Absolute don'ts for SEO

1. White text on a white background

You used to be able to pull this ‘trick’ off, but these days it no longer works. How did it work? Google always tried to show the most relevant websites for your search term. So if you had the keyword on your website five hundred times, so to speak, Google considered your site very ‘relevant’. That would not look decent to website visitors, though, so the text was set in white on a white background. That way it looked like the words were not there at all. Fortunately Google figured this out quickly and fixed it in the very next update. To be clear: this does not work. It was one of the biggest don’ts in the history of SEO.

2. Link directory pages

Surprisingly, this trick is still being used. What people are trying to achieve with it is creating so-called ‘backlinks’. With a backlink, another website places a link to your site. The more ‘authority’ the website carrying the backlink has, the better that is for your own website and its positions in the search engines, generally speaking. What Google obviously does not intend is for you to place links to your own site on this kind of ‘spammy’ website. If you are lucky it may help a little for a while. But before long Google ‘catches on’ and you are back where you started, or you have dropped even further in the search results. If you already have a link to your website on sites like that, try to undo it as quickly as possible. You can do that by removing the mandatory backlink you have to place to the directory page in question, for example. If that does not help, Google offers another way out: through Google Search Console you can ‘disavow’ these links so Google no longer takes them into account.

3. Buying backlinks

There are plenty of offers online to buy backlinks through websites like Fiverr or through ads on spammy websites. But that is not the way you are meant to get backlinks. Google recognizes these kinds of links and will ‘punish’ your website for them too. We recommend earning backlinks honestly, for instance by publishing guest articles on other blogs. Or by simply asking for one when someone mentions your company on their website.

4. ‘Stuffing’ too many keywords onto a page

Are you trying to reach potential customers with a dedicated landing page? Great, there is nothing wrong with that. The content on that landing page does have to be unique, though, and not ‘spammed full’ of the keyword you want to be found for. And do not get us wrong: if you can work the keyword you want into the page in a natural way, that is fine. But if it gets too spammy it can work against you, and Google may ‘punish’ you for it.

Example: Do you want to have custom shoes made? Shoemaker Justin can have custom shoes made. Do you also want to have custom shoes made? Then get in touch with us, the have custom shoes made specialist!

And you get to guess which keyword that was supposed to rank for ;).

5. Duplicate content

Are you trying to create dedicated landing pages, or do you have several trade names for your company? That is fine, just make sure all the content is unique. Google spots duplicate content quickly, and you get ‘penalized’ for it.

So what are the right ways to work on SEO for my website?

Good question, and it would be a shame to give it all away in this article. So we recommend following us on one of our social media channels and keeping an eye on our articles. We aim for at least one article a month, in which we share the best tips & tricks and the latest news!