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SEO Expert Guide - Black Hat SEO - Activities to avoid (part 8/10)
In parts 1 - 7, you learnt how to develop your proposition, identify your key words and optimize and promote (for free) your site and pages on the world's search engines. You were also introduced to our mythical Doug (who sells antique doors, door handles, knockers, door bells or pulls and fitting services) in Windsor in the UK.
There are some search engine optimization and promotion techniques I did not cover, as they are unethical. In this part of the guide, I outline this techniques, so you can recognize and avoid them!
(a) Search Engine Ethics
Borrowing from the wild west, white hat SEO generally refers to ethical techniques, whilst black hat SEO is unethical techniques. Search engines are designed to help people find genuinely relevant results for the key words they enter, in a ranked order. Relevancy is a mixture of the "authority" of the site generally and the specific relevance of the page content to the search made. Anything which undermines this (ie. by creating false impressions of authority or relevance) is unethical because it undermines the key purpose of search engines.Black hat practitioners tend to see search engine optimization as a war, and search engines and SEOs as the enemy, to be beaten by means fair or foul. White Hatters tend to view search engines as friends, who can help them get business.
(b) Hidden Page Text
Blackhatters create hidden text in page code (not intended for humans). At a simple level, this could be white text on a white background. The text is generally hidden because it does not fit with the rest of the page content but does help with search engine results. This by definition means that - as a human searcher - you are likely to be disappointed by the result when you land on this page.In their Guide for Webmasters, Google implore you to "make pages for users, not for search engines. Don't deceive your users, or present different content to search engines than you display to users. " The guide goes on to specifically recommend you "avoid hidden text or hidden links". If you want to avoid being blacklisted by Google, then I would recommned you pay attention to this advice.
(c) Buying Inbound Links
In their Guide for Webmasters, Google ask you to "avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you'd feel comfortable explaining what you've done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, 'Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn't exist?' ".You can find on the web links from PR8 sites on sale for $200. From our earlier exploration of PageRank, you'll understand why such a high price can be supported. As you can imagine, Google and others frown on this activity, as it undermines the whole principle of democracy that underpins PageRank. Buying votes? Unethical!
The consensus in forums is that Google look out for unnatural linking patterns, including substantial cross linking, sharp growth in backlink numbers and same anchor text in most links. I would advise you avoid this sort of activity altogether!
(d) Use of Link Farms and IBLNs
In their Guide for Webmasters, Google say "don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or 'bad neighborhoods' on the web as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links."In practice, Google identify 'bad neighbourhoods' by devaluing back-links from the same IP subnet. Where a site is simply a link farm site (that lists loads of links to other sites, in exchange for links back or money) Google will eventually identify it as a 'bad neighbourhood' and remove the links from it's index.
Independent Back Linking Networks (IBLNs) are a network of sites that all directly or indirectly link back to your site in such as a way as to promote it through the search engine rankings. The way IBLNs get around Google's IP monitoring is by using a completely different web-hosting plan for every site you want to link back directly to you.
This is very time-consuming and will cost you a lot of money. It is also not fool-proof and (if detected) can lead to Google simply wiping out all the direct referrers from their index (the sites they find flagrantly built simply to link to your main site) or, worse, dropping your entire IBLN - including the main site your were trying to optimise for. Don't be daft - keep it clean!
(e) Use of Cloaking Pages or Sneaky Redirects
In their Guide for Webmasters, Google recommend you "avoid 'doorway' pages created just for search engines, or other 'cookie cutter' approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content."When Doug reads this, he begins to understand why doorknockers.com fails to rank higher in the search engines. That domain simply redirects to a different site (with a regular business name) which also fails to rank well in Google. This poor business-owner has clearly become an unwitting and almost certainly innocent victim og Google's policy to catch out Blackhatters.
He also understands why having his content on antique-door-knockers.com will be preferrable to redirecting people to a domain based on his company name (Doug Chalmers Limited).
Next we turn to tools you can use to monitor your ongoing optimization effectiveness...
Navigate the guide
Previous : SEO Expert Guide - Paid Site Promotion (Marketing) (part 7/10)Next: SEO Expert Guide - Ongoing Monitoring of Results (part 9/10)
About the author:David Viney (david@viney.com) is the author of the Intranet Portal Guide; 31 pages of advice, tools and downloads covering the period before, during and after an Intranet Portal implementation.
Read the guide at http://www.viney.com/DFV/intranet_portal_guide or the Intranet Watch Blog at http://www.viney.com/intranet_watch.
