Back when SEO (Search Engine Optimization) first came on the scene, there were no hard and fast rules. It was a bit of mayhem and a lot of “every man for himself” types of attitudes to get one’s web site to the top of the search engine listings. Since this time, search engines have become a lot more sophisticated and many of the things that use to work may not be allowed any more.
Cloaking
The practice of cloaking is accomplished by making it appear as though the visitor is going to a specific site but in reality reroutes the visitor to an entirely different and often unrelated web site. Search engines send out bots that have the sole purpose of detecting such cloaking. If it is determined that a site is using the practice of cloaking, the search engine will ban that site. These bots are unnamed and come from undisclosed IP addresses so it’s just about impossible to try to trick them.
Duplicate content
Grabbing content from another site and placing it within your own web site is considered duplicate content. Not only can this be considered a copyright infringement but it can also be a double-edged sword. There may be a site or sites out there that have copied your content resulting in both your site and the offending site being banned by a search engine. If you do find that your content has been duplicated, contact the search engine that has banned your site to explain the situation. And always keep in mind that you want your site to contain original content created by you.
Invisibly stuffed keywords
You’ve possibly seen this on more than one occasion – a site with an odd and massive blank space (usually located at the bottom of the web page). Keywords and phrases are duplicated over and over again with the font color being exactly the same as the page background coloring. Or, as an alternative, the same keyword or phrases repeated, placed at the bottom of a web page but in very tiny text. Either way, search engines have evolved to the point of easily detecting this practice and will ban the site accordingly.
A plethora of javascript
A little known bad SEO practice is the over usage of javascripting. Most sites will use some form of javascript within their pages so this one is a bit tricky to solve. Search engines are not designed to read javascript at this time, though this may change in the future. It’s better to be safe than sorry in this case and to use as little javascripting as possible. An effective way to do this is to create the javascript in a separate file and then utilize and include function within the header of your web page.
Conclusion
SEO is an integral part of ensuring your web site’s success. If you’re currently using the above described practices, you’ll need to rethink and relearn good SEO practices. Correct the mistakes, use what you’ve learned and you’ll prevent your web site from being placed on search engine banned lists.
