Search Engine Optimisation Tips | C2 Web Design

What not to do!

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Today’s article is what not to do in the ever increasing popularity and competition of search engine optimisation.

Sometimes it is all to easy to start using tactics to 'trick' search engines in to thinking your website should be listed higher. One of the most used ways of trying to trick search engines is to add a lot of hidden keywords (same colour text on same colour background) at the foot or throughout the page so that the search engine sees a much higher count of your keyword. This has a detrimental effect for two reasons; first if the search engines see a high number of keywords on your page (more than 15-20% of total words) then it can penalise you for overuse of your keyword - secondly hidden text is a big no-no. You may find it gives you a lift for a short period of time but the search engines will find you and will often drop your website much lower than you were previously or ban you altogether.

Other ways small businesses use to trick search engines is to use a gateway/redirection page. A gateway/redirection page is a simple page with just text showing main keywords, this page when visited immediately redirects you to the main home page. In theory the search engines visits the simple page and gives it a good position in its pages and then when someone clicks through it immediately redirects them to the main website. This became a very popular way of gaining a good search engine position around 4 years ago but the search engines caught on - now they detect redirection coding and as such penalise sites for using these.

Linking is a popular way of promoting your website but did you know this also has its dangers. For example imagine you own three websites. You own Website 'A', 'B' and 'C' all under the same web host. It would be quite easy for A to link to B, B to link to C and C to link to A. One way linking normally adds a lot more weight than reciprocal links so it was believed it would be a good way of gaining one way links (as none directly link back to the other). Many large companies were buying hundreds of domain names and websites and inter linking them all - trying to gain a huge advantage. Many search engines, particularly Google, were hot on their heels and will strategically look at who's linking to who. If there are interlinking sites under the same host - they can and will penalise you.

In conclusion if you think the tactic you are using is to trick the search engine then don't use it. Search engine optimisation is all about helping the search engines find you, and list you correctly.

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