SEO Spam Practices to Avoid When You’re Trying to Rank

Google’s search systems are designed to seek out quality content on the internet to help searchers find what they’re looking for. They use complex algorithms to determine how trustworthy your site is, whether it offers a great user experience, whether the content is relevant, among other factors. 

When businesses and individuals put time and effort into optimizing their websites for search engines, they rank higher than those who don’t. However, it’s not uncommon for some people to use spam practices to ‘trick’ Google search systems into ranking sites higher than they should be.

Content should never violate Google’s spam policies or its overall policies. If you’re in the process of learning how to optimize your website for better search engine rankings, avoid these spam practices: 

Cloaking

Cloaking describes manipulating search rankings and misleading searchers by showing different content to each. For example, you might show content about top-rated vacation destinations to search engines, but it appears as a page about discount medication to human searchers. The text and keywords can also be different depending on whether the site visitor is a human or search engine. 

While cloaking is something a website owner can do to manipulate search engines, it’s also a popular hacking technique. Hackers use cloaking to make it harder for a site owner to know they’ve been hacked. 

Doorway Abuse 

While not commonly discussed in the SEO world, doorway abuse is a ‘black hat’ technique where webpages are created to rank for specific search terms and redirect users to less relevant pages on the same website. The content is typically keyword-stuffed and lacks substance. 

The goal of doorway abuse is to manipulate search engines to attract traffic for particular phrases or keywords. Google considers doorway abuse spammy and manipulative. 

Scraping

There are few things as frustrating as seeing content you’ve worked so hard on be stolen and used by another business. This is often referred to as scraping. It’s when someone takes content from other sites, often through an automated process, and uses it to manipulate search rankings. They typically take the content without citing where it has come from or making any changes. Sometimes, they change it just enough to not be identical before republishing it. 

Expired Domain Abuse

Expired domain abuse involves an individual purchasing an expired domain name and repurposing it. The goal is to manipulate search rankings but providing nothing of value to users. 

Examples of expired domain abuse include someone selling commercial medical goods on a site that was once a non-profit medical charity, or a former elementary school site being used for casino-related content. 

Keyword Stuffing

When you want to rank highly for a specific phrase or word, it’s only natural to want to use it as much as possible in your content. However, this can be seen as a spammy practice called ‘keyword stuffing.’

Keyword stuffing is when you try to manipulate search engine rankings by filling a webpage with strategic keywords or even numbers. They can appear in a list or group, out of content, and unnaturally. 

There are many examples of keyword stuffing, such as:

• Paragraphs with mention of multiple cities and regions a website is trying to rank for
• Repeating phrases and keywords so frequently that they sound unnatural 
• Writing lists of numbers or words that add no value 

Hacked Content 

Website owners can be using SEO spam practices through no fault of their own. If a website’s security is weak, hackers can place content on a website without permission and provide poor search results. The content they provide can even install malicious content on people’s computers.

Hackers use a range of techniques, including: 

• Code injection: Hackers inject malicious code onto existing web pages, such as a malicious JavaScript 
• Page injection: Hackers add new pages to your site containing malicious and spammy content 
• Content injection: Hackers can manipulate existing pages on your website and add content that can be hard for you to see, but that search engines can see 
• Redirects: Hackers can put malicious code on your website that redirects users to another URL, which can be harmful or spammy 

Experience Professional SEO Results from the Experts at SEO Runners

Spam practices can take a significant toll on your search engine rankings. If you’re trying to help your business stand out from the crowd, these are just some of the many you’ll need to avoid. If you’re unsure how to create quality content that complies with Google policies and ranks, talk to the team at SEO Runners. We are here to assist with all your content creation and digital marketing needs. Request a free, no-obligation estimate today.