Search Engine Optimization

There are many webmasters and unscrupulous SEOs who try to trick the search engines in order to achieve higher rankings. Their questionable SEO tactics, which are known as “black hat” SEO techniques, are often effective in the short-term, but they eventually get websites penalized or banned. Below are 8 common black hat SEO techniques that you should avoid.

1. Keyword stuffing

Keyword stuffing is one of the most common forms of search engine spam out there. It involves placing targeted search terms in your website content numerous times. Repeating keywords excessively is not only frowned upon by the search engines – it also makes your content read horribly. Your SEO success ultimately depends upon your ability to consistently provide people with engaging content, and keyword-stuffed content is anything but that.

2. Cloaking

Cloaking is a technique that involves designing your website so that the search engines see one thing and visitors see another. Cloaking can be done with programming or redirects. If one of your competitors figures out that you’re cloaking, you can be sure that your site will get banned.

3. Doorway pages

Doorway pages are web pages that are created to spam a search engine’s index. Doorway pages are optimized to rank highly for specific keyword phrases. As its name suggests, a doorway page serves as a doorway to your main website. Doorway pages are generally skimpy on content and provide little value to visitors.

4. Hidden text

Hidden text is text that is the same color as the background. Nowadays, the search engines can easily detect it when text is set to the same color as the background of a website. Some webmasters try to get away with it by creating an image file that is the same color as the text and setting it as the background. However, your website will quickly get banned if a competitor figures out that you’re using hidden text and reports you.

5. Buying links

The practice of buying and selling links goes against the guidelines of major search engines, but many SEOs still do it. Buying links is seen as a quick way to achieve higher search engine rankings because the more backlinks your site has, the higher it will rank. However, the practice is frowned upon by the search engines because many webmasters use it to manipulate their sites’ rankings.

6. Title stacking

Title stacking, or the practice of adding multiple title tags to a web page, can temporarily increase traffic to your website but it will get you penalized or banned if the search engines find out about it.

7. Interlinking

Interlinking refers to building several websites and then linking them together in order to build their link popularity. Interlinking is difficult to detect, but users may figure it out if several interlinked websites achieve top rankings for target search terms.

8. Article spinning

Article spinning is the practice of using a program to rewrite your content and create multiple versions of it. Every time you spin an article, approximately 90% of it remains the same. Many webmasters spin content and then distribute it to article directories. This tactic used to be an effective method for increasing a site’s search engine rankings and boosting traffic, but most sites that build links this way have been penalized since the Google Panda update was implemented.

Let’s say you create content that you’re sure will be a huge hit. But when you finally publish the content, you hear crickets chirp and see some tumble weeds roll by. This is actually a fairly common problem in online marketing, and it doesn’t mean that your content is bad. Lots of great content goes virtually unnoticed and it’s not the content’s fault – it’s usually the content creator’s fault. Here are some tips for ensuring that your content succeeds and achieves its full potential.

Write a Killer Headline

No matter how fantastic your content is, it is bound to fail if the headline sucks. The headline is the first thing that readers see, so it has to be enticing enough to get people to click through or continue reading your article. Great headlines contain your target keywords and are brief, clear, and interesting. Just make sure that your article delivers on the promise of your headline. Otherwise, readers might get frustrated with your content and move on.

Write Articles That Appeal to Your Target Audience

No matter how great your article is, it’s going to be a big flop if your target audience can’t relate to the topic you write about. Take some time to research your target audience’s needs and interests, so you can find a topic that is likely to resonate with them and get them talking.

Contact People in Your Network before Publishing the Content

Prior to publishing your piece, get in touch with people in your network to let them know about it. Email them, send them an instant message, or call them to inform them that you’ll be putting out a piece that would be of interest to their followers and ask them to help you spread the word about it.

Time Your Launch Well

Publish your content at a time when it will get the most views and shares. If you’re publishing content that’s meant for businesspeople, don’t publish it on 8pm on a Sunday night, when people are at home with their families – publish it at 10am on Monday morning, when it will get the most attention. And don’t hesitate to promote the same piece of content several times throughout the course of the week. For example, it’s a good idea to tweet content in the morning AND in the afternoon, so you can reach as many people as possible.

Post Your Content on an Influential Website

After spending hours conducting research, creating content, and fine-tuning it, the thought of having to post it on a site other than your own might seem disappointing. However, your content is likely to get far more links, attention, and traffic in the long run if you post it on an influential website that’s relevant to your industry. The more popular the website, the more attention your content will get.

Devise a Promotional Plan

Don’t expect your content to receive accolades if you don’t lift a finger after publishing it. It’s important to think not only about creating the content, but also about what’s going to happen after you publish it. Devise a content promotion plan that details how you’ll build links, attract the attention of influential people in your industry, and encourage people to share your content via social media.

