Search Engine Don'ts

You just completed your new web site.  You spent weeks getting everything to be 'just perfect.'  Your rollovers roll.  Your submission forms actually submit.  And as you step back to view your design you realize that you just finished a job well done.

But there is still one more thing to do.  Now that you've created this web site, you realize that it's time to let the world know that it exists.  And that means submitting it to the search engines.

In that moment of clarity, every rumor you ever heard about search engine positioning comes back to you.  "Can you actually trick the search engine spider?   Should you stuff your meta tags with repetitions of the same keyword?   And what's this stuff about invisible text?"

The list goes on and on.

Unfortunately, the temptation to spam the engines at this point is high, and many people who find themselves in this position make all the wrong decisions. 

Spamming the engines is honestly not the answer.  The search engine spiders are far more intelligent than they were just a few years ago, and they will quickly pick up on your attempts to spam them.

Even those who do it 'successfully' and think they are getting away with it, most likely don't realize that they have already been caught, and that their site is being penalized in some fashion or form.  And when they finally go too far, their domain will be banned

Also, for those who think they are getting away with it because their site is currently ranking highly, just remember that the higher you rank, the more likely you are to have your site reviewed by a competitor to see how you did it. Spam is not very difficult to spot, and if you are outranking someone in a competitive market through use of a spamming technique, the odds of you being reported are high.

I don't know about you. But I couldn't sleep at night like that.

The good news is that you can achieve high ranking without using any spam techniques at all. So why take the risk?  You can be honest and still win!

Nevertheless, many people who are guilty of spamming the search engines don't even realize they are doing it.  So, in this segment, I'll list some of the more common methods that people believe will improve their rank, but actually result in their
ranking going down. 


Search Engine Don'ts

Don't:
Use text that is a  slightly different in color than the background color to hide words.

Don't:
Use text that is the same color as the background to 'hide' words. Also note, if you are setting a background color to a table cell, make sure that any text you put inside the cell is not also the same color as the page background color.

Don't:
Repeat a keyword over and over again in your meta tag content.. As a general rule, use no word in this area more than three times in the description meta and in the keyword meta.

Don't:
Create a title like "web design, web design, web design.. etc". Not only is this spam, but it is so visually unappealing that very few people will click on your link anyway.

Don't:
Create a page which is stuffed with keyword content so far down the page that it is unlikely anyone will ever scroll down that far. This technique is especially abused by people who rely on splash pages for their index page. However, the technique is easy to spot, and it is clearly spam.

Don't:
Create a plain page specifically designed to rank highly, and then once indexed, upload a different page to your server.

Don't:
Put misleading words on your page in the hope you will attract visitors looking for another topic. (example - Monica Lewinsky)

Don't:
Submit a page to the search engines that, once loaded, automatically redirects to a page of differing content.

Special Note: 
This practice was widely abused by the XXX industry using the Meta Refresh Tag. As a result, some engines now refuse to list any page which contains a Meta Refresh. If you are using redirection for a legitimate purpose such as browser or resolution detection, use javascript, and delay the redirect as long as possible.  If you must use a Meta Refresh, withhold the redirect for a minimum of 10 seconds.

Don't:
Create a page that prohibits the user from using the browser's back button to return to the search engine results. You may encounter this if using a javascript redirect, but with a little savvy coding, the problem can be easily overcome.

Don't:
Go overboard with doorway pages. Use a reasonable approach. For example, an 8 page site with 30 doorway pages would be spam. When deciding how many doorway pages to use, use a reasonable and common sense approach.

For information on Doorway Pages please see:
http://spider-food.net/doorway-pages.html.

Don't:
Submit multiple versions of the same page to the search engines over and over again. Also, check with each engine to see how many pages are allowed per day.

Don't
Submit pages which contain keyword filled 'sentences' that make no sense.  Believe it or not, some search engines can actually tell if you are using complete sentences.

Don't
Create a page with so many keywords on it that it is obvious the page is spam. For example, if your page contains 500 words and the word "fishing" is repeated 50 times, it's rather obvious you are spamming the engines.  And trust me, the spiders can calculate the ratios faster than you can.

Don't
Put umpteen gazillion 1x1 transparent gifs on your page and assign them all with the same ALT text. This is rather easy to detect.

If you do use a transparent gif in this manner, make sure you do not specify the dimensions of the graphic in your code.

Don't:
Put multiple versions of your Title Tag in the HTML code. For a while spammers were enjoying success with this, but the search engines quickly caught on, and it is now considered spam.


This is only a beginning list.  There are even more advanced spamming techniques that should not be used, but I believe that you get the picture.  The message here is that despite the creative thinking of would-be spammers, the good folks who run the search engines have already considered just about every way they could possibly be spammed, and they've implemented safeguards to prevent it.

Admittedly, some web sites will slip through the cracks.  But you should not let these exceptions to the rule become your model for what does and does not work.  By following ethical search engine optimization strategies you can easily achieve high ranking without resorting to spam.

So good luck!  I've covered a lot of things you shouild not do.  But there are many things you can do.  To learn more about those, just visit http://spider-food.net.

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J.K. Bowman is the owner and editor of Spider-Food.net, a 140 page plus on-line resource for search engine optimization, positioning and  web site promotion techniques.

Spider-Food.net
http://spider-food.net