Astroturfing and SEO - Creating the Right Impression

In 1993, the National Smokers Alliance (NSA) was set-up by PR company Burson-Marsteller operating on behalf of tobacco company Philip Morris, with the aim of presenting a grassroots movement aimed at the debilitation of new anti-smoking legislation in the USA.  The organisation employed various guerrilla marketing techniques in their attempt to influence legislation whilst disguising an underlying commercial agenda.

This campaign is an early example of astroturfing in the political sphere. More recently, the Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin, was accused of financing a network of online activists whose goal was to promote the politics of the Russian president, and create an illusion of widespread support. 

The term astroturfing denotes any attempt to create an impression of widespread support, or lack thereof, on behalf of a political or commercial entity for political or commercial gain.  

In both areas, political and commercial, the application and intent of the technique is almost identical; posing as a person, or group of people, with the intent to promote or demote a particular person, product, service, or idea.  For our purposes, we will be focusing on the practice of astroturfing in an SEO environment; how it's applied, to what end, and why it can ultimately damage your site.  

Astroturfing and SEO

The most common form of SEO astroturfing exists on social media sites, forums and discussion boards. Such channels are great platforms for deception, and offer an easy way to engage with potential customers under a seemingly non-biased pseudonym. Creating fake profiles and posting under that identity can be a tempting way to curry favour or dissuade consumers, depending upon your ultimate goal.  

(Incidentally, the growing trend towards transparency online continued recently with Facebook's introduction of verified accounts for those users with a high number of subscribers.  The feature is designed to tackle the widespread problem of imposter profiles.)

Alternatively, creating a site solely for the purposes of generating value (whether from backlinks or fake user reviews) is a classic attempt at cheating the system.  

One example of the method was exposed a couple of years ago in a TechCrunch article on Apple's relationship with PR company, Reverb. The latter were found to be employing “a small team of interns who are focused on managing online communities, writing influential game reviews, and keeping a gauge on the online communities.”  Reverb had been busy posting fake iTunes reviews for a variety of apps, providing “positive reviews- not over the top – but endorsing the game as a good product.”

Does it Work?

Of course it works; if a tactic is an unethical, then it usually does, but only for a little while. The question is, does it work better than other, more ethical techniques?  While creating low value links from forum boards under a fake name may generate some decent backlinks to your site, creating a technically sound, authoritative site will cultivate far greater interest, link potential, and consumer trust.

There is only so much time and effort to be dedicated to any SEO campaign. Wouldn't resources be better spent on fresh, well optimised content, focused keyphrase usage, considered interaction with relevant industry sites, and transparent communications with consumers? 

Search Engine Optimisation is too often mistaken for spam and underhand techniques – take Google employee, Jon Rockway's recent comments for example:

“Instead of being able to SEO the entire Internet, businesses can now only affect the search results for a tiny percentage of users. That's a good thing because SEO can't scale, and SEO isn't good for users or the Internet at large.

“If you look at the Google experience from the standpoint of customers, it's pretty good. Users get relevant search results and ads. Advertisers get their content on top of everything else. It's a good compromise between advertising and usability, and it works really well. It's a bug that you could rank highly in Google without buying ads, and Google is trying to fix the bug.

“Manipulating Google results shouldn't be something you feel entitled to be able to do. If you want to rank highly in Google, be relevant for the user currently searching. Engage him in social media or email, provide relevant information about what you're selling, and, generally, be a "good match" for what the user wants.”

Many would argue that what Rockway advocates – providing relevant information and being a “good match” - is what SEO is all about.  SEO is not manipulative, not in a malicious sense.  SEO is an assurance that websites follow the guidelines published by search engines themselves, and then some.  Take a read through our SEO guides to get an understanding of our approach to SEO.