Search + seizure: The effectiveness of interventions on SEO campaigns

David Y. Wang; Matthew Der; Mohammad Karami; Lawrence Saul; Damon McCoy; Stefan Savage; Geoffrey M. Voelker

doi:10.1145/2663716.2663738

Search + seizure: The effectiveness of interventions on SEO campaigns

David Y. Wang, Matthew Der, Mohammad Karami, Lawrence Saul, Damon McCoy, Stefan Savage, Geoffrey M. Voelker

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Abstract

Black hat search engine optimization (SEO), the practice of abusively manipulating search results, is an enticing method to acquire targeted user traffic. In turn, a range of interventions-from modifying search results to seizing domains-are used to combat this activity. In this paper, we examine the effectiveness of these interventions in the context of an understudied market niche, counterfeit luxury goods. Using eight months of empirical crawled data, we identify 52 distinct SEO campaigns, document how well they are able to place search results for sixteen luxury brands, how this capability impacts the dynamics of their order volumes and how well existing interventions undermine this business when employed.

Original language	English (US)
Title of host publication	IMC 2014 - Proceedings of the 2014 ACM
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
Pages	359-372
Number of pages	14
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450332132
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/2663716.2663738
State	Published - Nov 5 2014
Event	2014 ACM Internet Measurement Conference, IMC 2014 - Vancouver, Canada Duration: Nov 5 2014 → Nov 7 2014

Publication series

Name	Proceedings of the ACM SIGCOMM Internet Measurement Conference, IMC

Other

Other	2014 ACM Internet Measurement Conference, IMC 2014
Country/Territory	Canada
City	Vancouver
Period	11/5/14 → 11/7/14

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Software
Computer Networks and Communications

Access to Document

10.1145/2663716.2663738

Cite this

Search + seizure: The effectiveness of interventions on SEO campaigns. / Wang, David Y.; Der, Matthew; Karami, Mohammad et al.
IMC 2014 - Proceedings of the 2014 ACM. Association for Computing Machinery, 2014. p. 359-372 (Proceedings of the ACM SIGCOMM Internet Measurement Conference, IMC).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Wang, DY, Der, M, Karami, M, Saul, L, McCoy, D, Savage, S & Voelker, GM 2014, Search + seizure: The effectiveness of interventions on SEO campaigns. in IMC 2014 - Proceedings of the 2014 ACM. Proceedings of the ACM SIGCOMM Internet Measurement Conference, IMC, Association for Computing Machinery, pp. 359-372, 2014 ACM Internet Measurement Conference, IMC 2014, Vancouver, Canada, 11/5/14. https://doi.org/10.1145/2663716.2663738

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title = "Search + seizure: The effectiveness of interventions on SEO campaigns",

abstract = "Black hat search engine optimization (SEO), the practice of abusively manipulating search results, is an enticing method to acquire targeted user traffic. In turn, a range of interventions-from modifying search results to seizing domains-are used to combat this activity. In this paper, we examine the effectiveness of these interventions in the context of an understudied market niche, counterfeit luxury goods. Using eight months of empirical crawled data, we identify 52 distinct SEO campaigns, document how well they are able to place search results for sixteen luxury brands, how this capability impacts the dynamics of their order volumes and how well existing interventions undermine this business when employed.",

author = "Wang, {David Y.} and Matthew Der and Mohammad Karami and Lawrence Saul and Damon McCoy and Stefan Savage and Voelker, {Geoffrey M.}",

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AB - Black hat search engine optimization (SEO), the practice of abusively manipulating search results, is an enticing method to acquire targeted user traffic. In turn, a range of interventions-from modifying search results to seizing domains-are used to combat this activity. In this paper, we examine the effectiveness of these interventions in the context of an understudied market niche, counterfeit luxury goods. Using eight months of empirical crawled data, we identify 52 distinct SEO campaigns, document how well they are able to place search results for sixteen luxury brands, how this capability impacts the dynamics of their order volumes and how well existing interventions undermine this business when employed.

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Search + seizure: The effectiveness of interventions on SEO campaigns

Abstract

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ASJC Scopus subject areas

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