February 8, 2008 – 12:12 am
So, you want to increase your website’s page rank so you can be listed higher in the major search engines? Don’t be fooled, most of the gimmicks out there can get you banned by Google, or at the very least have your page rank lowered. Beware of any company that recommends any of these 10 techniques for improving your page rank.
1. Cloaking
Designing your website so search engines see one thing and your visitors see another is called cloaking. This can be done with htaccess redirects or various types of programming code. Nobody likes to be tricked this way. If someone is looking for a website on fashion design and instead encounter a website about making millions overnight they’ll likely be upset. This is a sure-fire way of getting your website banned by Google.
2. Duplicate Content
Spam sites sometimes try to collect page views by duplicating the same content on multiple domain names. Don’t copy and paste large amounts of text from your own webpages and never copy content from other websites. Google sometimes bans websites with duplicate or stolen content.This can occasionally cause problems, because a spam website might be duplicating your content. If you find someone violating your copyright in this way, you can send Google a message.
3. Robot-written Content
Just as it’s a bad idea to duplicate content, it’s a worse idea to have a computer program write your content. There are programs available for duplicating content from one source and applying it to your own, with a few modifications here and there. If Google catches you, and they’re pretty good at finding this, you can forget reaping any benefits from SEO.
4. Unrelated Meta Keywords
Meta keywords aren’t as important to Google as they once were. However, when you do list keywords you should make sure they relate to the content on your website and they are not repeated in the meta tags. Spamming keywords in your meta tags by listing every word in the dictionary is a great way to have your ranking lowered in Google.
5. Links to “Bad Neighborhoods”
Google calls spamming sites bad neighborhoods, and linking to them is a great way to lower your PageRank. While linking to other websites is ordinarily considered a kind gesture, it must be understood that just because someone links to you does not obligate you to link back to them. Check out the referring website before you post a reciprocal link to make sure it isn’t a bad neighborhood.
6. Hidden Text
Don’t try to hide keywords by making the font color of the keywords match the background color of the page. This is known as keyword stuffing or fontmatching. Major search engine companies are in a constant battle to deliver the best possible results to their customers and eliminating websites that employ this tactic is high on their list. Likewise, watch how small you make the text. In a variation of keyword stuffing, some site owners try to place extra small text at the bottom of a page. Same ole trick, same ole result.
7. Title Stacking
Don’t try to add extra <title> tags for more keywords. This cousin of keyword stuffing is called title stacking, and it won’t improve your search rank.
8. Distributing Viruses, Trojans, or Other Badware
If your site is distributing a virus, trojan, or other badware, Google’s going to remove you from their index right away.
9. Doorway Pages
Doorway pages or Gateway pages are webpages that are optimized for one search word/phrase, but are really designed to lead you to different content. For instance, doorway pages usually have very little original content and often cloak or redirect users to the intended Web site. An example would be creating seperate web pages for all of the cities in your market area and linking each of those seperate pages to your main company’s website.
10. Automated Inquiries
Just as Google doesn’t appreciate robots writing your content, they are even less appreciative of robots checking your page rank. Automated Google queries and automated link submission are both against Google’s terms of service, and both can get your website banned. These practices only tie up computing resources for everyone.
In Conclusion
Be wise with the tips and tricks you follow when trying to get your website listed higher in the search engines. If you are interested in getting your website listed higher in the search engines you should read more about search engine optimization practices or higher a trained professional that will use well-developed methods for increasing your page rank.
Posted in Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »
