Feb 23, 2011 3:05 PM
The past several months have afforded several high-profile examples of how search engine optimization, or SEO, should not be done. Last fall it was DecorMyEyes and the case of the abusive business proprietor, and just recently it was JCPenney and the case of the short-lived black hat success.
Such stories are by no means the only ones out there, of course--they've just drawn more publicity than most. Either way, examples like these are a rich source of instruction for the rest of us and a good reminder that in SEO--as in so many aspects of life--there's a right way to do things, and there are wrong ones.
Want to improve your company's search rankings? Then make sure you don't try to play any of these dirty SEO tricks.
1. Cloaking Your Content
The No. 1 top offending SEO technique, according to both SEO software firm SEOmozand Google's own guidelines, is to design your Website so that search engines see one thing while human visitors see another. This is commonly called "cloaking," and it's generally considered the dirtiest trick there is.
Car maker BMW kindly provided a vivid illustration of this technique a few years back, as well as what happens to those who try it. Specifically, it was discovered that BMW's German Website was using what are called "doorway pages," or text-heavy pages sprinkled with select keywords, to attract the attention of Google's indexing system. The particular search term it focused on was "used cars."
So, when users searching for "used cars" found the BMW site at the top of Google's rankings, they were naturally tempted to click on it. What happened then, however, was that a JavaScript redirect would send them directly to BMW's main page, on which used vehicles featured minimally if at all.
BMW's reward for its cloaking efforts? Google unceremoniously kicked the BMW site out of its index, as Google engineer Matt Cutts explained in a blog post from 2006.
2. Acquiring Links from Brokers, Sellers or Exchanges ...
3. Duplicating Content ...
4. Keyword Stuffing ...
5. Banking on Negative Reviews
Although it was disputed by at least one SEO expert, the owner of the DecorMyEyes site believed that the more negative reviews and comments his site got--and there were many, thanks to his atrocious customer service--the better the site's rankings, primarily as a function of all the extra links and traffic. For a time, too, his strategy worked pretty well, for whatever reason.
In response to the case, however, Google says it has since tweaked its algorithms, though it didn't explain specifically how. My assumption is that the overall sentiment of a site's reviews are now a factor. So, lest anyone be tempted, this is not a sustainable strategy, nor a smart one.
6. Automatic Queries
If you're like most Website owners, you wonder how your pages rank on various keywords at any given moment in time. Lo and behold, there are even tools that will perform automatic queries for you, to find out the truth from Google itself.
The only problem is, Google doesn't like that at all. Tools such as WebPosition Gold, it asserts, "consume computing resources and violate our Terms of Service." Better avoid them.
There are other dirty SEO tricks out there, to be sure, but these are some of the worst ones. If you handle your company's SEO yourself, make sure you don't stray into these dangerous waters. If someone else handles SEO for you, manage them carefully so none of these slip by.
Follow Katherine Noyes on Twitter: @Noyesk .
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Most of the tricks outlined by Katherine seem like obvious ethical issues even if Google doesn't object. In the name of "fair play", for example, keyword stuffing is obvious trickery meant to deceive the search engine bots, consumers, and competitors. However, Google's objections to "Negative Reviews" and "Automatic Queries" seem to cross the line. Any web traffic, whether positive or negative, should in my opinion influence a sites popularity. When searching for designer eyeglasses, consumers are asking Google to only show them businesses with positive reviews, or the most popular businesses based on positive feedback, they are asking for a range of results from which to make a selection. Although attracting page views because of negative press probably brought "DecorMyEyes" more notoriety than sales, the search results based on the negative activity are still relevant.
Similarly, "Automatic Queries" echo the same useful data and insight that Google provides to its Adwords customers via Google Analytics. Understanding how your website (or your ad resonates with the public is valid. If something is misleading or is not impactful in your ad, you adjust it, change the placement, change the content, and try for more success. Why wouldn't Google allow web sites the same flexibility? If my site is buried below other less relevant sites or the usual suspects or the mega, bigbox providers in a specific category, "popularity" as measured by Google and called relevance, puts my business at a competitive disadvantage. Smaller players who are relevant to a category should have recourse. Once the top 10 is set, it is unlikely to change because viewers are unlikely to scroll to page two...even if something that could be relevant is stuck there waiting to be noticed. I think Google should leave this one alone, allow company's to influence placement within certain bounds, and then let the users decide based on clicks whether the company deserves it's spot or not.
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