Simple Steps to Kill Search Engine Ranking
By Sharon Housley
Tricking the search engines just does not work. The search engines do not look kindly upon webmasters who attempt to deceive the search engines about the content contained on a webpage.
1. Cloaking
Cloaking a website is a stealth technique used to provide a copy of a web page to search engines while providing an alternate copy to website visitors. The website copy provided to the search engine is optimized and not always reflective of the real content contained on the webpage.
2. Hidden Text
Another deceptive tip that will result in a search engine ban, is done by incorporating text into a website that is not visible to the naked eye, but is visible to search engine spider. There are two ways that underhanded webmasters might attempt this, the first is by changing the font color to match the web page's background color. The second fallacious way of deceiving the search engine using hidden text is by using a single character like a '.' period as a link. Black hat webmasters might attempt this as a way to increase their websites link popularity.
3. Bad Links
While this is not as much a deceptive practice as an indication that the webpage content has been abandoned, links to webpages that no longer exist is an indication to search engines that the content is no longer relevant.
4. Lack of Meta Tags
A website that does not make use of title and description tags, will not result in a ban but could impact the ability for a website to rank well. The title and description of a website should be different on each and every web page.
5. Navigation Mistakes
Navigation should be "spiderable". Do not use javascript or flash navigation, search engines can not spider javascript menus. Adding a site map link is just not good enough, if you do not use conventional navigational techniques, the pages within your website will not always be indexed by the search engines. Navigation should be logically structured, links should not be hidden too deeply within the website or the content contained on the buried pages will not be considered relevant and will not rank well.
6. Valid Code
Observing the conventions of HTML are a necessity, if a webpage's code is invalid, search engines might 'choke' and be unable to follow the links or code. Be sure to properly open and close all HTML code. Valid HTML is critical.
7. Keyword Stuffing
Keyword stuffing is a technique where a long list of repetitive keywords, sometimes related sometimes unrelated to the webpages content is used to trick search engines into thinking the webpage is relevant. Rarely is this effective and it is unlikely that it will artificially inflate a websites ranking for any length of time.
8. Avoid Session IDs
Webpages within a website that uses session IDs or "ID=" in the links will not always be recognized by search engines. It is assumed by many search engines that when ID= appears in the URL, that the webpage does not contain unique content and that the webpage is not in need of indexing. Avoid using ID= on dynamic or static web pages.
9. Nice Neighbors
Avoid listing the website in link farms. Search engines are firm believers that you are like the company that you keep, links should be solicited from reputable sources. Links from spammy websites will not help a website rank well.
Many will say that there are no rules to search engine optimization, they might be right, but the fact remains that webmasters can influence their search engine ranking through the tips above. Attempting to trick or fool the search engines is a sure fire way to become banned. Search engines have the ability to provide a consistent and steady stream of traffic to websites, that stream can become a trickle if you attempt to deceive.
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for RecordForAll http://www.recordforall.com audio recording and editing software.
Permissions:
Permissions and notification of use not required.
**********************************************************
This article may be used freely in opt-in publications and websites, provided that the resource box is included and the links are active. A courtesy copy of the issue or a link to any online posting would be greatly appreciated send an email to sharon@notepage.net .
Additional articles available for publication available at http://www.small-business-software.net/free-website-content.htm
**********************************************************
Related Tags: seo, keywords, search, search engine optimization, black hat, search engine, search engine optimisation, w, ranking, serp, optimize, kill, search rank
Your Article Search Directory : Find in Articles
Recent articles in this category:
- Internet Marketing Articles - SEO Articles - How Do You Create the Perfect Title?
You've got a highly-researched niche, and you've written the perfect SEO article to showcase it. Th - Web Traffic Articles - How to Drive Quality Traffic to Your Website
Today, we'll concentrate on effective tricks of driving quality traffic to your web site. If you are - Search Engines Articles - The Opinion Of Web Sites That Sell About Search Engines
It is a known fact the Google is the largest of all the search engines. You do have to wonder though - Search Engines Articles - Improve Seo
With this kind of feedback you can fine tune your SEO marketing strategies and use social media opti - Search Engines Articles - Search Engine Promotion using SEO Software
Search engine optimization is the process of tweaking a website to appear in the top listing of any - Search Engines Articles - What is the main requirement to optimize the website
Search Engines Optimization so many websites are indexed regularly, but still fail to appear in top - Internet Articles - Pay Per Click Management Guide_ AdWords Management
Pay per click management is a vast technique to boost targeted traffic to your website. Google adwor - Search Engines Articles - SEO New York -An Efficient Way to Promote Website
There are different ways to promote anything be it a product service or goods through advertisements - Real Estate Articles - Should You Buy or Rent a Home
The rent a home vs buy a home debate has gone on for years but what is the best thing to do? Should - Search Engines Articles - Search Engine Marketing New York - An Effective Internet Marketing Tool
Search engine marketing New York is the most influential technique to combat the rising competition
Most viewed articles in this category:
- Getting Indexed In Yahoo
Getting indexed in Yahoo has become very difficult in the last few months. The indexing robot, Yahoo - Are You Getting Nuked By Google Lately?
Since the last Google update, there have been many instances and examples of the Google Nuke Bot! Th - The Google Bar and its Jadoo
Here is a simple but very effective to get your Optimized web pages (or any web page you choose) lis - yahoo publish network or google adsense
As a new pay per click campaign, Yahoo has a much smaller advertising base than Google. In many cate - How Google Indexes Content From Your Web Directory
In a fluke, I was able to notice something about the way Google indexes content from web directories - Unique Content Is Your Key To Success!
As you search around this article site looking for articles to add to your website, consider this: t - Google News - Just another article announcer?
In Google's recent battle towards becoming an international news center, I've come to notice that th - Can Google Really Deliver Country Specific Searching?
This is a serious matter, can Google really deliver top quality search results for other countries? - Is Google having a tough time with their website limit?
If you are one to pay attention to what happens within the Google realm, you might find yourself thr - Google - A Bit of History
The first question most people have is, “What the heck is a “Google?” It is a play