Bad SEO will kill your Business: Practices to avoid to keep Google on side
Statistics suggest that the first two organic positions on Google get around 51% of all search traffic. Those top spots are like gold dust and whilst you may feel like it’s worth doing anything to get there, the guys at Google and other leading search engines are savvy, all the old tips and tricks which used to catapult websites into that top spot are now amongst the worst practices you can carry out and black hat tactics and bad SEO practices could cost you dearly in the long run.
5 SEO Bad Practices to Avoid
Here are ten key things business owners simply must avoid to help keep their website on the good side of the search engines and moving closer to those coveted top spots.
1. Duplicate Content
You won’t get away with copying. Copying large chunks of content from elsewhere without appropriate credit will not please Google in the slightest and even when you do provide credit, they won’t be impressed if your website is basically copied from elsewhere. If an article has already been indexed by Google and then you copy it, Google won’t even consider indexing yours so it’s wasted space. If you do need to copy or share content from elsewhere then use the noindex or nofollow tags within your coding.
2. Guest Posting for Links
Outreach is a key part of your business’ development and it’s always nice to post content on other sites around the web to draw interest back to your own site. However, Google has grown clever to the act of simply writing the most basic, unengaging content for the sake of tacking a link back to your own page. Guest posting is brilliant if done properly but when it’s clearly a rush job and you’re doing it for the sole purpose of getting links, it won’t work in your favour. Highly relevant sites with high quality content which are of use to your audience are worth pitching to, but anybody else could be risky. The same goes for the opposite and accepting low quality guest posts for your site.
3. Keyword Stuffing
This is the big one. It’s a practice which was absolutely done to death for many years. You’d find content which was barely readable because content creators were stuffing every sentence with searchable keywords. They took their time but the search engines caught on and repetition won’t work, it may result in penalisation and being pushed every further back in the SERPs. Your content needs to be written for your target audience, your relevant keywords and terms should flow naturally and this type of content is beginning to be viewed very positively and picks up social shares as well as pleasing the search engines.
4. Too Many Ads
Too many ads spells bad news for your website, especially if they’re positioned above the fold. Not only will you alienate your users but Google has started to come down hard on websites which are too packed out with ads, especially positioned before the user can even see your content. Content first, advertisement later.
5. Out of Date
An old website is almost as bad as no website at all. Google and the other search engines love fresh, new content and websites which are regularly updated tick many of their boxes. The design and structure of your website too needs to be in line with modern standards and sites which are just one or two years old become outdated and fall out of line with SEO best practices. Working with a professional web designer and checking in every once in a while with your chosen designer will help to ensure your website remains current and therefore keeping the search engines happy.
Contact Us
If you would like to find out more or have any questions then please get in touch with The Web Surgery.
