand the content on the site receiving the link.
When enough bloggers and web users use the same anchor text when linking to a site, the site will soon begin ranking for search queries containing the keywords in that anchor text.
For example, in the case of George Bush, bloggers used the phrase “miserable failure” as the anchor text when linking to George Bush’s official biography on the White House website. This made Google assume miserable failure and George Bush were related terms.
So, when searchers searched for “miserable failure,” the White House page on George Bush showed up at the top of the search results page. Searchers who clicked on the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button were even automatically directed to the White House site on George Bush.
SEO Significance of Google Bombing
While Google bombing is considered spamming, it provided insights into how Google ranks websites.
For one, Google bombing confirmed that Google uses anchor texts to understand a page’s content. This indicates that anchor texts should be relevant to the content on the page they lead to, or else Google may misunderstand the content on that page.
Google bombs also confirmed the relationship between backlinks and rankings. It indicated that a site would rank for a keyword when enough sites link back to it with the same anchor text.
How Google Prevents Google Bombing
In 2007, Google revealed it released an algorithm to minimize the impact of Google bombs. In the document announcing the algorithm, Google mentioned that Google bombs worked for phrases that did not return relevant results.
Google added that it did not manually edit the search results because it prefers automated methods of fixing issues, as computers are faster than humans. Algorithms can also prevent Google bombs in multiple languages, compared to a human who would be limited to a few languages.