Avoiding The Site Blockers
 by: Serge Daudelin

It probably comes as no surprise that I consider that most, if not all, site blocking providers are somewhere around Pond Scum on the evolutionary scale. But they are an evil that must be accommodated in our e-marketing plans. Because they do such a bad job of delivering their products, we must pay even more attention to them than if they actually provided a usable service.

A recent article featuring Congressman Dick Armey's problem with having his site blocked because of his first name pointed out what many of you wrote me to explain that it was a purely random example of a system that can't be perfect.

I understand "not perfect" which doesn't apply here. The lack of quality in the blocking world is so severe that anyone with any content on a site runs the tangible risk of being blocked. Take a look at your site. Try to think like a blocking spider might "think" and see what it sees. Statements like "for our adult visitors" will surely flip a spider's switch. Never use the word "adult."

Do you operate a model's agency and have "pictures of our most recent young girls available for assignments?" Goodbye traffic.

Have you written an article about the dangers we face on the Net by allowing anyone to find instructions on building bombs? Someone surely has banned you or soon will.

Don't be confused by the rising "intelligence" of the spiders developed by the search engines. They become smarter every day because they must if they are to stay ahead of the competitor's spiders.

Not so among the blocking community. They have a partner with a huge influence to help them avoid the difficult task of developing a quality product. Their partner? The government. Government in the U.S. only cares that they have passed a law, not about the effectiveness of that law.

So take a careful look at your site. Look for anything that could make a low-intelligence spider think that your site is dangerous to kids. You might think that the examples above are just examples to help me illustrate my point. Actually they are all real.

One thing you can do is to turn words that might cause problems into graphics. Just don't name them using the words you are trying to avoid. Or find other words to convey the same information. This won't help you with the search engine spiders that might send you traffic from casting agents looking for fresh faces for their next commercial.

Next you will want to ask me how to find out if your site is blocked. Sorry. I haven't a clue. The blocking producers have convinced the lawmakers that revealing that information will place our children in danger. In reality they don't want people seeing just how stupid their spiders are.

I hope this helps in your future marketing decisions.