How to Avoid Using SEO Improperly

Some companies and web designers play dirty to increase their spot on search engines. They'll use shady "black hat" search engine optimization (SEO) tactics that can work in the short run. But this improper SEO use will eventually get them banned from a search engine.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

What You Should NOT Do

1. Cram your web page with nothing but SEO words. This is the first method of improper use many will try and the first that will be discovered.
2. Load your page with a bunch of long, nonsense statements just to add more SEO words.
3. Hide text on the page that includes SEO. This includes coloring text the same as the background or placing it far off the screen where it cannot be seen.
4. Create a "doorway page." This is generally a page loaded with SEO for the search engine but will take users straight to another page without them ever seeing the first page.
5. Create two different versions of the same page--one for the search engines and one for the web surfers. This is known as "cloaking."
6. "Interlink" multiple websites together around a single topic to step up their relevance and search engine positions.

What you SHOULD Do

7. Create ads and sentences on your web page that make sense. Get right to the point and use just enough SEO words to do so.
8. Think of the user, not the search engine. You want a web page they can easily read and make sense of, so they will come back.
9. Be upfront and honest. Make all your content available to everyone and show everything you are presenting.

Tips & Warnings

• There are no official rules of proper and improper SEO use. General common sense of what is right and wrong should be used.
• If your website is removed from a search engine for improper SEO, correcting the problems should lead to reinstatement.