How Not to Break SEO Guidelines?
Every day, Google updates its algorithms to filter out spammers. Almost annually, it rolls out major updates that cause massive shifts in search engine rankings for almost everyone on the web. This means the next: what works today may not work tomorrow.
Wondering, what exactly do Google punishes websites for? The list is ever-changing. However, there are some basic ways to avoid Google penalties. We’ve gathered the most relevant SEO guidelines to follow that will prevent your website from being blacklisted by Google.
SEO Guidelines to Follow:
Stop Buying Backlinks
Avoid disreputable sites and social accounts. Getting a link from such a site will only harm your resource. Even though it might work for a while, the problem is that Google is evolving. Someday you’ll be caught for sure. Thus, the best policy is simply not to buy links.
Broken Links Should Be Found and Fixed
This one is simple: a page with no broken links is likely to outrank a page with broken links.
Once or twice a year we recommend you to pop into Google Webmaster Tools and fix all the broken links it shows you. You might notice a small bump in the rankings of some of your webpages.
Keyword Stuffing is a Bad Idea
Don’t use keywords over and over again in your texts in the hopes that it’ll get you a better ranking. Keyword density should be less than 5%. Remember, Google’s top priority is the user experience. If all the posts users find are stuffed with keywords, no one will want to read them, and everyone will stop using Google to search the web. Google will never allow it, and some SEO experts believe that it’s the reason why search engines actively penalize keyword stuffing practice.
Forget About Article Marketing
The idea of article marketing is that you can write the article, and then split it into several posts, making small adjustments to the wording and punctuation. The next step is that you submit those versions to other websites that collect free articles in exchange for a link back to your resource.
Even though lots of people still practicing article marketing, it’s a dying technique. The reason is same as with buying backlinks: Google is always getting smarter. Earlier, you could take one of your posts, spin it into several variations, and get a few dozen links back to the post. Google would see those variations as unique articles, meaning no duplicate content penalty. The things have changed over time — Google algorithm has gotten better at determining materials with small changes. Google recognizes them for what they are: spam.
Conclusion
Instead of thinking about how to manipulate the Google algorithm for better rankings, create relevant content that deserves to be on the first page, promote it, and wait for Google to catch up. Its goal, after all, is to move the best content to the top of the pile. In that regard, the best strategy for getting your website ranked on the first page of Google is just to follow three simple SEO guidelines:
- Create valuable content;
- Get partners and target audience talking about it;
- Wait for Google to catch up.
That’s exactly what Google wants you to do. Be sure, adhering to the following SEO guidelines will help you rank better no matter what type of business you are in.
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