One of the services we offer at V3 Media is using ethical, white hat SEO-only practices while developing and establishing strong search engine optimization for websites. Yet still many companies continue to rely on using black hat SEO practices for their website because they’re that desperate for traffic and quick sales.
Are you relying on these practices for your website? If you are, you could be penalized or banned from Google for your actions. Here are a handful of black hat tactics that are likely causing more harm to your website than good.
Keyword stuffing
Keyword stuffing for the sake of getting attention from search engines is one of the biggest no-no’s in SEO. This is an example of keyword stuffing:
“When trying to find a local dentist office, you need only look for Brownie McSmith’s Dental Care. Our local dentist office offers only the finest services in dentistry, especially those looking for a local dentist office. Contact our local dentist office today for great dental care services.”
I hope that was as painful to read as it was for me to write down. This kind of keyword stuffing, believe it or not, is still being used to this day by companies who are desperate to get their website noticed and indexed by search engines. Ask yourself seriously though: do you want to use this kind of content on your website?
In order to make sure your new and current clientele find your business, whether it is a local dentist office or not, write your content as if you’re talking directly to humans – not to search engines. Ditto for anyone else trying to optimize or write high-quality content.
Speaking of content though, here’s another black hat tactic that’s still going on:
Duplicate Content
Ever look at someone’s content and think, “Wow, this guy’s a great writer, I want what they wrote on my website too!”
Here’s what ought to be done in scenarios like this: hire the writer who created said content, and if you can’t, hire someone else who can write high quality content, or come up with your own.
Here’s what happens instead: duplicate content showing up online, a.k.a. plagiarism. Not only is plagiarism punishable in schools where the plagiarist student ends up being expelled, but also it results in penalization on Google, and more often it results in the website being shut down.
Article Spinning
Similar to plagiarism, article spinning is another cheap way to use someone else’s content and use it on another website. Instead of relying on the copy and paste method though, the content is tweaked and framed so that it is considered as unique to search engines.
As with plagiarism, the main lesson to take away here is to not be lazy and copy other peoples’ hard work and effort. Create your content that is unique, and if you can’t, get the help you need.
Spam comments
No one likes receiving spam and junk e-mail in their inboxes. The same applies to spam comments. You’ve seen these before – they prompt you to click a link at the bottom of their comment that’s more often than not a scam to make money fast. This is done in order to get back links connected to websites and thus generate more traffic and money out of them.
Not only can having these spam comments featured on your blog lead to a negative first impression, but also it will affect the reputation of your social media accounts. Moderating your comments and avoiding the use of improperly placed back links are the best methods to keep this black hat SEO practice out of the picture.
These are just a handful of the many prevalent strategies used to gain website traffic and money fast. The consequences of following through with these actions are dire and will do your website no good. If you need assistance with improving your website’s SEO, then contact us at V3 Media for a price quote. We can help you get the traffic and sales you deserve without relying on black hat SEO practices!