SEO Horror Stories
Halloween has come and gone, but these SEO horror stories are nonetheless scary.
If you are familiar with the world of SEO, then you know that things do not always go to plan, and when they go wrong… it can be disastrous. The thing is, there are plenty of resources online on how to correctly approach SEO, and what you should do, which is great! But there are not all that many resources showing the dark side of SEO, and how it can go wrong.
The sad thing is that most of the time, these SEO malpractices are not purposeful. Rather, they are often the result of people optimizing their websites poorly without actually realizing they are making a mistake (or doing something they can get penalized for). Here are some textbook examples of how not to approach SEO.
SEO Horror Stories: Avoid Google Penalties
Far too many people who have websites do not realize that you can actually be penalized by Google for poor SEO practices. And as if being slapped with a penalty in the first place is not bad enough, once you realize your mistake and correct it, recovering from one is much harder than you might think.
Penalties occur when a website is flagged for attempting to trick a search engine or harm the user experience. For someone who is up-to-date and is not stuck in the old days of SEO, one of the biggest ways to score yourself a penalty is keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing is exactly what it sounds like; saturating your page with an excessive number of keywords in an attempt to try to manipulate search engine results.
Using keywords too many times just to get traffic to your website is a big no-no. It is not user friendly, it is manipulative, and it is a false representation for Google users. Content on your website should include keywords, but it should also be user-friendly, and it should not trick searchers.
If you work with a reputable SEO expert, it should be relatively easy to avoid Google penalties, but if you’re optimizing your website yourself, make sure to avoid things like keyword stuffing that could land you in search engine jail.
SEO Horror Stories: Website Redesign Disasters
If you run a business that’s been around for a while, or even if you have a new business that starts booming and needs a reimage, the chances are at some point you’ll need to redesign your website.
This is, in essence, is a good thing... IF it is done properly. How do you ensure your redesign does not get butchered? Make sure your website developer and SEO pro are communicating! There are horror stories of people having their websites redesigned, ending up with a stunning result, but plummeting in the Google rankings because no one was visiting their website.
What is the point in having a beautiful website if no one is ever going to see it?
SEO Horror Stories: Direct Competitor Relationships
Whether you are selling SEO to someone else or hiring an expert to do your SEO, make sure that you do not work with someone who has also worked with a direct competitor of yours.
If you are hired to do the SEO for someone else, avoid taking the job if you have already optimized a direct competitor’s website. You want to avoid any conflicts of interest, and it is not unheard of for SEO agents to get themselves into disaster territory when they sell SEO to direct competitors.
If you are the one doing the hiring, the same rule applies! You want your SEO to be the best in the business, and that is hard to do if you are concerned that the person doing it has conflicting interests.
SEO Horror Stories: Noindexing Key Pages
Noindexing can be your buddy if you want to avoid unimportant pages on your website showing up in SERPS. But beware, there have been horrific tales of web developers or even site owners Noindexing important SEO pages, or even their whole website. If there is on way to watch your ranking plummet, it is Noindexing your search engine optimized pages.
The moral of the story here is, too many people think that SEO is harmless, and do not realize that poor practices can have detrimental results. If you are attempting to do your own SEO, familiarize yourself with the things that you should not do. And if you are hiring someone to do it for you, make sure that they actually know what they are doing!
To launch your digital marketing strategy, get in touch with the SEO specialists at Rizzo Young.