There is no end to the limits allowed in ethical and technical techniques in the fight for Search Engine Optimization rankings. Yet many webmasters still practice Black Hat techniques and get either temporarily or permanently excluded from search engines. Search engines have to consistently provide accuracy and relevancy in their search engine results. Unethical practices are a serious threat and if tolerated will result in search engine results that are manufactured. As a result search engines will lose credibility and relevancy.
The most common Black Hat techniques or perhaps the easiest to practice are Keyword stuffing, Doorway Pages (hidden text), Duplicate Content and Link Spamming
Keyword Stuffing
The recommended percentage of keyword density per webpage is about 3-7%. Anything over that and content becomes hard to read by humans as it starts making no sense. Keywords in the title and headings as well as the first paragraphs are more important. If your site requires a high density of keywords then it is suggested you use synonyms instead in some of the occurrences.
Overuse of special text such as bold or italics also produces an unnatural read. Google in particular have no hesitation in imposing penalties.
Doorway Pages and Hidden Text
Doorway Pages are considered keyword scams. This is where a page is made especially for a search engine and has absolutely no relevant for a human reader. Hidden Text goes hand in hand with Doorway Pages.
Hidden Text is text that is placed into eh content but is invisible to human readers. The text is usually included in the HTML but in the content it is the same colour as the background which makes it invisible to the reader. The intention is to fool a search engine into thinking that a webpage is keyword rich. However they are both considered nothing more than a technique aimed at manipulating search engine spiders.
Duplicate Content
Duplicate content is text that is exactly the dame on each webpage on the same website. It can also be practiced on sister sites that are heavily linked to the main site. However syndicated content is not considered duplicate content.
It is advisable to check your site occasionally to check if someone else is duplicating your content on their site. This happens more often than one might imagine.
Links Spam
Backlinks are important when utilized correctly. Buying into link farms or blacklisted sites is cause of being penalized. If you have more incoming links than outbound links this may also raise flags with search engines. This may indicate that you are creating too many irrelevant links.
Anchor text in links may help raise rankings but only is they are precisely measured. You may not have any control over third parties that link to using anchor links but it is within your control to make periodic checks.
Search engines cannot differentiate between whether you are over optimizing intentionally or not. They don’t care. Not matter how honourable your mistakes are the results will be the same. With the host of tools, techniques and information available ignorance can no longer be an acceptable excuse.
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