subject: Don't Fall Into These SEO Pitfalls [print this page] Don't Fall Into These SEO Pitfalls Don't Fall Into These SEO Pitfalls
We can always learn from the mistakes of others. There are always lessons to be learned. Here are a few mistakes and pitfalls that others have made with search engine optimization with their websites.
This Feb. 2011 Overstock.com was severely penalized when Google found out about some unethical gaming techniques they used. Overstock.com offered discounts of their products to any college faculty members who liked their .edu pages to Overstock's site. This bumped their rankings up exponentially since educational page links had more hold than regular, consumer sites.
When Google found out about their tactic Overstock was quickly penalized. Now Overstock is no longer easily found on Google, especially on the first or second pages of items. Google has very strict penalties for unethical or questionable SEO techniques.
Unethical SEO practices are known as gaming tactics. Gaming has been around for a while. Thanks to spam sites, there is still a lot of gaming going on.
We now know that even big-name companies can be caught in the trap of gaming tactics. Google recently slammed J.C. Penney for using unethical SEO tactics. J.C. Penney was involved in a black hat link farm, which allows them to bump their rankings quickly using links.
Link farms are spam. Link farms have a long list of links that are connected to all the other links on the site, and they don't have to be related at all. This boosts the rankings, but is unethical because the links don't hold any validity to the content of the site. Google and other search engines completely ban link farms when found.
When Google finds out about the unethical SEO, you are basically taken from your current spot and put on page 24. This could be devistating to your business. Black hat techniques may sound intriguing at the time, but in the end it is not worth it.
These types of situations and dilemmas can teach us a lot. It is very important to choose the right Boise SEO company so you know you won't fall in to pitfalls and underhanded SEO techniques like these. Do your research and go with your gut. If it sounds too good to be true it probably is.
