Top Five Google Penalties

Top Five Google Penalties

Google is the most-used search engine in the world…and everyone dreams of their business name showing up on the first page of Google. This means Google must work really hard to assure that no URL cheats to get there.

Those  of us who don’t “pay per click” and instead rely on organic or natural search results must follow some basic do’s and don’ts to avoid Google’s “punishment” for violating their quality guidelines. Can your business afford the time it takes to recover from being dropped to last place in search results? Probably not, so here what not to do:

Keyword stuffing is using lots of keywords to rank your page artificially. Instead, use natural language and say what you mean. Example: Car wash services are not all alike. Some car wash services charge too much, other car wash services don’t offer a final dry. Our car wash services are the best!

Thin content: Google’s job is to deliver quality content to users. When a site’s content has little or no value to the user and exists only to crowd out competitive sites from the search results, Google rejects it.

Thin affiliate websites: avoid merely copying a merchant’s website to sell the same product yourself.

Duplicate content: some people actually duplicate their competitor’s website content while merely changing the name.

Spammy content: it’s when one scrapes together text from other ranked sites with no regard for the user experience.

Every site we build has Google Analytics embedded in the site’s code and our clients rest easy knowing that their business website is and will remain 100% clean from Google penalties. But the real key to higher rankings is strong content written optimized for keywords for an audience you understand, adding links, and making it visually appealing to read.

Should You Hire an SEO Expert in 2022?

People often ask us if it pays to hire a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) company to help drive more traffic to their website. Our answer is often the same: “If they promise to guarantee that your site will be on the first page of Google, then an emphatic ‘NO.’” Only an unethical SEO pro would say that, and any spammy technique that violates search engine policies will result in a permanent ban.

Frankly, the most important SEO ranking factor is content. Social signals, backlinks, HTML code, responsive design, and finally a high ranking domain name support strong content. 

WORDS! The words used on all pages, the photos that enhance those words; your headers and sub-headers, article title and descriptions, lists, blogs and even how a form is labeled all contribute to SEO strength.

This is why every website that ActiveCanvas builds begins with a content strategy. Before one pixel is spent on design and color palettes, we spend considerable time building knowledge and writing content that we know is strong and that will rank high at Google. (There are other fine search engines, but Google sets the standards, so we pay attention to their algorithms).

Google is and always has been very clear about this. Their search algorithm prioritizes high-quality content that genuinely helps consumers understand your brand and interact with it. In fact, if your website uses any “click-bait” (content whose main purpose is to get a get a click regardless of relevance) or that uses too many misleading keywords, your site will be demoted, not promoted, and could be banned or ignored by Google, Facebook and others.

We recommend an SEO audit every year or so just to be sure that the online conversation you are having with potential and current customers is still compelling content that meets all the Google SEO standards. When we focus on your audience instead of “clicks” you have an SEO-friendly website that people actually want to read. And that’s good for your bottom line!

Do You Really Need SEO?

SEO water glassWe have a client with a product so unique, only a handful of markets use it. The site serves companies that play in that market with product updates and industry news. No one other than the businesses who need their product subscribe to their newsletter or product update notices. This client does not need SEO. They have, but they don’t need it.

However, we believe that most companies benefit from the basic building blocks of SEO—The Five C’s: Code, Content, Connections, Communications, and Capture.

Let’s take look at each building block:

Code

Every website should have underlying code that Google, Bing, and Yahoo can use in order to rank the site on a search engine results page (SERP). These are often referred to as meta tags. How to write certain meta tags is a science in itself and usually requires identifying the keywords used by direct competitors.

Content

The content on your site (and content about you elsewhere on the web) is your single most important SEO ingredient. SEO-friendly content satisfies the search engines and delights and amazes your prospects. Keyword phrases done well are subtle, relevant, and read like we speak. If you’re overaggressive with SEO keywords, a site can actually be “punished” with a lower rank or no rank at all. Writing SEO-friendly content is an art.

Connections

It’s called link-building, and it’s the most difficult to do well because it requires engagement. Not the proposal-leading-to-marriage kind of engagement, but link exchanges with “influencers” in your market. So if your site boasts the world’s first electric tractor, you want Farm Industry News writing about you and linking to your website. Don’t pay anyone to find broken links on other sites with the offer to replace the broken link with yours. Google wants high quality SERPs and will punish those who abuse their algorithm.

Communications

Social media is not SEO. But using social media to engage with customers and influencers is one of the best ways to create the connections that lead to SEO-helpful links. Don’t get me wrong, we all belong at the Social Media Marketing Table. So when you post, keep in mind who you are posting for—your customer and a potential industry influencer.

Capture

As Alice said to the Cheshire cat, “if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.” When looking at website traffic, we can’t know how well we are doing today unless we know how well we did yesterday. Google Analytics embedded in a website is just the beginning. Knowing how to analyze the data, then change, alter, add to or get rid of certain content on your website is critical to a site’s success.

What if No One is Picking Up What You’re Putting Down?

Let’s say you have invented a new product that has proven immensely popular with the friends and family whom you persuaded to try it. It could be the next top-seller gadget for 2018, but no one is searching for it because no one knows it exists. Running keyword research is a waste of time—keywords won’t exist yet. You have to create them! In these cases, the best SEO tactic is paid search in an awareness campaign. The good news is that the cost of paid search is affordable—there’s no competition in this case. Once there’s demand, return to an SEO strategy and drop or scale back any AdWords campaign.

Want to check out your website’s SEO potential? Email us and we’ll send you our SEO Best Practices Guide. Or just call (772) 932-7969. Do it now!