SEO - What to Avoid When Search Engine Optimizing
You could get carried away by the promises shown by your webmaster when it comes to search engine optimizing your website. Certain aspects related to SEO need to be avoided while designing your website. If neglected, you will not achieve the rankings you set out to achieve in the first place.
• Avoid using any black hat SEO technique, as it does not go down well with search engines. Some webmasters may use cloaking mechanisms, which are deceptive in nature. Cloaking involves presenting a unique optimized page to the search engines, but a different page to the visitors. Your website may be penalized or even banned by most search engines.
• Webmasters may offer you software that automatically submits your website on a periodic (weekly / monthly) basis. Search engines consider the use of such software equivalent to spamming, and might penalize you.
• Some SEO professionals or webmasters may guarantee a first rank for your website on the Search Engine Result Page (SERP). Search engine algorithms are such that no one is sure how they exactly work. Hence, you should not trust such statements. If you are given any such guarantee, ask the expert what mechanisms they intend using to support search engine optimization. They might be using techniques that may ultimately lead to the ban of your website.
• If you are being offered submission of your websites to hundreds of search engines, take care that there aren’t that many search engines. Your website might be submitted to link farms, which does not serve your purpose.
• To run up their bill, webmasters may resort to over-use of Flash animations. Remember that Flash animations and images are treated as blank spaces by search engines. They might lend beauty to a website, but avoid their over-use, if achieving search engine optimization is your major aim. Instead, focus on using HTML and search engine optimized text to promote your website up the Search Engine Result Pages.