SEO #5: Analyzing the Top Ranked Website on Google
Yesterday you should have read the forth course out of 6 courses that will help you get a TOP rank in the search engines and get EXPLOSIVE LASER TARGETED TRAFFIC for Free. Today we move on to course #5 and study analyzing the Top Ranked Website on Google. Please read today's course very carefully and take some time to test what I'm about to tell you on your own webpage. Alright let's start!
Finding The True PR Of A Page?
I had an email "conversation" this last week which I feel others may benefit from "listening in" on. Here it is in summary:
How Search Engines Work
Before anyone can start optimizing a web site, you must understand how search engines work.
Has Google Indexed Your Site ?
So has Google found your site yet?
Search Engine Optimization - A Do-It-Yourself Guide for the Small Business Owner
So your company has a website ? an important step to validate your company, boost its visibility and increase its sales. Now how do you get it to show up on Google and the other search engines like Yahoo and MSN?
Link Popularity: Why Its The Best Investment You Can Do For Your Business
More and more search engines rank your web pages based on the number of links that point to your web site (link popularity). Google uses link popularity as its most important factor in ranking sites. HotBot, AltaVista, MSN, Inktomi, and others also use link popularity in their formulas.
Your Online Home-Based Business Can Lead To Search Engine Stress
As a member of several search engine optimization forums, I have recently noticed (especially since Yahoo recently decided to try their hand at competing with Google) that the stress level of many webmasters has gone way up. This applies not only to webmasters involved in Internet-based home businesses, but to webmasters in general.
Keywords are the ?KEY? to a Popular and Profitable Web Site
Keyword Research will reveal answers to 3 critical questions:
Google Rankings -- Achieve Top 10 Rankings with Free Tools
In order to get a top 10 google ranking it is imperative to not only know how to use the resources that are available to us, but to also know what to do with them. The key is always to find out what tools are the ones to use. In my experience, there are two tools I use almost daily to help my sites achieve top 10 rankings.
Even More Tips For Getting A Top 10 Search Engine Ranking!
I have spent some time discussing the 5 different options you have for getting your web site listed in the search engines. Just to make sure that we're all on the same page, let's quickly review?
Seek Engines: What If Seek Had Bumped Out Search?
In the early days of the World Wide Web, when things were just getting started many geek speak terms were jockeying for position to be the standards for years to come. I used to drive by a California-based company every day that had named itself YKK and think, "What a pity."
What is Google Pagerank?
PageRank is one of the factors that Google uses to evaluate your web site and determine its position in the Google search engine results. PageRank is a number from 0 to 10.
Google, Yahoo!, Pandoras Box And The Lottery
In the fall of 1990, the musical group Snap had a monster number one hit record called, "I've Got The Power."
Microsofts New Search Engine
I tried out Microsoft's new search engine (beta version) the other day. They have been working on it quite secretly now for almost a year. It has been rumored to be a Google killer once in full public release. They say its accuracy and ability to return relevant results will far surpass any other search engine on the Internet. That remains to be seen. I tried various combinations of single, double, and triple word/phrased searches to inspect the results.
How To Conceal Your Website?s ?Fingerprint? From The Search Engines
The internet marketing industry is now flooded with various page and portal generators.
Internet Marketing and Search Engine Indexing.
The world of internet marketing is a highly competitive place. As a beginning internet marketer there are some basic things you should know about how search engines spider and index your web site. Unless the search engines find your web site and index it, there is no way the general public will know that it is there.
Meta Tag Tactics - Give Your Website Traffic a Boost with the Meta Tag Basics
Getting your site noticed by the search engines and rewarded with top rankings is most webmasters main goal, however there are a lot of different factors that play into what the search engines are looking for, including Meta tags. So, if you don't know anything about meta tags but are interested in learning about them so you can use them to possibly increase your rankings, then read the following basic tips regarding meta tags. The more educated you are about what search engines are looking for, the better you will be able to respond and rise in the rankings.
Tips On Optomizing Your Website For Search Engines
I wish to give a few little tips, about optimizing. You may find it quite useful, depending on the type of website you have.
Agressive Linking Strategies Help To Get Your Site Noticed
A good link building strategy has become an essential part of search engine marketing and positioning. It has been the topic of many web conferences around the world for quite some time now.
A Simple 4 Step Approach To Have Google Crawl Your Site Today Guaranteed!
Extra, Extra Google Now Gives you feedback. By Creating a Google Sitemap using free online tools you can get Google to crawl your site within 24 Hours. As an Added bonus after Google Crawls your site they give you feedback about any problems they encountered. To take advantage of this amazing service from yahoo just follow these 4 simple steps.