# Google bombing

Category: [Link Building & Off-Page](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/category/link-building-off-page/) › [Link spam & risks](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/category/link-building-off-page/link-spam-risks/) · Historical

**Google bombing** (also Googlebomb) was an attempt to push a page up for a search term by pointing many links with identical anchor text at it, often as a prank or political protest. It is a historical term. The technique stopped working in its original form after changes Google announced in 2007.

## How did it work?

Search engines read the anchor text of a link as a hint about the target page. When many sites linked to one page with the same text, the page could rank for that term even if the term never appeared on it.

## What changed?

In January 2007 Google's Webmaster Central Blog said the effect of many Googlebombs had been reduced through an algorithmic change. Links built to steer rankings are link spam under Google's spam policies today.

## Example

According to Google's blog post of September 16, 2005, the best-known case is the query "miserable failure", for which the White House's official biography of President Bush ranked first.

## Related terms

- [Anchor text](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/anchor-text/index.md)
- [PageRank](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/pagerank/index.md)
- [Link spam](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/link-spam/index.md)
- [Black hat SEO](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/black-hat-seo/index.md)
- [Link profile](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/link-profile/index.md)

## Sources

- [A quick word about Googlebombs – Google Webmaster Central Blog (Jan 26, 2007)](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2007/01/quick-word-about-googlebombs)
- [Google bombing – Wikipedia (secondary)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_bombing)

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Last updated: October 7, 2026
URL: https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-bombing/