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Sometimes it is quite unpleasant to find yourself searching for information, when you are short on time and the integrity of the structure of the universe literally depends on a quick solution to the problem, and then go to a page that turns out to be spam. It results in wasted time and frustration. Google, like you, hates spam, but how can conscientious website owners avoid accidentally getting into this gray-black list from Google? This post will discuss the main ideas that the search engine uses to check resources for relevance, as well as methods of dealing with information on the site that can be mistaken for spam. When reading this article on the ADV Advantage website, you should constantly ask yourself questions, for example: “Does my website meet these requirements”, “Am I using prohibited methods”, etc.
1. Main indicators of website spamming
Google has been perfecting its own algorithms for detecting spam resources for more than 20 years, because the main goal of the search engine is to provide relevant information according to the user’s search query. Here are the basic principles that underlie the analysis and verification of websites for spam or outright irrelevance:
2. Ignoring social media
Nowadays, the absence of social networks in any company can be considered bad form. Search engines do not perceive marketing without close interaction with new or existing customers. Social media makes it convenient for both parties to communicate directly about your business or related topics.
3. Over optimization
Of course, optimizing your website by choosing the right keywords is never a bad thing, but over-emphasizing keywords and unnatural repetition of them in titles, URLs, and domain names can be harmful to your business, especially when the quality of the optimization far outweighs the benefit of the information posted.
4. Content theft
Relevant and unique content allows you to get organic reach and search engine results. That is why spam sites actively copy and repeat publications with stolen content from more successful resources. This happens, for example, through RSS feeds or manual copying of information. Google Search is able to track such processes and prevent fraudsters from getting free traffic.
5. Advertising spamming
For some businesses, advertising is the main way to make money, so these are the resources that are most affected by Google’s algorithms. However, you should always keep in mind that a ton of irrelevant advertising for your user according to search engine standards is a negative factor in the overall ranking of the resource. The best solution would be to place only ads that are similar to your business in a ratio of no more than 50% of the total page content.
6. 404 errors and incorrect web pages
Search engines are able to analyze the structure of an Internet resource and identify problems with navigation. A large number of inaccessible pages with no active links and pages that are not optimized in terms of loading speed negatively affect the site’s ranking, so marketers should monitor such things and give instructions to programmers to fix existing problems.
7. Low quality traffic
Spam sites are characterized by a constant exchange of low-quality traffic, so implementing control systems, such as installing captcha or using Google’s Disavow links to your site system, will help to effectively weed out irrelevant visitors. To improve the quality of traffic, you can use the method of guest blogging or other methods of attracting relevant traffic.
8. Change of domain
Sometimes changing a domain name or website location is forced, but for some sites this transition can be a big problem, as you may inadvertently repeat the behavior of spam sites that are constantly buying domains and creating monotonous pages that are never updated. Search engines pay attention to such operations and list these sites as irrelevant or misleading to the user. It is worth choosing a reliable domain to host your website once and for all.
9.Other techniques from the Black Hat SEO list
The main idea of this article is not to accidentally use prohibited methods of website promotion, so you should keep them in mind and, as a marketer, control the work of other departments: from developers to copywriters. Traditional tactics from the so-called Black Hat SEO list have a negative impact on the reputation of your business on the Internet, because search engines have long adapted their algorithms to detect doorway pages. Nowadays, the value of keywords in search results is gradually decreasing, so the spread of doorway pages using plain text is not so widespread, but it is worth considering that search engines still control this process.
The Black Hat SEO list also includes the following techniques:
- Cloaking is when information for search engine crawlers is different from what a real user sees.
- Malware is the intentional or accidental placement of code that can harm visitors by stealing data or damaging equipment. Recently, so-called cryptocurrency miners have become popular, installing themselves on a computer without the user’s consent and using its resources to receive cryptocurrency as a reward.
- Redirects to another URL – opening third-party pages without consent not only annoys users but also lowers your website’s ranking, so you should add modules that request the consent of visitors to go to another URL.
- Content theft – open plagiarism cannot be disguised because there is a process of indexing pages. However, outright content theft can harm both the author of the content and the sites that have stolen it, either intentionally or unintentionally.
What does Google think is right?
Search engines highly value those websites that establish a close connection with their users. To do this, you need to conduct proper SEO optimization and direct high-quality traffic with a high degree of engagement from other reliable resources. Most websites that fulfill these requirements and have a high ranking are rewarded with more traffic with a high conversion rate. As part of a marketing strategy, the most appropriate way is not to cheat the existing system, but to create a really useful online business with a well-designed website. A really popular business should clearly meet the needs of users, have a website that is easy to navigate, relevant results in search campaigns, and have clear location settings. Ignoring these recommendations will not only lead to a decrease in the number of conversions and an increase in the bounce rate, but may also lead to the site being blocked in the search engine under the terms of use.
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