I was shocked today to see how incredibly effective parasite hosting has become. If you're not familiar with the concept, parasite hosting refers to a spammer's creation of a keyword targeted page on a strong, legitimate domain. The idea here is that if they can control that page's content, they can rank for searches and re-direct the traffic to whatever site/page they choose. For example, I just ran a search for "buy viagra" at Google:

There are 8/10 results that are hosted on university web pages and re-direct visitors to sites selling Viagra. What's nice is that you get a relatively good user experience - those pages you reach do sell Viagra (though I've not tried to buy and so can't speculate on how the customer service might be). What's interesting is the ability of those parasite pages to rank. Try searches like "cheap cialis" or "generic celebrex" and you'll see the same thing.

Parasite hosting isn't a completely new tactic, but it takes advantage of one of Google's favoritism for old, strong domains. It's one great example of how subject-specific popularity really is taking a backseat to domain trust. Ironically, Google's move to more trusted domains ranking content well is a response to spammers gaming subject-focused popularity algos several years ago and I'm guessing the pendulum will continue to swing.

As a generally white-hat marketer, how does this information benefit you?

It provides strategy. It tells you that in the current SEO world, you've got two choices - become an authority domain with the power to rank for a multitude of searches OR play the parasite hosting game legitimately and buy/rent space on domains to help you accomplish you ranking goals. We've been dipping our toes in both sides of this equation for a while and my personal strong preference is to build an authority yourself and owe your success to no one. However, we've bought "full-page" style ads on sites for clients before and probably will in the future - it's not a tactic to rule out.

Personally, search spam fascinates me and I have a feeling that if I knew a lot more about it, I'd be an even better white hat.

BTW - As I was doing some searches to try and find more good examples, I came across this search - mesothelioma attorney new york - which I remembered used to have tons of good spam. At first I thought the first result was just doing a great job, but when I ran a link search and looked deeper, I saw a phenomenal system of link farms, playing like it's 2003 (NOTE: I'm not accusing them of neccessarily buying those links, as they could be from a competitor trying to make them take a hit). Also, you gotta love this. Classic.

p.s. Matt & Vanessa & Aaron & Greg (actually, Greg's probably reading more Polish blogs these days) - Avert your eyes! I don't want to get any of these guys in trouble just because they happened to be ranking well when I was doing searches :)