If you are wondering which SEO techniques should be avoided to prevent your website from getting penalized, this is the right place to be!
If search engine optimization (SEO) is something you’ve considered, you’ve probably already heard about the best SEO tactics and the ones to avoid. Today, we’ll discuss the unethical SEO strategies some webmasters employ to boost their sites’ positions in search engine results pages.
Remember that you’ll be in a sticky situation if you adopt these procedures. Certain web pages may potentially be removed from Google’s index altogether. Let’s go right in and examine the worst SEO techniques that should be avoided. We update this frequently with the latest methods that could be used against you.
Google may take manual action against sites that use the strategies outlined here.
9 SEO Techniques Should Be Avoided
1. SEO Cloaking
With this method, companies can trick search engines into seeing different material than what their customers see in their browsers. Search engines often receive premium content while providing inferior results to users.
This approach is worse since it prioritizes rankings over user satisfaction. Your rankings will plummet as soon as Google finds out you’ve been cloaking.
2. Keyword Stuffing: SEO Technique Should Be Avoided
One of the oldest forms of spamming search engine results with keywords is still widespread today. Forcing keywords into the body of a web page in this way can fool search engine crawlers into giving the page a higher ranking.
Keyword stuffing is discouraged since it negatively affects the user experience. Avoid using more than 1.5% of your total words as keywords.
3. Spamming Comments
Auto-generated spam comments are a widespread problem today. While at first glance this may seem like a smart concept, it ultimately leads to a poor user experience and leaves a poor impression on the reader.
Keep in mind that today’s typical Internet user understands the concept of spam well. You should reconsider your strategy if you’re thinking about posting spam comments. Remember that search engines will eventually figure out your scheme as well.
4. Negative SEO
Nowadays, many companies use negative SEO technique to rank. When one engages in negative SEO, they use dishonest methods to lower the search engine rankings of their competitors. Examples of harmful SEO practises include:
- Using false social media profiles and damaging one’s online reputation
- Website hacking
- Placing a bunch of irrelevant links on your site and many more
Although your rankings will improve when your competitors’ rankings drop, you will suffer the consequences if Google finds out (and it will).
5. Invisible Keywords: SEO Technique To Be Avoided
The practise of concealing keywords is not unusual in the SEO agenda. Just how does it function?
You can either use CSS to hide the text or use a white backdrop and text colour. This strategy was effective when search engines were less sophisticated, but it is useless now. Currently, search engines can see all keywords, even those hidden from human eyes. This method should be avoided unless you wish to face the consequences.
6. Automatically Generated/Duplicate Content
Despite the difficulty, content creation continues to be one of Google’s three most important ranking factors.
Automatically generating content to rank for a wide variety of keywords without actually going away and creating good, unique content is a frequent black hat strategy. You can create multiple location pages by utilizing the same content across the board, except for the location names.
Avoid problems created by low-quality or duplicate pages by taking the effort to generate content that is search engine optimisation (SEO) friendly.
7. Doorway/Gateway Pages
It is against Google’s standards to create pages that merely serve as a funnel to another page by targeting specific search queries with content. Gateway pages are those that serve as an introduction to a larger site.
Each page on your site should serve a specific function, and you shouldn’t add them just to boost your search engine rankings for unrelated terms.
8. Paid/Manipulative Links
One of the most prevalent forms of black hat SEO is link schemes, and here is where a lot of misunderstanding frequently begins.
For many marketers, it goes without saying that you should provide content that benefits your consumers and that you shouldn’t hide information, but link development is a little trickier.
Bottom line: Earn the links, especially as they represent editorial endorsements of one website by another.
9. Sneaky Redirects
Search engine optimization experts commonly use redirects for a variety of purposes such as upgrading an old page to a new URL or preparing for site migration. There’s nothing wrong with this; it’s the recommended approach to making your site user- and crawler-friendly.
However, black hat SEOs utilise covert redirection to display different material to search engines than what a user sees, which is analogous to cloaking.
Search engines still index the original page while redirecting readers to a new URL. Google explicitly calls out deceptive redirects as a black hat technique that goes against its Webmaster Guidelines.
Wrapping Up: Which SEO Techniques Should Be Avoided?
This post would be enough to learn about which SEO techniques should be avoided if you want a good ranking in SERPs for a long time.
Avoid using “black hat” techniques on your site at all costs. Learn how to rank your website using strategies that don’t go against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines if you want help getting your site more visible online.
Notion Technologies can help educate you with ethical SEO techniques for a better ranking experience. Get in touch to know more.
