What are the top things to avoid when performing SEO?

I'm creating a top ten list for my blog, and thought that I'd hit you guys up for some ideas about the WORST things to do in SEO. These are the things to avoid because they will get you banned, lower your SERPs, etc. The best tip will get a link from my DOFOLLOW blog.

Let the knowledge flow...

 

1. Avoid Link Spamming
2. Avoid Content Spamming

 

People said "Buying links" is not a good practice. What is the Cons?

If I can get a quality BL from a PR 7 site, why not?

Over-optimize? Will SE really penalize the site?

 

Don't build links very fast.The main thing is that ur link building should feel natural.

 

you must also check the sites that you link.

dont give link to bad sites

 

Do link building slowly,dont spam.

 

My worst thing in SEO is to start things too quickly.

Do a lot of research FIRST (keywords etc.) BEFORE you embark on SEO.

Another thing is to hire incompetent people to do it for you. The Internet (and forum like this one) are awash with "SEO Experts" that haven't a clue what they are doing. Learn stuff yourself (it takes time) so that if you do ever hire someone, you know which ones are talking tripe.

 

Avoid automatic linking software, google hates this and in there update webmaster policy you will be penalised for using them.

Avoid external navigations where you place your main navigation menu in an external file that is linked into each page, keep all your main navigation links static to the page.

Avoid trying to compete over keywords and phrases that are already being fought over by 1000's of competitors, unless you have an endless supply of money to invest in getting up there.

Avoid doing too much SEO! its not the be all and end all of your business or shouldnt be, if your website is original enough it will grow through word of mouth faster than through SEO.

Avoid making the text on your website unreadable to the visitor through too much SEO, its pointless attracting people in the first place if when they arrive they cant understand a word on your page.

Avoid using flash at the start of your web page and dont use it to create your whole website in!

Avoid javascript menus if possible.

Avoid stuffing your head with too much code, place as much code as you can in external files, e.g. javascript and css styling.

Avoid link pages! if your going to do link exchanges, make sure you can offer relevant places for your partners links to be placed in your website and vice versa, not just a pointless directory page of random links.

 

Excellent post! You've given me 9 items yourself.

jodfran has the best suggestions so far, with glengall a close second.

 

Not normal for me

I forgot my other two pet hates. (It's your fault for encouraging me)

1. Don't get hung up on PR and the wee green bar. It doesn't really matter much. PR gets updated all the time and it is only TBPR that gets updated around quarterly and even then it is out of date. Concentrate on positive things like quality link building.

2. DMOZ is only another directory. As was said by one of the gurus on this board. Submit, Forget. or Forget To Submit. There are literally thousands of other things to do so use your nervous energy to do them and not to worry about DMOZ.

 

blackhatting in general....

 

Give me some specific examples (I know, I know, it's a no brainer ). Specifics will get listed in the the top ten.

 

Creating Web Rings

 

IMO the worst thing to do in SEO is to listen to all the "whitehats" advice the next worst thing is to listen to all the "blackhat" advice.

Most techniques work well if used properly, people can make blanket statements all day that link spaming will get you banned, I've yet to experience this and unless you have the resources to spam your link 100s of 1000s of times per day then you are fine. Or lets take cloaking for instance its used by some of the top sites on the internet such as amazon.com, ebay and buy.com.

There is a middle ground here that will get your pages ranked high and ranked high with not a lot of work.

 

Anyone else have any SEO "don'ts" to add to the list before I compile it tomorrow?

 

Avoid any guaranteed top ranking scheme

 

We have a winner!

Jodfran got the free link. Y'all can view the blog post here:

http://www.googlewatchdog.info/

Thanks everyone for your suggestions!