You have spent months optimizing your blog, traffic is going up and you keep investing time finding new techniques that will give you the boost you need and reach the Olympus.
Google can be extremely rewarding when it comes to creating content for your website and for the user. But what happens if this traffic suddenly stops coming to your site?
I mean, what happened? You don’t get any warning, alarm or bell that your site traffic has dropped. Well, it seems that Google has started a penalization process for your site and to this point my friend, you might not come back.
How Google Works?
if you are reading my blog, this means that you should have a clear understanding of how Google works. You should know by now that Google performs two processes: Crawling-Indexing and Presenting Results. To present results Google finds the best pages to be presented to you in the SERP (Search Engine Result Page).
To find out what are the best pages, Google uses an algorithm to avoid people manipulate the system and be always on top. They tweak the algorithm almost every day to keep spammers out of the equation. So how do you keep updated? Honestly checking your rankings every day.
I found out the hard way that Google takes things seriously and when you get penalized, is pretty hard to get their trust back. In order to avoid this ugly punishment, here are 3 commons SEO mistakes might penalize your site in 2017.
Don’t Buy Links
Ever noticed ads from so-called SEO firms promising you hundreds of links and a first page ranking for some ridiculous amount of money?
Just ignore them and move on. Here’s why:
Most of the time without a fail, the links coming from this company are from a spammy, disreputable sites and social networking accounts. Getting a link from those websites is like going to a job interview with a recommendation letter and without a CV.
It might work.. for a while. The problem is, remember how I said Google is always evolving? Even if they don’t catch you today, they are guaranteed to catch you at some point in the future. They always have and always will.
Can’t Buy Links? Join the Wrong Link Directories
Link directories are one of the most misunderstood elements of SEO. If your blog is about surfing, then you should be included in the surfing link directory.
Google is constantly monitoring your website and how you hang out with. Consider your website a house in a neighborhood. if your page is frequently mentioned in trusted, relevant and high authority sites, Google considers you part of the “Good Neighborhood”. But If all your links come from pages linking to millions of junky sites, well, Google knows that you’re part of some sketchy “bad neighborhood”.
So How Do You Identify a Bad Link Directory?
If you can easily submit your URL without having a revision, you’re probably in a bad directory.
If you submit your blog or website and is reviewed by an actual human being to make sure all of your content are top notch. This is a good place where your website should be.
Keyword Stuffing
You probably know that keyword stuffing means using a keyword over and over again in your content with the hope that it gets a better ranking. Does it work? Not at all.
Let me give you an example, let’s say your keyword is “best SEO agency in 2017”. This is how keyword stuffing would look like:
“The Search Engine Blog is the Best SEO agency in 2017. You should hire them because they are extremely helpful and they are the best SEO Agency in 2017. There are many SEO Agencies out there but if you want to work with the Best SEO Agency in 2017, pick the Search Engine Blog”
You get the idea, adding the same keyword every 5-7 words.
Not the best idea and here’s why:
Google love the users and they know every user must have a great experience. Their main focus is to present a well-written article for the search to answer his inquiry. Pretty much if all the articles people find are stuffed with keywords, no one will want to read them, and everyone will stop using Google to search the web.
My Friendly Advice?
Do you over keywords, write for the user and present something really valuable for the user. Once your blog has authority, you can revise your most visited blogs and improve them to have a bigger audience. Always keep in mind that you should not mislead the user, ever.
Should I Stop Doing SEO?
After reading all this, you might feel like you’re walking across a field of landmines, hoping you don’t step on an invisible deathtrap and get your site destroyed. You probably never thought SEO could be so dangerous. How can you catch up with the latest techniques? Remember my friendly advice. Instead of trying to figure out how to manipulate the Google’s algorithm for better rankings, focus on creating content that deserves to be on the first page, share it with your audience and wait for Google to find it.