Black Hat SEO - or Do Not Try This at Home (Business Website)

If you decide to hire a search engine optimization firm or do your own, you need to know what NOT to do. There are things that can get you banned from the search engines, effectively ruining your online home business.

The basic rule of thumb is: Don't try to cheat. If it feels dishonest, it either is or may be considered dishonest soon.

But sometimes people are very good at making it seem OK. They'll point to websites at the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs) which use these tactics. They'll tell you, no, this isn't tactic, we call it X, despite that the two are identical.

The first no-no is hidden text on your website. If your visitors can't see it but the search engines can, you could get in trouble. Some people try placing white text on a white background, for example. These days such things are often hidden using an external style sheet, but don't expect that protection to last forever. If a search engine reads your style sheet and catches the white on white text, you could be in trouble.

Cloaked pages are another potential problem area. These pages show the search engine one thing and the visitor another. Some put nonsense with their keyword phrase throughout on such pages while others have actual content but more heavily optimized.

Doorway pages are designed to do well for a particular keyword phrase, but have little or no real content. The intent is for the visitor from the search engine to click through to the real website. They may be called by other names to fool you into thinking that they are not doorway pages, so you have to consider the true function of the page.

Sometimes doorway pages will be combined with a fast refresh, so the visitor does not even see that page; they are sent to the intended destination.

Now, it can be tempting to go ahead and use these techniques; after all, hasn't that website that does all of the above been there for years?

Remember that search engines are always trying to improve their algorhythms to automatically remove poor and irrelevant results from their pages. These techniques are typically used to make pages appear relevant when they are not, and so your website is at constant risk of banning. Plan your website for the long term.

Jealous of that high ranking doorway page? Remember, no one is building links to those except the SEO who originally created it. Build your website better and eventually it will beat out that page. It takes more time, but the success is likely to last longer.

If a Search Engine Optimization firm has used these tactics on your website and you have been banned as a result, there are things you can do.

First, clean up your pages on your website. Remove all the junk they placed on your website and any links they requested you put up. Clean up everything you have control over.

Contact Google at webmaster@google.com and explain to them what you have done to fix your website. If they feel you are sincere, it is generally a simple matter to be reinstated with your new, clean website.

Black Hat SEO - or Do Not Try This at Home (Business Website)

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