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All the major search engines have rules (referred to as quality guidelines) that cover what you can and cannot do with respect to your website and the search engines.
For a quick summary, refer to Bing Rules, Yahoo! Rules and Google Rules (or keep reading below).
White Hat Vs. Black Hat.
When it comes to SEO, there are good guys and bad guys. The good guys are known as white hat SEOs and the black hat SEOs are the ones that make adjustments to websites that are in breach of major search engine guidelines.
Search engine rules are in place to protect the quality of the results that are displayed when a user uses an engine to perform a search query. Black Hat SEOs break these rules on purpose (usually because they are trying to outrank competitors and are using unscrupulous means by which to achieve their goal).
Other times, marketers make clumsy errors on their part because they don’t know any better. However, you do break the rules at your peril. Regardless of whether it was an honest mistake, the rules are published for anyone to see.
Consequences Can Be Severe.
Since most marketers want their websites to be found by major search engines, the consequences of being caught undertaking forbidden practices can be severe, including being struck off the search engine index.
(Some SEOs will tell you that this doesn't happen. They say that Google filters its search results instead. This is wrong. I reported a duplicate website to Google. Some months later the site was struck off the index. Don't think it can't or won't happen to you.)
If this happens, it means that regardless of what search query is placed, your website will not display as a search result by that search engine.
This can have severe implications for businesses that depend on being found on the Internet. If you are struck off, you’ll need to apply to be placed back on the search engine index, and it is entirely at the discretion of the search engine whether your website is reinstated. Be prepared to wait months (or longer) for any reinstatement to happen.
The moral of the story is don't break the rules and, if you see your competitor breaking the rules, feel free to report them in for their misbehaviour.
- Google Spam Report – You'll need a Google Account (it's faster and more effective to report via Google Webmaster Tools if you have an account)
- Yahoo! Spam Report – You'll need a Yahoo! Account
- Bing Content Removal Request Form – You'll need a Bing Account
Four Infringements.
INFRINGEMENT 1 – DUPLICATE CONTENT.
From time to time, marketing, web or IT people get zapped by a brainwave, a brilliant idea that goes something along these lines – "The more websites I upload, the better it will be for me." This is perfectly acceptable provided each website you upload is unique. (In other words it is substantially different in its content to all the others you own.)
But here's the rub. They have already paid a small fortune to build a new website with its new copy, images and video. They don't want to fork out more for another one. Then someone suggests they just reuse it. So they reload exactly the same stuff under a different domain name.
This is a classic case of duplicate content and it runs foul of search engine rules. You will be accused of attempting to stuff the front page search results – especially if your website is ranking well (and this of course gives the search engine an even more compelling reason to be really tough on you to make an example of the potentially mischievous practice).
You can check whether your websites are in violation by running both URLs through this free tool.
If there is a high percentage of similarity, you may be at risk.
Now before you get too paranoid, many web administrators include copy that is duplicated in other websites.
For example, they share product catalogues between websites, or reprint press releases and articles that appear elsewhere.
You will not be penalised for this – provided that your whole website isn't built this way.
A search engine (such as Google) has a different treatment of this type of duplicate content as covered off in the video by Google's Greg Grothaus below:
INFRINGEMENT 2: LINK FARMS AND SPAMMY LINKS.
You know those link schemes on the Internet that promise to deliver your website hundreds of backlinks for less than you'd pay for a couple of cups of coffee? Here is what you do.
You resist all temptation and run for the hills.
Here it is – straight from the horse's mouth.
Your site's ranking in Google search results is partly based on analysis of those sites that link to you. The quantity, quality, and relevance of links count towards your rating. The sites that link to you can provide context about the subject matter of your site, and can indicate its quality and popularity.
However, some webmasters engage in link exchange schemes and build partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. This is in violation of Google's webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact your site's ranking in search results.
Examples of link schemes can include:
- Links intended to manipulate PageRank.
- Links to web spammers or bad neighborhoods on the web.
- Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging ("Link to me and I'll link to you.")
The best way to get other sites to create relevant links to yours is to create unique, relevant content that can quickly gain popularity in the Internet community.
The more useful content you have, the greater the chances someone else will find that content valuable to their readers and link to it.
Before making any single decision, you should ask yourself the question – Is this going to be beneficial for my page's visitors?
(See the video below from Google's Matt Cutt's on whitehat (approved) linkbait.)
It is not only the number of links you have pointing to your site that matters, but also the quality and relevance of those links.
Creating good content pays off – Links are usually editorial votes given by choice and the buzzing blogger community can be an excellent place to generate interest.
WHO REPORTS YOU?
Often the first people to spot illegal link strategies in action are competitors. It may be triggered by the sudden arrival of a competitor website which is ranking strongly, seemingly from nowhere. If this is the case for you, all you need to do is run a backlink checker through the site to see who is linking to it.
FREE BACKLINK CHECKER TOOLS.
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BACKLINK WATCH. Address: http://www.backlinkwatch.com/ Click on thumbnail to enlarge. |
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LINK POPULARITY. Address: http://www.linkpopularity.com/ Click on thumbnail to enlarge. |
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SEO CENTRO. Address: http://www.seocentro.com/tools/search-engines/link-popularity.html Allows you to compare multiple URLs. Click on thumbnail to enlarge. |
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One client I worked with couldn't figure out where a competitor had come from on the search engine rankings. A quick backlink analysis told the story. You might wonder what an Aussie telecommunications company website had to do with the Arizona hair replacement studio linking to it (I sure did.) This behaviour is usually indicative of participation in link strategies and/or an unscrupulous SEO firm. It is also reportable behaviour. So if you are doing it, your competitors can report you, but the reverse is also true. If your competitors are doing it, you can report them.
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INFRINGEMENT 3 – STUFFING PAGES WITH KEYWORDS.
"Keyword stuffing refers to the practice of loading a webpage with keywords in an attempt to manipulate a site's ranking in Google's search results.
Filling pages with keywords results in a negative user experience, and can harm your site's ranking.
Focus on creating useful, information-rich content that uses keywords appropriately and in context."
So, what does keyword stuffing look like in real life?
It looks exactly like this:
You can check your keyword density using any one of these free tools:
or the free tool below:
The recommended keyword density is between 3 – 7%. Above 10% density starts to smell like keyword stuffing and you may be reported or caught and may be penalised.
INFRINGMENT 4 – HOSTING MALWARE.
For most people, having an infected website is not something they deliberately do. However, if your website is visited and Google finds it results in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent, a notice appears in the Google search result, as per this screenshot below.
And it is almost impossible for your customers to miss the warning messages or diagnostic page that might accompany it.
When you are banking on ranking, Malware is really bad for business.
WHAT YOU CAN DO.
If this happens to you, move your website to a new hosting server, making sure all malicious software is removed. Request a review from Google via your Google Webmaster account.
Additional Resources.
Next Tutorial.
Bing Rules – How to avoid incurring Bing organic ranking penalty.
