5 SEO Mistakes

Shadab · 07-24-2008

Hidden Text

A sure shot way to get penalized ! Text and hyperlinks which are visible to search engines but not to normal human web surfers are a big no-no. Here are a couple of ways using which webmasters hide the text :

- Using the same color for text and background.
- Use of display : none for the sole purpose of hiding text from visitors.
- Creating links using characters like a dot (.) , comma (,) and / or hyphen (-)

Cloaking

Delivering a specific page to the GoogleBot or any other search engine spider, and serving an entirely different page to a human reader is considered as Cloaking. (usually User-Agent based server-side processing and JavaScript redirects are employed)

Relevant Read : Cloaking, sneaky Javascript redirects, and doorway pages

Keyword Stuffing

Search engines, especially Google, now give very less importance to the meta keywords tag in the document head while indexing and ranking a webpage. So why should you ? Stop putting too many and / or irrelevant keyphrases in the keyword meta tag. Keep the number of keywords in the tag usually to less than 12. Less number of keywords is not a problem.

Misusing Heading Tags

Using multiple H1 tags on a single webpage *can* have negative effects. Heres a quote from an article on SEOMoz :

Headers are informational not presentational. Each page should contain only one H1 tag but can have any number of H2s and subsequent levels of header tags. By loading a page with numerous H1 tags they are creating a semantically incorrect page with suspicious emphasis on the H1 tag.

Read the full article : H1s and H2s - The Right Tool for the Job.

Bad Linking Strategies

Link only to websites / webpages which are relevant to yours. Don't make your webpage look like a Link Farm (definition). Keep the number of outbound links from a particular page to less than 100 or so. Also try to get links which are from relevant content pages. (Refrain from 'anchor text spamming' ; make your inbound links look natural).

If your website has been penalized by Google, you can file a reconsideration request here :
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/reconsideration

Hope you all find this useful.

rajshree · 08-09-2008

Nice post. Thanks for sharing

Shadab · 08-09-2008

Originally Posted by rajshree

Nice post. Thanks for sharing

Thanks for the appreciation.

dbbrock1 · 08-23-2008

Leaving footprints - putting sitewide outgoing links at the bottom of your pages look like paid links

bboyd · 08-31-2008

Made a few of those mistakes in the past

Thanks for sharing

lucie · 09-08-2008

These are old tips of Black-SEO.

Hafsoh · 09-12-2008

Nice sharing, thanks

James_s · 09-14-2008

Good advice for anyone building a website - a lot of people look for shortcuts but they are not worth it.

joyti · 09-15-2008

Hi

i also have some points.

1. Content blocks layering upon each other.
2. Drop-Down Menus.
3. Dragging instead of vertical navigation.

hope you like it.
thanks

askoo · 09-27-2008

Yeah Google is really hard on these topics and they can penalise if they will find these kind of mal practices. Infact Google do not like buying and selling links as well and they clearly mentioned this on their blogs.

But even now many webmaster is buying and selling links on their pages.

07-24-2008	#1
Shadab Web Developer Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Bhopal Posts: 2,746 iTrader: 100% (1)	5 SEO Mistakes Hidden Text A sure shot way to get penalized ! Text and hyperlinks which are visible to search engines but not to normal human web surfers are a big no-no. Here are a couple of ways using which webmasters hide the text : - Using the same color for text and background. - Use of display : none for the sole purpose of hiding text from visitors. - Creating links using characters like a dot (.) , comma (,) and / or hyphen (-) Cloaking Delivering a specific page to the GoogleBot or any other search engine spider, and serving an entirely different page to a human reader is considered as Cloaking. (usually User-Agent based server-side processing and JavaScript redirects are employed) Relevant Read : Cloaking, sneaky Javascript redirects, and doorway pages Keyword Stuffing Search engines, especially Google, now give very less importance to the meta keywords tag in the document head while indexing and ranking a webpage. So why should you ? Stop putting too many and / or irrelevant keyphrases in the keyword meta tag. Keep the number of keywords in the tag usually to less than 12. Less number of keywords is not a problem. Misusing Heading Tags Using multiple H1 tags on a single webpage can have negative effects. Heres a quote from an article on SEOMoz : Headers are informational not presentational. Each page should contain only one H1 tag but can have any number of H2s and subsequent levels of header tags. By loading a page with numerous H1 tags they are creating a semantically incorrect page with suspicious emphasis on the H1 tag. Read the full article : H1s and H2s - The Right Tool for the Job. Bad Linking Strategies Link only to websites / webpages which are relevant to yours. Don't make your webpage look like a Link Farm (definition). Keep the number of outbound links from a particular page to less than 100 or so. Also try to get links which are from relevant content pages. (Refrain from 'anchor text spamming' ; make your inbound links look natural). If your website has been penalized by Google, you can file a reconsideration request here : https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/reconsideration Hope you all find this useful. My periodic table contains only 1 element : the element of Surprise.

08-09-2008	#2
rajshree Junior Geek Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Mumbai Posts: 114	Nice post. Thanks for sharing Web Design Company India \| Manufacturers Hand Dryers \| Paper Towel Dispenser, Soap Dispenser \| Logo Designing \| SEO Company India

08-09-2008	#3
Shadab Web Developer Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Bhopal Posts: 2,746 iTrader: 100% (1)	Originally Posted by rajshree Nice post. Thanks for sharing Thanks for the appreciation. My periodic table contains only 1 element : the element of Surprise.

09-12-2008	#7
Hafsoh Junior Geek Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 220	Nice sharing, thanks Free ecommerce templates == Domain Name Registration == Free Directory Script :: online shopping cart website design :) Link Exchange Forum

09-15-2008	#9
joyti Newbie Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 34	Hi i also have some points. 1. Content blocks layering upon each other. 2. Drop-Down Menus. 3. Dragging instead of vertical navigation. hope you like it. thanks free web templates website design company

08-23-2008	#4
dbbrock1 Newbie Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 15	Leaving footprints - putting sitewide outgoing links at the bottom of your pages look like paid links

08-31-2008	#5
bboyd Newbie Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 6	Made a few of those mistakes in the past Thanks for sharing

09-08-2008	#6
lucie Newbie Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 7	These are old tips of Black-SEO.

09-14-2008	#8
James_s Newbie Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 3	Good advice for anyone building a website - a lot of people look for shortcuts but they are not worth it.

09-27-2008	#10
askoo Newbie Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 6	Yeah Google is really hard on these topics and they can penalise if they will find these kind of mal practices. Infact Google do not like buying and selling links as well and they clearly mentioned this on their blogs. But even now many webmaster is buying and selling links on their pages.