May 19th, 2010 by Nick

There is no doubt that search engine optimization services do a great job to ensure a better placement of websites in the major search engines. However, there are instances where incorrect strategy, and simply foolish steps taken by them, has been harmful to a site. Here are a few things to look out for when looking around for professional SEO services:

Submitting links to search engines is a basic way to get listed. However, it has often become the reason why sites are blacklisted, should an SEO company submit several URLs of a site in quick succession. Ask if a company will submit your site multiple times. Submitting two or more URLs never returns two results!

Another trick that is often used is called “cloaking”. Cloaking is the process used in back links where the link points to a page that is optimised for search engines but when a user clicks on it, they are redirected to a completely different page; often causing a threat to a user’s computer.

Use of a gateway page is another nonsense step. A gateway page is the page that is optimised with keywords but offers nothing to the visitors. The visitors are requested to click a link to get the original contents.

Use of hidden text is another foolish technique that is used by unethical SEO companies in the UK. Here, webmasters add lots of keywords to a page using the same coloured text as the background so that they are not visible to the visitors. Yet of course, search engines can still see the text.

However, as modern search engines analyse the codes of the pages, this technique can be readily found and can result in a ban. Use of hidden links work in much the same way, and do not return anything helpful.

Another illegal activity is termed, “link farming”. A link farm is a page that has a high page rank used to link multiple sites. These pages contain nothing but a huge number of links. Often these page owners charge you for placing your link there. Beware before paying, as if that page is marked as a “Link Farm”, the incoming link to your site will not be counted as your back link. Plus, if you do this in your site, you will be punished in the rankings.

The mass use of your link in forums and blog comments can also be treated as spam. Search engines analyse both your own and the host site’s content. If it is found to be irrelevant, you will be marked as a spammer.

It should always be remembered that search engines are looking for human readable content – as Google itself advises, do your work for your users. To get better placement, and repeat traffic visitors it is important to make the content user friendly and relevant, rather than search engine friendly. With many years experience, our team at SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk can work with you to tailor SEO UK services to meet your goals.

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