Google warning: is your site abused through redirects?
April 4, 2009 by admin
Google recently wrote in one of its official blogs that it is possible for spammers to take advantage of your website without ever setting a virtual foot in your server. Spammers can do this by abusing open redirects.
What are open redirects?
Many websites use links that redirect their website visitors to another page. Some redirects are left open to any arbitrary destination. These redirects can be abused by spammers to trick web surfers and search engines into following links that seem to be pointing to your website although they redirect to a spammy website.
That means that people who think that they visit your website will be redirected to highly questionable web pages that might contain adult content, viruses, malware or phishing attempts.
Which redirects on your website could be abused?
Spammers are very inventive. According to Google, they have managed to use the redirect spam on a wide range of websites, including the websites of large well-known companies and the websites of small local government agencies.
For example, the following redirection types can be abused:
- Scripts that redirect users to a file on the server can be abused by spammers. The links on your website could look like this:
http://www.example.com/download.php?url=http://www…
http:///www.example.com/get/pdf/?http://www…
- Site search result pages with automatic redirect options. If the result pages of your internal site search feature contain an URL variable that sends your website visitors to other pages, spammers might be able to exploit them:
http://www.example.com/search?q=keyword&page=1&url=…
- Affiliate tracking links. Affiliate tracking links often allow people to direct website visitors to other pages. Spammers might enter their own URLs in the tracking links. Example:
http://www.example.com/track.php?affid=123&url=…
- Proxy pages. Proxy sites send people through to other websites and they can be abused by spammers:
http://myproxy.example.com/?url…
- Interstitial pages. Some websites show an interstitial page when users leave a website to let users know that the information found on the link is not under their control. These URLs usually look like this:
http://www.example.com/redirect/http://www…
http://www.example.com/out?http://www…
http://www.example.com/cgi-bin/redirect.cgi?http://www…
How to find out if your website is abused
Even if you find none of the URLs above on your website, your site still may have open redirects. Do the following to check if your website is abused by spammers:
- Make a site search on Google
Go to Google.com and search for “site:yourdomain.com”. Replace yourdomain.com with your own domain name. If you see web pages that have nothing to do with your website then it’s likely that someone exploits a security hole on your website.
- Check your web server logs for URL parameters like “=http:” or “=//”. If your redirection URLs get a lot of traffic, this could also be caused by spammers.
- If you get user complaints about content or malware that you know cannot be found on your website then your website users might have seen your URL before they were redirected to the malware site.
What you can do to protect your website
It’s not easy to to make sure that your redirects aren’t exploited. The reason for that is that an open redirect is not a bug or a security flaw. There are some things that you can do to protect your website:
- Check the referrer. Your redirect scripts should only work if they area accessed from another web page of your website. The redirect script should not work if the user accesses the script directly or from a search engine.
- If possible, make sure that the script can only redirect to web pages and files that are on your own websites. You could use a whitelist of allowed destination domains.
- Use the robots.txt file of your website to exclude search engines from the redirect scripts on your website. That will make your website less attractive for hackers.
- Add a signature or a checksum to your redirect links so that only you can use the script.
Open redirect abuse is a big issue for Google right now. If you secure your scripts, spammers will move over to other websites and leave your website alone.
How your web page titles can help you with local search
November 21, 2008 by admin
If you’re selling products and services that are related to a special area, it is crucial that your website gets found by the right people. One of the easiest ways to get found by people that live in your area is to optimize your web page titles.
What is the web page title?
The title of a web page is the text that is written between the tags in the HTML code of a web page. The web page title is displayed in the web browser window when someone visits your website and it is usually used as the linked text when your website appear in the search results.
Why is it important to use optimized web page titles?
The web page title is one of the main factors that Google, Yahoo and other search engines use to rank web pages. A good web page title greatly improves the chances of getting high search engine rankings.
In addition, the web page title is used as the bold linked text on search result pages. That means that it should be clear, concise and appealing so that web surfers click on it.
How to change your web page title so that it gets better local rankings
If you optimize your web page titles correctly, they will both increase your search engine rankings and they will attract people from the right local area to your website.
You’ll benefit from targeted traffic and you’ll get more sales than before. Here are some things that you can do to improve your web page titles:
Include the name of your business, important keywords and your city in the title of your homepage:
Smith & Sons – The shoe shop for inexpensive footwear in London
Depending on your business size, change the order of these items. Well known businesses should list their company name first. If your business is new then it’s usually better to list the keyword first:
The shoe shop for inexpensive footwear: Smith & Sons in London
People are probably looking for a solution to their problem (inexpensive shoes) instead of your company name. Instead of your city, you can also use the name of the greater area if your service is available in that area.
Use a different title tag for every page. This is important. The title should reflect the content that can be found on the page. For branding purposes, the titles should contain your company name and a popular keyword for which you want to be found on search engines:
Smith & Sons: About our London shoe shop
Smith & Sons: Buy inexpensive sneakers in London
Smith & Sons: The best prices for boots in London
Use short web page titles. Short titles are much easier to read for web surfers. Do not try to stuff keywords in your web page title. It is much more better if your website is highly relevant to one keyword than somewhat relevant to many keywords.
