There are two types of search engine optimization approaches when dealing with website promotion. One is the squeaky-clean White Hat approach, and the other is the diabolical Black Hat approach. Think of it as good versus evil, just like in old western movies when the good guys wore white and, well, the evil guys wore black. In westerns there is one thing you can be certain of – good always prevails over evil, just like White Hat SEO will always prevail over Black Hat SEO.
There are several Black Hat SEO techniques to look out for that will get you penalized or even banned in Google, creating the complete opposite outcome from which you had anticipated. The following are perfect examples of plain ‘ol bad SEO practices:
- Keyword Stuffing – When keywords in content are glaringly obvious to the visitor, you can guarantee you have a keyword stuffing problem. Placing keywords sparingly throughout content will always be the best approach to properly optimizing website content. Website copy should never appear spammy, meaning it should never have the same phrase appear again and again to the point where the content reads awkwardly. The measurement for keyword density on a page should fall around 4 percent. So, stuffing as many keywords in as possible is never a good idea.
- Hidden Text – This refers to text that is viewable by search engines but not actual visitors. Examples of hidden text include text color matching the background and text that is too small for human eyes to read. Search engines now have built-in algorithms to detect hidden text and once your secret has been discovered, expect penalization to follow.
- Cloaking – When a website presents one version of a page to the search engines and a completely different one to visitors, it is referred to as cloaking. A cloaked page shown to the engines will contain numerous keywords that the site wants to be ranked for. This is accomplished by using a program that tells you the IP address of the user. If it is a search engine spider, the cloaked version will appear; if it is a human visitor, the more user-friendly content will appear.
- Duplicate Content – It is never okay to have the same content repeated throughout your site or appear on any other websites. You lose credibility with the search engines. Even if you wrote the content and another site stole your work, it is best to change what you have on your site to guarantee your website and its content is deemed trustworthy by the engines.
- Link Farms – When a group of websites interlink for the sheer purpose of gaining link popularity in the search engines, the practice is referred to as a link farm. This approach to link building is actually a poor choice. Instead you should seek out unique sites with relevancy.
Web.com Search Agency is familiar with all of the Black Hat SEO tricks and has the knowledge required to take your bad SEO website and transform it into one of the good guys. Our advice for avoiding Black Hat SEO practices is to simply keep it honest. Write original website content that is clear, relevant and attractive. After all, Black Hat SEO is just pain UGLY! This should help to keep your search engine optimization on the up and up.
If you want to recruit the white hat wearing good guys to help you increase your search engine ranking, contact Web.com Search Agency. We would be more than happy to devise the absolute best strategy for your website.
