What Search Engines Don't Like
Don't do these!
It is extremely important to know what search engines don't want.
Otherwise, your perfectly optimized site may not be indexed, and could even
be banned from their search listing. Therefore, it is crucial that you
should also learn which search engine optimization tactics to avoid.
Spam - search engines' worst enemy
Search engines hate tactics intended to fool them into awarding high
rankings to irrelevant pages. These tactics are called "spam." Search
engines strive to provide the most relevant results to their users, but spam
clutters their indices with irrelevant information.
Some webmasters create spam after they learn which criteria search
engines use to rank pages. For example, when search engines give higher
scores to pages filled with keywords. Webmasters would come up with ways to
add more keywords without making it too obvious to human visitors. They use
invisible or hidden text (by setting the text color to the same color as the
page background, so the text is not visible by a human). Previously, robots
that indexed invisible keywords ranked those sites higher for keyword
frequency and weight.
Search engines are a lot smarter now and they have defined this technique
as spam. Currently, sites that use invisible text are banned from most of
the major search engines.
In addition to the above technique, the following techniques are usually
considered spam:
- Meta refresh tags (redirecting to another page)
- Invisible text and overuse of tiny text
- Irrelevant keywords in the title and meta tags
- Excessive repetition of keywords
- Overuse of mirror sites (multiple domain names pointing to same site)
- Identical or nearly identical pages
- Submitting to an inappropriate category (for directories)
- Link farms (pages that contain hundreds of links and duplicated on
many sites)
Some SEO companies will use "tricky" methods in their attempt to get your
site listed and ranked on the search engines. These companies usually resort
to questionable tactics because they don't have the same skill level as real
professionals. While some of these techniques may produce temporary results,
it is a matter of time the search engines will find out.
But what's wrong with "tricking" the search engines to get top rankings?
At first, it may seem like a good idea. Especially when you consider how
tough it is to achieve and maintain a top ranking. But beware. The search
engines are always on the lookout for cheaters. And if they think you're
using unacceptable techniques, your website will be banned from their search
listing for a while, and some times, forever!
However, this is not the worst. It's only the beginning.
Some SEO companies will try to claim ownership of traffic that's
rightfully yours. Here's how it works. They tell you that you need
additional "promotional domain names" or web pages - new websites that are
built strictly for search engine placement. And they might even pay for
these domains out of their own pocket. Why? Because the minute you stop
working with them, they keep these websites that had built up numerous top
rankings and attracting high number of visitors. And they just redirect them
to another client who is willing to pay for their service. And you walk away
with nothing.
In a nutshell, they get you to fund the development of a new stream of
targeted traffic. And if you ever decided to leave, they can turn around and
sell it to one of your competitors (and cut you out of the profits).
This is the reason why you should always insist that your SEO service
provider let you keep all the work they produce for you, including any
additional pages that they created. You paid for the service and you have
the right to own them.
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