In this article we will discuss 8 more things that harm a High Search engine Ranking. The advice in this article should help site owners attain better rankings for the sites they are promoting. In other articles we will look at other factors that may affect your ranking and also at more factors that may actually damage your ranking.

1) Invisible or hidden text
In a similar fashion to the use of very small images using text that is not readable by a human (same foreground and background colors, very small font size etc) is not a good idea. This technique has been used by some to increase keyword density or to get more keywords per page. It can be detected by the search engine and will be penlaized.

2) Content gained by Breaking Copyright
Just like using duplicate content if you sue other peoples content without their permission this will harm your ranking (and may land you in legal trouble !)

3) Sloppy HTML code / poor site design
Whilst Sloppy HTML code / poor site design will not get you banned from the search engines it may affect your ranking. If there is a lot of excessive code on your page it may make it difficult for the search engines to spider it effectively. In addition to this poorly designed sites tend not to retain visitors or encourage repeat visitors.

4) Use of Flash
Whilst Flash driven sites can be visually appealing they can be difficult to achieve high rankings with (particularly when no HTML alternative is offered). Flash has its place in terms of adding extra wow factor to the site but I would recommend against constructing entire pages from it (particularly the home page !). Whilst Flash driven sites can be visually appealing they can be difficult to achieve high rankings with (particularly when no HTML alternative is offered). Flash has its place in terms of adding extra wow factor to the site but I would recommend against constructing entire pages from it (particularly the home page !)

5) Frames
Like Flash, the use of Frames can be very useful (particularly with respect to menu systems etc) but they can result in sites that are difficult for the search engines to spider and hence may damage rankings . Best to avoid if possible - particularly as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) can deliver many of the benefits without the down sides.

6) Redirects (301 and 302)
Redirects can be useful to move users to other parts of the site but they must be used carefully, excessive use or re-directs to unrelated pages can be considered bad practice and result in your site being penalized.

7) Errors in the robots.txt file
Be careful with your use of the robots.txt file, used correctly it can be a useful pointer for the search engines, used incorrectly it can exclude sections of your site, prevent spiders from visiting on a regular basis and generally harm your ranking.

8) Session IDs
If your pages use session id's then they are unlikely to get indexed - look at alternative methods of delivering pages.

We hope this tips prove useful to your online marketing efforts, please look out for more of our articles on this and other related subjects.