Top 10 Google Dont's - Things You Should Never Do for Search Engine Optimization

Don't like being found in Google? Here are some sure fired ways to lower your ranking and get the worst search engine results. These are the worst of the worst dirty tricks, and they can lower your Google ranking or just get you banned.
Getting page views at any cost is not a good tactic. It never works in the long run, even if it may work for a short while. Beware of any company that recommends you employ any of these techniques.

1. Cloaking
Designing your Web site so that search engines see one thing and visitors see another is called cloaking. This can be done with sneaky redirects or with programming, and it's strictly verboten.
Nobody likes to be tricked this way. If they're looking for a Web site on knitting, they'll be very ticked to end up on a Web site about horses.

Cloaking your Web site is a sure-fire way to get banned from Google.

2. Duplicate Content
Spam sites sometimes try to collect page views by duplicating the same content on multiple pages.
Don't copy and paste large amounts of text from your own pages, and certainly don't violate copyright by copying content from elsewhere. Google has been known to ban sites that duplicate too much content.

This can occasionally cause problems, because some spamming Web site might be duplicating your content. If you find someone violating your copyright this way, you can let Google know.

3. Have a Robot Write Your Web Site
Just as it's a bad idea to duplicate content, it's a worse idea to get a machine to write your content for you. There are programs out there that duplicate the same content but make a few changes here and there. If Google catches you, and they're pretty good at catching this, you can kiss your page views goodbye.
Write your own content. That's as simple as it gets. Don't buy "instant AdSense" Web sites. If this really made lots of passive money, they wouldn't be selling them.

4. Add Keywords that Don't Relate to Your Content
Meta keywords aren't that important to Google anymore. However, when you list keywords, do list keywords that directly relate to your site, and don't repeat the same keyword multiple times. Spamming keywords by listing every word in the dictionary is a great way to have your ranking lowered in Google.
Likewise, don't use the trademarked names of products made by your competitors as keywords. At best it's a bad user experience, at worse it can get you sued by those competitors.


5. Link to Bad Neighborhoods
Google calls spamming sites bad neighborhoods, and linking to them is a great way to lower your PageRank.
Linking ordinarily would make you a good neighbor and a good citizen of the Internet. However, just because someone links to you does not obligate you to link back to them. Check out the Web site first, and make sure it is not a bad neighborhood.

How do you know it's a bad neighborhood? Check their PageRank and scan the Web site for any of the violations you see here.

6. Hide Text
Don't try to hide keywords by making the background color the same as the font color. This is called keyword stuffing or fontmatching. Google and other search engines are increasingly sophisticated at catching this, and they'll likely remove any offending Web sites from their search engine index.
Likewise, watch how small you make the text. In a variation of keyword stuffing, some people try to put teeny tiny text at the bottom of a page. It doesn't work.

7. Title Stacking
Don't try to add extra <title> tags for more keywords. This cousin of keyword stuffing is called title stacking, and it won't win you any friends at Google.
One title per page, please, although you may separate that title with a dash to hit a few more keywords that do relate to your content, such as "Pie Crust Recipe - Homemade Pastry Dough."

8. Distribute Viruses, Trojans, or Other Badware
If your site is distributing a virus, trojan, or other badware, Google's going to remove you from their index for the public good. This should be a no-brainer.

Double check any software you agree to distribute to make sure it isn't harmful, and make sure your server is secure, so that hackers don't decide to hijack your Web site and distribute malicious software for you.

Learn more about viruses from PCWorld.

9. Doorway Pages
Doorway pages or Gateway pages are pages that are optimized for one key term but are really designed to be gateways to lead you to different content. For instance the "blueberry," "strawberry," and "orange" gateways might all be designed to get you to go to "fruit punch."
Doorway pages usually have very little in the way of original content and often cloak or redirect users to the intended Web site. Be aware of affiliate programs, because some of these may look like doorway pages to Google.

10. Automated Inquiries
Google doesn't appreciate robots writing your content, and they're even less appreciative of robots checking your ranking. Automated Google queries and automated link submission are both against Google's terms of service, and both of them can get your site banned. They tie up computing resources for everyone.

 

Nice guide.

Luckily I don't want to get banned from google so I won't follow these

 

hi

this is really great forums

thanks a lot

 

So I bet that's no. 11

 

I never understand why people post other peoples content as their own on a forum like this -- they always get caught!

Still a good read though.

 

I read this quite often and understand the importance of avoiding 'bad neighborhoods' but how do you know if a site is a bad neighborhood? And, more importantly, how do you get your site REMOVED from a bad neighborhood site?

 

Nice guide.

 

I have always been told that INCOMING links, where other sites post your links on their site, CANNOT hurt you, but our new SEO guys tells me that that is not correct. If your link in on a site that is determined to be a 'bad neighborhood' then it can and does hurt you.

We have reviewed ALL our outgoing links, (links we have posted on our site) to ensure we do NOT have any bad links there.

Please give me your thoughts on whether incoming links can hurt your site or now. Thanks

One more favor.

Can you give me an article, report or any thing else from an authoritative voice supporting our opinion that incoming links cannot hurt a site. Thanks

 

hi sarahk ...whose ever content it may..i just gave information that is useful to everyone...So don t blame me on doing good

 

Copying & pasting someones work isnt doing good, its seen as theft by many.

All you had to do was link to the original article.

 

ya buddy what you said was correct..so forgive me this time...anyway enjoy reading this article

 

as the article mentioned it self... don't copy content due to copyright issues..

anyhow great article and it's the way to go to keep google happy.

 

Nice tips kfg20012003 but Coming to

I did this once : and instead of decreasing my ranking for that keyword , my rank increased

 

thanks for the tips... no matter how many times you read them, its always good to have them stuck in your head.

 

your tips are very nice that everybody must read

 

I wish this was the case but until i see many of the sites employing these methods drop down the ranking I cant agree.

There are several websites that I am competing against that have been around for a long time that are employing this technique to the extent that it is embarassing. But still nothing has been done with regards to these Websites being penalised.

Its quite disheartening to be honest.

As for the other nine items in the list then I fully agree.

 

Here is a couple more....Don't link to to shitty sites...If you must buy links try to get the links in text or make sure they don't use those trigger words like sponsored links, cool resources, paid links and so on if you must buy.

 

These things don't decrease your rank, they are meant to increase them. They can however get your site banned, which is what the article is trying to teach you how not to.