Earlier this week, a story titled “13 Year Old Steals Dad’s Credit Card to Buy Hookers” gained national attention.  People poured towards a certain site, but as it turned out, the story wasn’t true, and was instead serving as extremely effective linkbait.  Google doesn’t seem to like this idea.

In a Sphinn thread, the company’s own Matt Cutts wrote, “My quick take is that Google’s webmaster guidelines allow for cases such as this: ‘Google may respond negatively to other misleading practices not listed here (e.g. tricking users by registering misspellings of well-known websites).  It’s not safe to assume that just because a specific deceptive technique isn’t included on this page, Google approves of it.’”

Cutts then continued, “There’s not much more deceptive or misleading than a fake story without any disclosure that the story is hoax.”

So, although an official ruling has yet to occur, it looks like fake stories are a way to hurt, rather than help, a site.  This seemed worth mentioning after such a high-profile case, even if it’s unlikely that any of you were going to make something up.  If you’re going in another direction - think The Onion rather than outright trickery - at least be clear from the beginning.

One last note: certain law enforcement officials might recommend that, even if you’re truthful about it, you also steer clear from actually giving 13-year-olds credit cards and hookers.

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