SEO worst practice

Like anything that achieves a certain level of popularity, the process of SEO is vulnerable to those who wish to cheat the system. Most companies practicing SEO do so in line with best practice guidelines, creating strong links through personal interaction, communication and great content. However, there are several link-building techniques which can lead to a site being blacklisted.

Spam is the best-known technique, whether via email or spamdexing. Everyone will at some point receive an example of the former in their inbox, although in email form these hold no SEO value but invite you to place your business with companies that promise the earth but will deliver very little. Also known as web spam, spamdexing uses a number of methods, such as creating buried pages (also refered to as doorway pages) on a site to drive traffic, or keyword stuffing content. The aim is to manipulate the way the search engines index the sites.

This technique remains controversial among SEO practitioners, with some stating that elements of spamdexing do have some merits (usually the companies sending blind emails). Others prefer to avoid it completely, and point to evidence of how search engines actively degrade sites seen to be manipulating keywords etc. Think back to BMW when their German website was removed from Google’s index because their agency went this route.

Comment spam is a chief target for what is known as black hat SEO. This is the act of posting a spurious comment on any given blog or forum, not necessarily related to the product being sold, for the purpose of creating a link-back to a website. This type of link frequently leads to illicit, or even illegal, material. These campaigns tend to be short lived as they are quickly stamped down on my moderators, or comment spam filters.

So, don’t be afraid to quiz prospective SEO providers on their link building techniques. Ultimately, poor advice and link building tricks will harm your brand, website and online reputation and although short term gains can sometimes been seen, it’s clearly not a long term strategy to success.