Say 'No' to SEO Black-Hat Trio

High search engine ranks is the main objective of a website and search engine optimization the key to achieving that. When it comes to sustainable website ranks and search engine positions, SEO is unrivaled by other search engine marketing methods. Naturally, the competition is fierce as every website wants to get to the top. Some webmasters want to get there before others do; nothing wrong with that, except they employ 'Black-Hat' SEO methods for the same. A 'black-hat' or 'back-door' SEO method simply refers to unfair means of improving website ranks.

Back-door SEO methods are tricksters that will typically try to fool search engine crawlers when they scan websites for relevant and quality content. Some of the common black-hat methods include the copying of contents from other high-ranked sites and pasting them onto own site, inserting keyword-stuffed 'hidden' text (text with a similar background color) that is invisible to visitors but readable by search engine bots, keyword-stuffing in content, using doorway pages, etc.

Fortunately, search engines are smart and back-door users are 'blacklisted', or removed from SERPs, helping websites diligently following white-hat techniques to step forward and fight ethically.

Following are some common black-hat SEO methods that should be avoided:

Hidden/Invisible Text: In this back-door method, text containing primary and secondary keywords will be inserted on top of the page, usually as banner text or at the start of web page content. Text colors will typically be the same as the background color (white backgrounds will have white text, black backgrounds have black text and likewise) making content invisible to readers but readable by search engine bots when they scan the web page.

Often, keywords will be randomly arranged without them making any coherent sense (which is why they are invisible to readers because they are pieces of useless information). What webmasters fail to understand is that search engines do not rank keywords, they rank keyword-rich content that is relevant and useful.

Using hidden text is labeled 'spamming' by the major search engines.

Keyword Stuffing: Keyword stuffing refers to the frequent use of keywords in content, so much so content starts sounding forced and unnatural. Example: "our web design company offers web design services for best web designs at affordable web design service rates" instead of a simple "our company offers best web design services at affordable rates".

The above is also a typical example of content that is created for keywords, and not around keywords. Keywords are like subjects or topics around which information should be provided. Content should not be written to solely incorporate keywords. When this happens, keyword stuffing is the natural outcome.

Maintain keyword density: between 2% and 12% of total number of words of content.

Doorway Pages: These are pages created only for search engine spiders and offer no value to visitors. Doorway pages will typically propel visitors without their knowledge to the goal page by using a fast Meta refresh command or with a "click here" link. Basically, doorway pages display keyword-specific results on the SERP to attract visitors, who then click to ‘jump’ or ‘bridge’ over to the actual and poor quality website.

Doorway pages should not be misconstrued as landing pages. The latter uses good content to draw traffic within the context of PPC campaigns.

 

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