7 Ways to Get on Google’s Bad Side
Author: Jamie | Filed under: Search Engine Optimisation
SEO depends on Google as much as it’s opposed to it. For every new SEO technique, there is an eventual algorithm update to stamp it out. As such, many of the tricks that used to work in the early days are now at best ineffective, and at worst will get you penalised.
Artificial link profiling
High numbers of keyword rich links lead to higher rankings (e.g. you might rank highly for ‘light bulbs’ if a thousand sites link to yours with the phrase ‘light bulbs’) but overdo the same keyword and you’ll catch Google’s attention.
Link farms
Penalisation is yours for either running or using them. If your site is content-light and link-heavy, don’t expect to get anywhere soon. If you have a lot of links from link farms, expect the same.
Nofollow links
The opposite of having too many outbound links. Of course you’re not obligated to link to other sites, but recent Google announcements have implied that overly-judicious use of the “rel=nofollow” attribute (formerly good SEO practice) is frowned upon.
Large link packages
The 1000 links for $10 sorts of packages you find on disreputable SEO forums. You might get a short term boost, but chances are those links are on unrelated, link-heavy sites that are all connected (and therefore discoverable algorithmically).
Google will flag you for accumulating lots of links very fast, probably from link farms, and possibly with the same anchor text. Generally a bad idea then.
Duplicate content
Either duplicates of your own content (i.e. two pages the same) or copying other people’s content. After the recent Panda update, Google is particularly hot on ‘content scraping’ sites that re-write other people’s content for their own.
Keyword stuffing
High instances of keywords used to guarantee you a top spot in the SERPs. Ensuring a decent keyword count is still important, but hidden lists at the bottom of the page are not the way to do it. If you feel like you’re overdoing it, you are.
Non-HTML site elements
Too many sites have text as images (particularly if built in Flash) and Javascript navigation menus. Google can’t read this text or follow these links, so they’re not helping you.
All SEO is about ‘gaming the system’ to a certain extent, but if it feels like cheating, just think how Google would view it.
Image Credit: barto
Hello there. I think the BIGGEST sins here are keyword stuffing. And it just looks bad in a blog and it’s design. Duplicate content is a no-no – self explanatory… And then link farms is a place to stay away from. I’ve tried to build my first blog like that and struggled for MONTHS. However, I’m a customer of Blogengage and it builds high quality links into a blog social network whee your content gets exposure too. Double whammy!
Ivin recently posted..How To Approach Different Cultures Via Social Media
I agree with Ivin. We are also customers of Blogengage and we have a business membership that we will soon offer to our clients. I’m talking up to six links for every blog post posted!
However, these should be called the 7 deadly sins of online marketing.
Patricia recently posted..Is Social Proof Really Any Proof At All?
@Ivin – thanks for your comments, I’ve used BlogEngage a little bit to help spread the word about my blog posts but will need to take another look.
@Patricia – Six links per blog posted sounds good but I would question the value of links 2-5. I was reading a well-researched article recently which was basically saying the first link on a page is the most important by far and any value given by Google to subsequent links is negligible. I’d be interested to hear how it works for you though – thanks for commenting.