If you want to optimize your website for different keywords, optimize different pages for different keywords.
Do not use special characters in your titles. Avoid symbols and other special characters. They might not be displayed properly on all computers and your website might look strange in the search results.
If you change your web page titles as explained above, your website will get better rankings on search engines and it will be found by people who live in the right area.
Official Google statement: how to get high rankings
October 31, 2008 by admin
This month, the Google Webmaster blog published an article in which Google’s Maile Ohye officially explained what it takes to get a high ranking in Google’s search result pages.
The blog article confirms that the methods that are used by Complete SEO to get high rankings are correct. But read it for yourself:
Inbound links are important but content is even more important
Google’s Maile Ohye writes the following about inbound links in his article:
“Inbound links are links from pages on external sites linking back to your site. Inbound links can bring new users to your site, and when the links are merit-based and freely-volunteered as an editorial choice, they’re also one of the positive signals to Google about your site’s importance.”
Nothing new here. If many related websites link to your site, and if these links look natural, this will help you rankings on Google a lot.
However, links are not the most important ranking factor. Maile Ohye gives a concrete example:
“Let’s say I have a site, example.com, that offers users a variety of unique website templates and design tips. One of the strongest ranking factors is my site’s content. Additionally, perhaps my site is also linked from three sources — however, one inbound link is from a spammy site.
As far as Google is concerned, we want only the two quality inbound links to contribute to the PageRank signal in our ranking. “
The website’s content is mentioned as one of the strongest ranking factors. The inbound links are additional. That makes sense. The content of your website tells Google what your website is about.
If you want to get a high ranking for the keyword “used cars in dallas” but your web pages are about microwave ovens then you won’t get high rankings for that keyword.
For that reason, it is very important that you optimize your web pages for the keywords for which you want to get high rankings before you try to get links from other sites.
Google analyzes over 200 ranking factors
According to the article in Google’s blog, Google analyzes more than 200 signals (we call them ‘ranking factors’) to specify the position of a web page in the search results:
“Given the user’s query, over 200 signals (including the analysis of the site’s content and inbound links as mentioned above) are applied to return the most relevant results to the user.”
It’s a simple two-step process
Getting high rankings on Google is a simple two-step process:
- You must optimize your web page contents so that Google can find out what your website is about. Optimize your web pages for your keywords so that Google knows that your website is relevant to these keywords and your topic.
- Other websites must confirm that your website is about that topic. That’s what inbound links are for.
It’s as simple as that. If your website passes Google’s analysis of all ranking factors, it will get a top 10 ranking.
How your web page titles can help you with local search
October 18, 2008 by admin
If you’re selling products and services that are related to a special area, it is crucial that your website gets found by the right people. One of the easiest ways to get found by people that live in your area is to optimize your web page titles.
What is the web page title?
The title of a web page is the text that is written between the <title> and the </title> tags in the HTML code of a web page. The web page title is displayed in the web browser window when someone visits your website and it is usually used as the linked text when your website appear in the search results.
Why is it important to use optimized web page titles?
The web page title is one of the main factors that Google, Yahoo and other search engines use to rank web pages. A good web page title greatly improves the chances of getting high search engine rankings.
In addition, the web page title is used as the bold linked text on search result pages. That means that it should be clear, concise and appealing so that web surfers click on it.
How to change your web page title so that it gets better local rankings
If you optimize your web page titles correctly, they will both increase your search engine rankings and they will attract people from the right local area to your website.
You’ll benefit from targeted traffic and you’ll get more sales than before. Here are some things that you can do to improve your web page titles:
- Include the name of your business, important keywords and your city in the title of your homepage:
Smith & Sons – The shoe shop for inexpensive footwear in London
- Depending on your business size, change the order of these items. Well known businesses should list their company name first. If your business is new then it’s usually better to list the keyword first:
The shoe shop for inexpensive footwear: Smith & Sons in London
People are probably looking for a solution to their problem (inexpensive shoes) instead of your company name. Instead of your city, you can also use the name of the greater area if your service is available in that area.
- Use a different title tag for every page. This is important. The title should reflect the content that can be found on the page. For branding purposes, the titles should contain your company name and a popular keyword for which you want to be found on search engines:
Smith & Sons: About our London shoe shop
Smith & Sons: Buy inexpensive sneakers in London
Smith & Sons: The best prices for boots in London
- Use short web page titles. Short titles are much easier to read for web surfers. Do not try to stuff keywords in your web page title. It is much more better if your website is highly relevant to one keyword than somewhat relevant to many keywords.
If you want to optimize your website for different keywords, optimize different pages for different keywords.
- Do not use special characters in your titles. Avoid symbols and other special characters. They might not be displayed properly on all computers and your website might look strange in the search results.
If you change your web page titles as explained above, your website will get better rankings on search engines and it will be found by people who live in the right area.
Unfortunately, the web page title is not the only element that influences the position of your website in the search results of Google and other search engines. If you want to make sure that your site appears in the top 10 results, you should optimize all factors that are needed to get top rankings.