subject: How to get your search engine optimisation strategy blacklisted? [print this page] How to get your search engine optimisation strategy blacklisted?
You would be forgiven for thinking that advances to search engine algorithms had all but stamped out black-hat search engine marketing practices. Search engine (SEO) experts like Google have been clear about the techniques that its crawlers class as spamming. And, as unscrupulous cybercriminals have a long history of exploiting algorithm loopholes, it follows that certain practices are put on search engine optimisation's proverbial Ten Commandments tablets. Thou shalt not hide keywords on your web pages is just one of these rules, and something that SEO expert has been avoiding for years.
But it seems that companies, particularly those that are new to the search engine marketing game, are still falling foul of SEO rules - something which can have dire consequences for businesses' bottom lines and their reputations. The continued use of search engine spamming has forced the London School of SEO to issue a list of techniques that must - we repeat must - be avoided. The list contains the usual suspects. As well as hiding keywords in text that is the same colour as a website's background, duplication of content and keyword spamming feature highly. Both of the latter are givens in the professional world of SEO, but are obviously still being overlooked by non-IT businesses launching web marketing campaigns.
Keyword spamming is perhaps the biggest no-no. Many firms are unaware of the constraints on keyword density set be search engine providers and SEO expert in the London School of SEO notes that saturating title tags, meta tags, anchor text, alt attributes and body text with keywords will just result in firms being penalised. But these are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of damaging your online presence. They are undoubtedly the most serious techniques a company can adopt when creating an SEO strategy - primarily because they can result in a website being blacklisted. But, they are joined by a raft of lesser offences which will simply push your homepage further down search engine results page listings - such as building a site with flash or simply using the wrong keywords during a search engine marketing campaign.
So despite the SEO enlightenment that appears to have taken place in recent months - it pays to know the dos and don'ts of successful search engine marketing.
