In the previous section, we talked about several things that we can employ to
improve the page ranking of a web site. In this section, we talk about undesirable
techniques that should never be employed. Using the following methods will
not only make your site unpopular but also lead search engines to block it.
• Repeated
use of the same keywords and keyphrases This practice was popular
among pornographic sites till a few years ago. If you use this method now to inflate
your popularity, your site will be negatively affected.
* Use of Irrelevant keywords and keyphrases that have nothing
to do with the main subject of the web site Some years ago, one of the most
requested keyphrases was Britney Spears. And many sites received a lot of
hits by repeating this phrase that had nothing to do with the contents of the
sites. If you use this method now to inflate your popularity now, again,
your site will be negatively affected.
* Use of hidden text and links whose font color matches the background
color of the page to make invisible
• Linking to banned pages The link exchange is not
a bad practice if you do it right, but make sure that you don't have a link to
a site that has been banned by search engines (Google, MSN Search, Yahoo! and
so forth).
These are other common techniques
that have been used by bad SEOs to improve the page popularity.
• Cloaking:
the practice of returning different pages depending on who is requesting them.
It's usually done to distinguish regular visitors from search engines' crawlers.
The webmaster gathers IP addresses belonging to search engines and their robots
like Googlebot and Slurp. By rewriting Apache server's .htaccess file with
mode_rewrite module, they attempt to detect regular visitors different from search
engines and deliver different pages, depending on which.
• Cross Linking: It is the practice of linking pages within
the same site using '<a href=" ">' tag. It may be used to
artificially have inbound links.
• Doorway Page: use of entry page or landing page. It's
also called 'Gateway Page.' The doorway page uses keywords to attract visitors
and redirect them to another
• Googlebombing: the practice of associating a web site
with keywords which can be searched on Google. This practice uses Google's
page voting system. You can set up a web site, which outbound-links to White
House's web site and George W. Bush's biography page, with repeated use of keywords
'miserable failure.' If successful, a search term 'miserable failure' on
Google points to George W. Bush's biography page. More
information
• Googleating: the practice of constructing a web site
primarily for the purpose of having it appear for Google's search results. Its frequent appearance makes adverse use of Google's
page ranking system.
• IP Delivery: A technique of automatically delivering
different pages for different IP addresses depending who accesses the web site
• Keyword Stuffing: Repeated use of relevant or irrelevant
keywords to the web site to artificially increase the likelihood of being searched.
• Link Farm: It refers to the use of a site which allows
visitors to list their web sites to get inbound links for the sole purpose of
increasing page rankings. Some SEOs use this technique to inflate the page
rankings of their clients' web sites.
• Link Hoarding: the practice of getting as many inbound
links to a web site as possible with a small number of outbound links in order
to increase page ranking.
• Shadow Domain: A domain used to illicitly redirect visitors
to a different IP or usually the real website. It's also called 'ghost domain.'
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