Google recently announced the so-called “Freshness” update, which was introduced to provide users with more up-to-date and relevant search results. An extension of the previous Caffeine update, the Freshness update affects approximately 35% of searches. But what exactly does the Freshness update mean for search marketers and those of us who rely on high search engine rankings for revenue?

Understanding the Freshness Update

Google’s Freshness update prioritizes recent and timely search results. That means when people search for information about hot topics, the most recently published content will show up. Fresh content will even be capable of ranking higher than older content with lots of links.

According to Google, different searches have different freshness needs. For recent events and trending topics, searchers want to find the latest information, which is generally content that is just minutes old.

When searching for information about regularly recurring events, such as the World Cup or the presidential elections, most users want to find information about the most recent event. For example, if you were to search for information about the Olympic Games right now, you’d probably want to read about the London 2012 Olympics, not the Tokyo 1964 Olympics.

Even users looking for information about topics that aren’t trending or related to current events sometimes require fresh results. For instance, if you’re buying a new car, you probably want to find up-to-date information about the makes and models currently on the market. Google’s Freshness update was designed to provide you the most current information related to your query.

The Freshness Update’s Winners and Losers

The search visibility of many news, broadcasting, and prominent brand websites has improved significantly since the Freshness update was implemented. Some major websites that have seen improvements in rankings include Rate My Professors, Lonely Planet, Huffington Post, the Daily Mail, and Last.fm. It is difficult to classify the sites that have lost search engine visibility after this update since they are all over the map, but some specific examples include American Express, Jezebel, Comcast, and Gizmag.com.

Overall, it seems that the Freshness update has improved the rankings of sites with the freshest, most frequently updated content. It’s no longer just about being relevant. Being timely is also important! So, if there’s a hot topic brewing in your industry, don’t write a blog post about it and then schedule it for later in the week – write the post and publish it immediately.

Post-Freshness Update Content Creation Strategies

Having fresh website content has always been important in SEO, but the Freshness update has made it even more of a necessity. Ultimately, the more frequently you publish content, the better. Content that deals with recent trends or events in your industry will do particularly well.

The timing of your posts is also crucial. If you publish articles about hot topics, do so when people are likely to be online searching for information about it. For example, if you’re writing content that’s aimed at office workers, publish it during business hours, not at 8pm on a Saturday night.

Regularly tweaking the existing content on your site is also important. For example, if you run an ecommerce site, keep your content fresh by revising product descriptions on a regular basis. Old, static pages that haven’t been updated since you launched your site are likely to hurt your rankings, so make an effort to regularly review your content and ensure that it’s up-to-date.

In this day and age, SEO is no easy task. From the lack of Google keyword data in analytics programs to the infamous Panda update, a constant barrage of changes in the SEO world that have made the work of optimizing websites all the more difficult. One of the most challenging aspects of SEO is undoubtedly building links. But having a natural link profile is essential to your website’s success because search engines penalize sites with backlinks that weren’t “earned.” If you are actively building backlinks for your website, here are 7 ways to make them appear more natural to the search engines.

1. Use a variety of anchor text

It’s common for SEOs to build multiple links using the same keyword anchor text, but it’s better to use different versions of the keyword you’re hoping to rank for when creating anchor text for backlinks. For example, if you’re trying to rank for the term, “Omaha web design,” you can target related keywords like, “web design services in Omaha” or “Omaha web designer.” It’s also a good idea to use your website’s URL as anchor text sometimes because it will make your links look more natural.

2. Avoid purchasing backlinks

Never buy links because the search engines will penalize you if they find out about it. And besides, most of the links that are sold these days are of low quality and will only hurt your website’s rankings in the long run.

3. Build links gradually and steadily

Don’t build links too quickly because it will raise eyebrows, unless of course your site was featured on CNN’s homepage. To avoid arousing the suspicion of the search engines, build links to your site gradually and steadily. Remember: quality always trumps quantity when it comes to links.

4. Get many different types of links

While editorial links are generally the best types of links to have, you shouldn’t limit yourself to one type of link. Try to obtain links from various sources, including blog rolls, resource pages, high quality directories, social media sites, etc.

5. Don’t just build links to your homepage

While it’s important to build links to your homepage, it’s also a good idea to get links that point to internal pages of your site because it shows the search engines that other pages of your website are attracting interest.

6. Build your presence in social media

Social media isn’t going away any time soon and anybody who’s anybody online needs to have a social media presence. Links that are shared via social media aren’t as valuable as links from standard websites, but they still count towards your rankings, so you need to be sure to include them in your link portfolio.

7. Get links from sites in the same industry

Links from websites that are specific to your industry are hands down the most valuable. Perform competitive backlink analysis to determine what industry sites are linking to your competitors, and then try to get links from the same sources.