What is a Google Slap?

But what exactly is a Google slap? Well, this isn't a simple answer, because there are two completely different things for which the term has been appropriated.

1. The Adwords Google Slap - This is the original and most popular use of the term. Google's advertising program is called "Adwords." You can pay to have ads run with search results based on the keywords that were searched for. A common tactic of affiliate marketers is to put up a very thin website(usually about 1-5 pages of content) with glowing reviews of a certain product. These pages are full of affiliate links. Then, the affiliate marketer will send traffic to the page using Adwords and make commissions for the sales. Google hates this kind of thin, no-content site so they implemented an algorithm that can detect these affiliate sites. When one is detected, Google gives it the Adwords Google Slap. To run Adwords ads for this site, you will now have to pay double or triple the price your competitors pay, and you will never get the best ad positions.

2. The PageRank Google Slap - Google uses several methods to determine how important the information on a site is, and how relevant it is to a topic. One of the primary ways it determines importance is something called PageRank. PageRank is determined by how many other websites link to yours, and how important the sites are. PageRank is on a scale of zero to ten, with a one PageRank site(very common) being a standard personal blog with a few backlinks, and a ten (very rare) being a major media outlet or a government site. When Google determines that a site has achieved its high PageRank by using shady tactics, or for other various reasons the PageRank is artificially higher than it should be, it may give that site the PageRank slap. Google will manually adjust the PageRank down on that site so that it shows up much lower in the search results.