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Last Updated on January 20, 2024 by Work In My Pajamas
If you’re not on Google, then you don’t exist! Well, alright, maybe you do exist, but you are definitely invisible. We live in times where online image and visibility are essential for business subjects, especially for companies and subjects that conduct most of their work online. That’s why web owners use numerous tactics and tricks in order to get a better position on Google searches.
However, some of these tricks are not considered to be legal and Google is imposing penalties on websites that use so called “black-hat SEO” techniques. The illegal practices are listed in the Google webmaster guidelines. Sometimes web owners are not aware that the technique that they’re using can get them penalized. They get penalized nevertheless. Engineers at Google often check websites manually, but for most cases they rely on the Google Penguin algorithm. In this article we give you five very important tips that will help you to stay clear of Google penalties.
In This Post:
1. Always Use Original Content
The first and probably most important advice that we can give you on this is to always use original content. Make sure that the content you present on your website doesn’t appear anywhere else. Even if the content isn’t 100% with the content of another website, you can still get penalized. Your content should be grammatically correct and relevant.
If you’re using content created by someone else, either someone you hired or a guest contributor, there are certain free online tools that you can use and see whether your content is plagiarized or not. And if your website features a comment section, make sure that you check the comments prior to publishing, either manually or via a program, because people often include non-relevant links which may trigger the alarm and get you penalized.
2. Links are Important
Links are also very important, and what sort of links a website features is one of the factors that influence Google’s decision on whether or not to penalize a website. First and foremost, make sure that your links are relevant. Relevancy is the key. You don’t want links that lead to websites that are dedicated to a completely different topic. You would definitely want to have links to other similar websites, even if they may be your competition in a way, because that kind of a link would be a natural link.
Don’t put a lot of paid links that directly take the visitor to another website, those can be quite annoying. It’s, of course, normal and okay to have sponsors, as a wise man said long ago- everything in moderation! Same goes for affiliate links, some are okay, but you shouldn’t have too many.
3. Anchor Text is Important
Another aspect of the SEO of the website is the anchor text. Non-relevant anchor text could surely get you in trouble. Also, generic anchor texts like “this” or “click here”, should probably be avoided as it is too common. Your anchor text should be authentic and not something that can be seen on every other site out there. At least most of it. Of course, you can have a generic anchor text here and there. And make sure that you use only a limited amount of anchor text.
4. Keywords
Similarly, you should always beware of what sort of keywords you’re using for your websites. Again, keywords have to be relevant. Don’t even think of using a keyword that is massively searched for and highly popular, yet in no way connected to the content of your website. It will get you penalized in a snap. Another thing you should avoid is overusing the keyword. You wouldn’t want your keyword to appear in every sentence, Google will surely catch that. If the website is dedicated to casino bonuses, like the example we gave above, than you would expect such keywords and contents in all of the parts of the website, in this case http://www.onlinecasinobonuses.co/guide-slots-bonuses/. You surely wouldn’t expect to find a guide on buying cars on a casino bonus website.
5. Malicious Backlinks
And last but not least, beware of malicious attempts to get you penalized. These can come from either your competition or maybe even some random hackers. They might try to use malicious backlinks, post guest content that might get you penalized, or otherwise attack your website. If you suspect that something like this might happen and you’re not sure how to deal with it, you should get someone who does. Also, make sure that your website isn’t too slow, that also might harm your ratings.
Broken external links and internal errors could also harm your reputation.
