The topic for discussion today is about what not to do when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO). I was going to name this article The Dos & Donts of SEO, but I figure at this point you know what to do. Ive dedicated many articles that are focused on what to DO. Just check my articles SEO Basics for the Dummy or Dominate the Search Engines or The Art of Keywords to understand what to do. Or just read this article and DO the opposite of what not to do.
The things that I will talk about in this article are about what is called in SEO black hat SEO. Whats been talked in previous articles are what we call white hat To learn more on white hat strategies, refer to any of the articles above. From this point on, itll be about black hat strategies.
Black Hat
Whats this mysterious black hat SEO strategies Is it the latest fashion trend No its not a fashion trend at all. Should I do it Does it work with the SEs or is it just a waste of time The answer to these questions depend upon who you are talking to. Many employ these strategies and continue to do so today.
My answer to these questions is yes they do work. However, in my opinion, Black Hat strategies are quick fixes with short term gains. I see it as continuing to work hard and not necessarily smart. I am lazy, so I want to do something once and let it go from there. Black Hat strategies do not allow this. Your site may get the rankings quick, but soon your site will be at the back of the line. (or out of the line completely). Black Hat involves spamming and the SEs do not like this. They will find your site, penalize or ban it completely from the index.
Then your off again starting a whole new site employing the same strategies. White Hat strategies start off really slow. And I mean ssllllooooowwww... But eventually get momentum and out last the rest. The reason it is so slow is your at the mercy of the search engines. Ever heard of the infamous Google Sandbox Well experts say it could take any new site 6-12 months to get out of it! You kidding me I have to wait a year to see results in Google Who has that kind of time You Definitely not me. Im lazy but not that lazy. I have bills to pay today, not next year. This is why many webmasters go with black hat instead of white hat.
Even with this flaw, white hat will pay off big in the long hall. It will flow continuous money into your mailbox while others are jumping around trying to get new sites started to keep their black hat strategies going.
What Not To Do
Ok, ok, you have me convinced. I do not want to go with the black hat strategies. But what would be considered black hat How can I avoid it Just hold on a second. Im getting there. Didnt I tell you I was lazy. The rest of the article is focused on the things not to do. By the time I am done, you will know what not to do to your website to not get it banned. There are 2 ways of spamming. On-page and off-page. Sounds familiar Same factors to help you rank well are the same that can get you penalized or banned. Lets start with our own backyard. Your thinkingYea, yea I know As momma always told you. Yep. See your getting it!
On-page
Keyword Stuffing
First up to bat, keyword stuffing. What is that, you may ask. Almost sounds like some food. Making me hungry just thinking about it. Ill take some chicken with a side of chicken stuffing, mash potatoes and keyword stuffing please.
Anyway, in my opinion, there are 2 forms of keyword stuffing. I call them keyword list stuffing and keyword body stuffing. They will not get your site banned, but it wont rank you well either. Lets get into the first one, keyword list stuffing.
Keyword List
This involves adding every word known to your niche in the meta keywords. You see a website with meta keywords and it is stuffed full with 1000 or so keywords. Look like they got the dictionary and started writing. Seriously. As funny as it sounds, there are websites out there that do this. People, this not going to get you ranked. It will not get you banned, but definitely will not get your ranked on the first million pages!! Some SEs do not even read the list to begin with. Keep it short. No need to add the A-F section of the dictionary to your keyword list.
Keyword Body
This is the process of taking your keyword list (Probably too big to begin with) and repeating it all over the page. It makes no sense to the user, just a bunch of words all over the place. I havent seen this much, and I hope I do not. Will not help you in anyway.
Also, while we are on the subject, over using the keywords is a no, no. Some websites will take their main keyword and repeat over and over and over. Youll see it in the Title, meta description, everywhere. This strategy will get you banned or penalized. Again, its an attempt to appear more relevant than the website really is. I have seen the tactic work, but not for long. If your ranked well, and you put in your main keyword and you suddenly see a site up that has no business being there. Check back again in a few days and youll see that site gone.
The Invisible KeyWord
Sounds like a Super Hero. When there is trouble with ranking your website, call The Invisible KeyWord No, please do not! He is a enemy, not a hero. This is involves taking your keywords, put them on the body of your website and make the color of the font the same color as the background of the website. Its invisible to you or I, but visible to SEs. Its a process of spam to make the website appear more relevant because it has the keywords in the body. SEs have caught onto this tactic and you will be penalized or banned for this. I have seen this tactic done. But I have the visible ink. One way to tell, is when you visit a website and you see a big blank space at the bottom or somewhere towards the bottom, take your mouse, point and try to highlight the space. When it highlights, it will reveal the words!!
Formatting Keywords
This is when you bold, italicize, or underline every keyword on the website. There is no need to emphasize every word. Now you know those words are not that important in every sentence. Come on now! Just once is fine. Twice at the most. This tactic could end up backfiring. The SEs will give less importance to the words.
Excessive Link Pages
This is having too many links on one page. Normally, its 100 or more thats a problem. Experts have difference numbers that they believe will hurt. I believe 100 is most agreed upon that will hurt your SE rankings. A rule of thumb I try to do is stay with around 15-25 links on one page. Anything more than that can create clutter on your website. It will make it difficult for your surfers. Besides that, it does not help the websites you are linking to. If a surfer cannot find their site because its buried on a page with over 100 links, do not expect any traffic.
