First of all, I want to make it clear that just because I don’t happen to agree with a particular SEO trick or tactic, doesn’t necessarily mean I think the person using the trick doesn’t know what they’re doing. I don’t know that it would be fair for someone to read this post and then go to their webmaster or SEO guru and debate with them about their techniques. There are currently no governing bodies, guidelines, or go-to authorities of any kind in our industry…although some SEO professionals have tried really hard to establish SEO standards over the last several years - with push back. The primary reasoning is that there are so many differing viewpoints over what is and is not good SEO. Also, search engines change frequently and without warning. So you can imagine how difficult it is to communicate to every single SEO professional that the technique they’ve always used is no longer going to be beneficial.
As a website owner it’s never a bad idea to be inquisitive and ask your SEO professional about the reasoning behind their technique. Most reputable SEO professionals welcome questions from their clients.
Trick #1: Stuffing keywords and links in the footer of the website
What does it look like? Have you ever been to someone’s website, scrolled all the way down and noticed an ugly mess of keywords and links that rests just above the copyright info? Most of the time they’re all in paragraph form, small font, and are really only there to help with website rankings.
There are several reasons why I’m not crazy about this but here are a few.
(1) It’s outdated. SEO professionals have used the technique in the past and it didn’t really do anything special.
(2) It’s GrayHat SEO. Allow me to explain. Black Hat SEO is anything you do that intentionally violates search engine guidelines, like these from Google. It’s outwardly using trickery to get your website to rank well. Search engines constantly update their algorithm to protect against this and penalize or ban websites that use Black Hat SEO. White Hat SEO is the opposite…it’s the kind of behavior that is beneficial for everyone - users, search engines and you. And then there is Gray Hat SEO which may or may not be considered bad. Since stuffing your keywords in odd places is explicitly warned against by search engines, I would say stuffing them in the footer of your website for no other reason than to game the search engines would be a bit on the dark side - maybe Charcoal Hat SEO.
(3) It clutters up your website. Enough said.
Trick #2: Incorrect Usage of Anchor Text
Ok I’m sure some of you are thinking, "speak English please". Anchor text is nothing more than a word or phrase in your website copy that links to another page either on your website or someone else’s. I love it and use it all the time in my blog posts. In fact, most well optimized websites utilize anchor text frequently, including Google. It’s a great way to refer your readers to other places on your website that would be helpful to them, which can help build up a great user experience. In the past, search engines have been known to associate the word or phrase in the anchor text link with the page it actually links to. So for example if website A links to website B’s Invisalign page using anchor text that contains the name Invisalign that would help to increase the likelihood of website B’s Invisalign page to rank for Invisalign. And it doesn’t necessarily need to be a situation where it’s two different websites; it can be the same site although it's better to have an anchor text link from another site.
The thing that bugs me is when people use it in ways that make absolutely no logical sense. For example, you’ll be on someone’s home page and they’ll have a nice friendly welcome statement that will include a link in the paragraph that says something like: “we are a premier provider of monkey wrenches in Mobile, AL” and will have “monkey wrenches in Mobile, AL link back to the exact same page the reader is on. And they do this thinking that simply having that keyword phrase as a link will somehow be enough to rank their home page higher. It won’t....but it will leave a reader scratching their head.
How do you know when it’s appropriate to use anchor text? (1) If it makes logical sense to use it, (2) if the keyword(s) inside the anchor text link don't make you look like you can’t speak proper English.
Trick #3: Bolding Keywords
What’s better than having keywords on your website? Bolding them! I’m being sarcastic of course, but seriously…why would a bolded keyword be any more important than a non-bolded keyword to a search engine? A search engine doesn’t care about how important you think a word on your website is or how you decide to present it. All they care about is that it’s on your website and you’re a reliable resource because they’ve found clues that point to the fact that you are. User experience is what they care most about. So ask yourself if you care enough about user experience to not bold every single important word in every single paragraph on your website.
I would like to know what you guys think. Are there any SEO tricks you’ve heard about that leave you scratching your head or questioning their effectiveness?
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