7.3.2 Deceptive Page Design

Some pages are designed to manipulate users into clicking on certain types of links through visual design elements, such as page layout, organization, link placement, font color, images, etc. We will consider these kinds of pages to have deceptive page design. Use the Lowest rating if the page is deliberately designed to manipulate users to click on Ads, monetized links, or suspect download links with little or no effort to provide helpful MC.

Pages may use a variety of “tricks” or deceptive page design techniques. Here are two common types of pages with deceptive page design:

• A fake search page is a page with a list of links that looks like a page of search results. If you click on a few of the links, you will see that the page is just a collection of Ads disguised as search engine results. A “search box” is present on the page, but if you submit a new query in the search box, you just get a different page of Ads disguised as search results. “Fake search” pages are examples of deceptive page design.

• A fake directory page looks like a personally curated set of helpful links, possibly with unique descriptions. In reality, the links are Ads or links to other similar pages on the site. Fake directory pages are examples of deceptive page design.

There are other examples of deceptive page design. For example, some pages are deliberately designed to have a large amount of Ads at the top so that the MC is not visible unless a user scrolls a lot to see the content at the very bottom of the page. In other words, some users may not even realize the MC is on the page. Another example of deceptive page design is to make Ads look like navigation links or SC links, or even part of the MC.

Take a good look at the page and use your judgment. If you believe the page was deliberately created to manipulate users to click on Ads, monetized links, or suspect download links through deceptive page design, the page should be rated Lowest.

7.3.3 Sneaky Redirects

Redirecting is the act of sending a user to a different URL than the one initially requested. There are many good reasons to redirect from one URL to another, for example, when a website moves to a new address.

However, some redirects are designed to deceive search engines and users. These are a very poor user experience, and users may feel tricked or confused. We will call these “sneaky redirects.”

Sneaky redirects are deceptive and should be rated Lowest.

Proprietary and Confidential – Copyright 2015

42

How to recognize sneaky redirects:

• While being redirected, you notice that the page redirects through several URLs before ending up on the landing page.

• You notice that clicking the same URL several times takes you to different landing pages on a rotating set of domains.

• You notice that you are redirected to well-known merchant websites, such as Amazon, eBay, Zappos, etc. to complete a transaction.

• The URL of the landing page is different than the URL in the rating task. You should compare the two URLs to see if it makes sense that one would redirect to the other. A redirect from a company’s old homepage to its new homepage on a different domain is not sneaky. Redirects from one page on one website to another page on the same website are also not sneaky. However, unexpected redirects from one website to a completely unrelated website should be considered deceptive.