Worst practices in search engine optimization

Worst Practices in search engine optimization “Google may temporarily or permanently ban any site or site authors that engage in tactics designed to distort their rankings or mislead users in order to preserve the accuracy and quality of our search results.” This article examines some of the techniques that can lead the search engines to ban a site—so called “black hat” techniques. It is important for all webmasters and those that outsource their search engine optimization programs to understand these techniques and the impact they can have on search engine placement. One problem faced by legitimate sites is that black hat sites may rank well for short periods of time (before they are banned). High-ranking black hat sites will push legitimate sites down in the SERPs. In fact, many black hats make a living by automatically generating thousands of sites that rank well for a short period of time. Many of these sites make only a few cents a day, but multiplied by thousands or tens of thousands of sites, it adds up to a lucrative business. Another problem is that many black hat optimizers openly steal content from legitimate sites. A thriving consulting business has sprung up to provide search engine optimization services. While many consultants use “white hat” methods (those that are not likely to lead to a penalty or ban), some use black hat techniques. For example, according to Google insider Matt Cutts’ Blog the SEO consulting company Traffic Power was banned from the Google index. In addition, Google also banned Traffic Powers’ clients. The worst black hat optimizers use techniques aimed at having their competition penalized or banned by the search engines. We discuss search engine optimization, then examine black hat indexing techniques, followed by on-page and off-page methods. We also discuss how black hat optimizers manipulate the rankings of their competitors.