There has been some chatter online about a bunch of hidden text discovered on Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison's website StandbyKay.com, which promotes her bid for Goverrnor of Texas.
The Austin American Statesman newspaper broke the story and is reporting that a vendor put the phrases there. Supposedly there is a program that puts the phrases in on an hourly basis, all of which revolve around 3 phrases; “Rick Perry,” “Kay Bailey Hutchison” and “Texas.” The are apparently 2,200 phrases (My Word count says 6,591 words)
I noticed a bunch of Texas counties listed in the background code and the names of state and national politicians. There appear to be references to Republican events, both past and present, and issues important to both of the major political parties.
There were phrases containing the words "Rick Perry gay," "texas grape growers" and "african americans in texas."
With all the references to Mrs. Hutchison alone, I would think the site would get banned or penalized for keyword stuffing. But the use of non-visible keywords may be problematic too.
So, is it dirty campaign tricks or stupid search engine optimization?
We'll need a referee for this one, I think.
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