Once the primary method of achieving higher search engine results placement, hidden links – links which appear as text on a webpage but are invisible because they are the same color as the background – are now used, mostly, by disreputable marketers and are frowned upon by search engines who will punish sites using these links by pushing the site further down the results page. Surprisingly, hidden links have been found on the Financial Times website. Ken McGaffin, while doing some research for a client, found 138 hidden links on the Financial Time website within the first hour of his search.
McGaffin explains why marketers would engage in these shady practices, writing on his blog, “Google will regard a site such as FT.com as a trusted authority and any site that FT.com links to will get a significant boost to its ranking. The site will move towards the top of search engine results, bringing more visitors and more lucrative business as a result.”
We don’t pretend to know a lot about search engine marketing but we don’t have to know much to realize it’s practices such as this that undermine the medium, affect consumer trust and make life that much more challenging for marketers who choose to play by the rules. We think it’s a shame The Financial Times – and other sites – engage in this clandestine method of money making.
