Bad SEO

A few of the things you don’t want to do.

As a leader in ethical online marketing, part of our authority comes from knowing what not to do. Below is a starter list of some of the popular shortcuts people and agencies have taken in the name of “SEO,” to which we do not subscribe.

Cloaking
Some marketers may do anything at times to rank well. No one can blame them for having the desire: Traffic can increase business. But should you cloak? Should you give the spiders one version of the website (i.e. text-heavy) and the public a different version—maybe one with more graphics and a stronger marketing message?

We advise against it.

Too many people don’t have a clue how to cloak. While some services may be successful, and you may avoid the scrutiny of search engines, how do you really know? A firm may outpace Google today, but will its techniques fail you tomorrow?

Duplicate content
Many consultants will insist that you should just stick with your main domain and avoid supplemental sites as much as possible.

Creating extra sites devoted to specific products, services or offices (among other things) can have its advantages. New domains with keywords readily available in the URLs may help. In the end, maybe your main site will rank #5 for a search term and your microsite will rank #8. It’s an easy potential way to own some search-engine real estate.

Over the years, however, search engines have frowned on these extra websites when they’re loaded with duplicate content. A webmaster may say, “Hey, if the copy worked on this website and achieved a high ranking, why not toss it in the new site as well?” Again, Google is pretty clear: Don’t create multiple pages, sub-domains, or domains with substantially duplicate content.

Hidden text
You’d think adults would know about playing “hide-and-seek” by now. No, you can’t hide your keywords in the background. Search engines do notice that sort of thing—white text on a white background.

Some marketers try to get around this by making their font so tiny that people can barely read it. Why play games with search engines?

“Catch me if you can” seems to be the anthem of some marketers. Besides, it looks plain ugly to the visitor whom you’re trying to attract as a prospect. For example, if you’re going to insert footer copy at the bottom of a page, make sure it’s pertinent to the website and the particular page. Use a common font, keep the copy above the copyright notice and don’t push it way down with dozens of line breaks or paragraph codes.

Poor keyword selection
Some marketers have a keen sense of what keywords may make sense for them. Often, they rely on consultants or in-house SEO specialists to help them make those decisions.

SEO firms can fail them on purpose or with lousy advice. For example, a consultant might automatically steer new clients to longer search terms that are easy to rank for, but have zero search volume. Or, analyzing available data, they may honestly believe some one- and two-word search phrases simply won’t work because of the competition (i.e. 10 million competing pages).

Each of these scenarios is similar, though they are based on different agency motives. Website owners deserve better direction. The reality is that some highly competitive keywords are worth pursuing. The determination shouldn’t be made in a vacuum. Keyword competition shouldn’t be the only factor. Too often, keyword research doesn’t consider other selection criteria, such as:

• Authority of a website
• Quality and depth of current content
• Social share-ability
• The frequency of content updates
• Volume of branded search
• The website’s link popularity
• Customer acquisition costs
• Customer retention rates
• Individual product or service profitability (i.e. ROI)

For example, a #3 Google ranking would be great for a highly competitive search term. But if that’s exceedingly prohibitive to attain, maybe a #15 ranking will be just fine, at least to attract more than enough qualified traffic. For some companies, SEO may be extremely profitable if they only get 1,000 new visitors and sell 5 products with high profit margins.

Additionally, some sales don’t happen right away. A purchase may be made weeks or months later, after reading your email newsletters or using your website’s educational materials for research. And even then, the conversion may take place by phone … and tracking the origin of those calls is useful.

Keyword stuffing
The easiest way to think about excessive repetition of keywords is to ask the question:

“If it weren’t for search engines, would you have mentioned your main product keyword five times in three paragraphs?”

Your goal for strategic keyword placement should be to make it appear as natural as possible. A visitor to the website shouldn’t feel assaulted by incomprehensible English. Few things make a website look more unprofessional than redundant and awkward usages of keywords. When in doubt, leave it out.