Missing Title
I just had to put this in there. This wont get you penalized or banned, but since this article is about what not to do, I had to talk about this. This is so common among websites. You would be surprised at how many websites do not have a Title at all. Makes you want to put a ad up on the back of a milk box. Has anyone seen this Title or a Wanted sign in the Post office Wanted Website Title $1000 reward if found.
This is so big. This is one of the top reasons why websites do not rank period. Just this one change alone could move a website from the 100millionth page to the millionth page. What is your site about Why should I click on it
Off-page
I really shouldnt call this off-page. Technically its really not, but I wanted to make a clear difference here. The difference between on-page and off-page is on-page is the way you set your site up. Off-page involves more of the linking side. You cannot really help who links to you and SEs know this. Thats why I am not talking about that kind of off-page. Youll see more of what I mean as you read along.
Link Farms
Link Farms What is this Is this where links are raised before sent out to the internet Not quite. Link farms are a bunch of webmasters getting together to setup 1000s of sites and pointing the links towards each other. There are a few ways of accomplishing this. When you do your link campaign, stick with hard reciprocal linking. Many are not aware, but there are link director sites like PowerLinks or Linkvault that brag about helping your build links fast. These are essentially link farms. Avoid them like the plague. How do you know The red flag is usually when you have to add some kind of script to your website in order to do a link exchange. Dont do it. Again, short term success, but short term gains.
Banned / Penalized Sites
Again, you cannot control who links to you, but you have full control over who you link to. Avoid linking to other penalized or banned sites. This can eventually affect you. Why Remember, a link pointing to a site is a vote. So your voting for this banned or penalized site that the SEs have stated is bad news. If your voting for them, then that must mean your site is also bad news. Ever heard of the saying, Birds of a feather, flock together I have. Its another one of the sayings that didnt make sense to me until later on in life.
How do I know if I am linking to someone that is banned The easiest way to do this is by checking the pagerank of the site you are linking to. You can download the Google Toolbar to do this. If you see a grey bar for the pagerank. Its been banned. Now, do not confuse a 0 PR with a penalized site. Having a PR of 0 does not mean the site has been penalized. Itll be greyd out if it is penalized.
Thats all for now folks. Im sure there will be other tactics that will arise as SEs catch them. Malicious webmasters will continue to look for quick, easy ways to beat the SEs. The SEs will catch it, update their alogorithms and the cycle will continue. Its a endless cycle as to why I say white hat eventually will out last the black hat and flow continuous surfers to your site producing tons of money. White hat strategies will hold up through all the changes to the SEs. The choice is always yours. Whatever works for you. Good luck and happy optimizing.
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One of the reasons I love helping my clients with their online strategy is that I believe there is no more effective and powerful way to provide value to our clients and prospects. As service professionals, demonstrating our value is essential to building relationships and establishing credibility.
But who defines value Do you really know the challenges your clients want help with How much are you presuming about your prospects needs and wants
In this article, Im going to discuss some great ways to get into the mind of your prospect. The internet is the fastest place to try out new ideas, and the best way to know what the market needs is to ask them directly.
GOOGLE ADWORDS
What makes the Google search engine different is that it was developed with very strict requirements regarding relevant content. Prior to Google, a website could place popular keywords all over its home page (keyword-loading) and get traffic. Google set a new standard.
Googles pay per click system, or AdWords, maintained that standard for relevancy. The popularity of your ad is based on how many people click on it. Very simple. Google provides great statistics to help you determine whats working in your ad, and what turned out to be a dismal failure.
But unlike any other advertising system, Google can immediately provide these results to you, so in a matter of hours, you can determine if a given ad is working. Pay per click gives you immediate access to targeted customers.
So how can you use Google to find out what your prospects want
A typical Google ad is four lines longits very short. The first line is your headline and the last line is usually your link or URL. Below is a successful model that can be used for a service or a product youre selling.
Use your headline to present a challenge you believe your typical prospect faces.
Use the second line to list a clear benefit.
Use the third line to describe the features, or the specifics of what they get.
As an example:
Does your puppy still bark too much
Stop annoying the neighbors!
Free 3-step report emailed to you.
www.BarkNoMore.com
Because youll see results quickly, you can determine which ads resonate with your audience. For example, if youre thinking about offering an ebook on puppy training, you can use AdWords to assess if theres a market for such an ebook. Offer a free report, and note the response rate. The more people sign up for your free report, the more likely your ebook will be popular. Using the same giveaway, experiment with different ads. Change the wording of headlines, benefits, and features, until youve written an ad that works. Ads that work speak to their audience.
As another example, lets say youre considering offering a coaching program on interior design for small spaces. You could design one ad that offered a complimentary teleclass, and another ad, similarly worded, that offered a free report. Figure out if there is a significant difference in response rates. Who is more likely to eventually sign up for coaching
Google AdWords allows for endless experimentation. By setting realistic daily budgets, you can minimize losses while getting a solid handle on effective short ad copy. Also, youll be able to learn what your audience wants without spending thousands of dollars on market research.
NEXT STEP
Set up a Google campaign.Buy 2-3 keywords, and set a reasonable daily budget.Write two 4-line ads for each keyword. Why two ads So you can split-test them against each other, and see what works and what doesnt.Your ads will start being shown within a few hours, so monitor your results throughout the next two days.
Im suggesting you write up to six ads here. It may seem like a lot, but using a formula makes it fairly easy to generate ideas. Google doesnt charge for the number of ads you write for a campaign, which makes AdWords a perfect vehicle for testing ads and keywords against each other.
If youre ready to develop a profitable website, and tired of wasting time, money, and energy on strategies that just dont work, download your free Website Success Checklist at