Abstract

Link spam is used to increase the ranking of certain target web pages by misleading the connectivity-based ranking algorithms in search engines. In this paper we study how web pages can be interconnected in a spam farm in order to optimize rankings. We also study alliances, that is, interconnections of spam farms. Our results identify the optimal structures and quantify the potential gains. In particular, we show that alliances can be synergistic and improve the rankings of all participants. We believe that the insights we gain will be useful in identifying and combating link spam. 1

Citations