Websites use search engine optimization (SEO) strategies to rank higher in search engine results. Just like any business, there are dos and don’ts in conducting SEO for your website. Additionally, Google lists the four most negative factors that could greatly affect SEO tactics in your business. These are the major SEO don’ts that could go against your SEO work which, consequently, you need to avoid.
1. Stay away from duplicate contents or duplicate sites. Using the same contents on different sites will not increase SEO ranking on search engines; rather this is a tactic SEO practitioners should avoid because it will not fool top search engines. Should you need to use similar contents, try making each site at least 30% unique with appropriate keywords for effective search engine optimization.
2. Cloaking is a black hat technique SEO practitioners should stay away from. Black hat SEO techniques are unethical practices that actually work for a while – until the sites that use these SEO tactics get banned for doing so. Google lists cloaking as the top negative ranking factor today. Cloaking with malicious intent is achieved by cloaking your website for search engine robots to find a different site than what appears to the user. This can be done by infusing invisible keywords or hidden links that have the same color as the background.
3. If you can, do not buy links because Google doesn’t like them. Buying links from brokers and other websites will affect SEO rankings, especially, if Google finds out about them. About 56% of the poll results clearly voted this as the second most negative ranking factor for SEO.
4. Avoid external links that lead to spam sites. Search engines such as Google will assume that creating outbound links to bad neighborhoods is done by the webmaster, as opposed to spam sites linking to your website. Examples of bad neighborhoods are adult sites, gambling sites, and any other website that uses black hat SEO techniques. A poll conducted by top SEO experts revealed 51% of respondents found this to be the third highest negative ranking factor.
5. Keyword stuffing is never a good idea. Bombarding readers with keywords on your webpages should be avoided at all costs, especially, if using the same set of keywords. A very high rate of keyword density can result in your website being penalized. While SEO is efficiently done with keyword optimization, it doesn’t necessarily mean stuffing your webpage with an unnecessary amount of keywords. Google now employs synonyms so avoiding keyword stuffing can be easily achieved by simply writing for visitors on a targeted subject.
6. Finally, manage server downtime and site accessibility to ensure that these don’t happen frequently. Google will start paying close attention to websites that crash often and are always experiencing downtime. Naturally, users will prefer sites that they can visit anytime and avoid those that are always down. Finding a host that can provide you 99.9% uptime is not difficult. This also ranks as Google’s fourth most negative ranking factor as stated by 51% of the results on SEO practitioners.
The best way for SEO to work effectively is by creating valuable articles and quality content. Additionally, quality and not quantity should be the focus when doing backlinks. Practice white hat SEO techniques to build professionalism and credibility to your readers.