In terms of companies that offer an array of SEO services, there is no question that you have a considerable range from which to choose. Marketing in this day and age has to take search engine optimization into account, which means that regardless of the size and particulars of your business, your business needs to take it seriously, too.
However, it’s not merely enough to choose an SEO company that sounds good, leave them to everything, and call it a day. Do your own research as well because some SEO companies have not kept themselves up to date on the best SEO practices.
Problematic SEO Companies
Some SEO companies simply fail to keep up with Google’s best practices, employing tactics that are no longer relevant, or worse yet, that bring consequences. Other companies just don’t seem to understand what SEO is all about.
Some SEO companies simply fail to keep up with Google’s best practices, employing tactics that are no longer relevant, or worse yet, that bring consequences. Other companies just don’t seem to understand what SEO is all about.
Sloppy practices can get your website in a lot of trouble. Being penalized by Google for shady/poor SEO practices can sink a good website, and even a good business. It creates a massive red flag that colleagues and potential clients will want to avoid.
Thankfully, you can avoid being penalized altogether.
Four SEO Practices To Stay Away From
Putting together a new SEO strategy for this year? It’s always a good idea to re-evaluate and reassess your SEO plan to begin with. If you are looking for a new company to help you, or if you simply want to improve upon your usual plan, here are four SEO practices that are best avoided:
Putting together a new SEO strategy for this year? It’s always a good idea to re-evaluate and reassess your SEO plan to begin with. If you are looking for a new company to help you, or if you simply want to improve upon your usual plan, here are four SEO practices that are best avoided:
1. Linking to the homepage: Your backlink strategy can make room for your homepage link. That’s not exactly what we’re talking about here. What we are referring to is the thought that the more links you have to your homepage, the higher Google is going to rate you. Remember that Google rates pages, and not websites. Furthermore, you do not want to be caught linking your homepage to exact match keywords. Your best bet is to create a blog, establish a reputation for high-quality material, and wait for the ideal links to roll in.
2. Link farms/wheels: Link farms consist of a group of websites created by an SEO provider, with the express plan of creating backlinks with specific sites. Beyond their potential at manipulating search engine results, they really do not serve any purpose. Link wheels are created by linking to money articles from others. The article linked to the money site will then be linked from different articles, which will also link towards the money sites. There are white-hat link wheel tactics, and then there are tactics that resemble link farms, which you don’t want.
3. Penalized websites: Remember when we told you about the array of headaches that can come from being penalized by Google? We weren’t kidding. In fact, the last thing in the world that you want to be caught doing is linking from websites that have been penalized (sandboxed) by Google. You want links from trustworthy sites. Talk to your SEO company about what they’re doing to get links and where those links are coming from. If you’re working with a company that vets potential links with Pixelgroove or Moz, then you are working with a company that is worth your time and money.
4. Buying links: Some claim this tactic isn’t so bad. The truth of the matter is that if you do your research, you will discover that buying links is pretty close to one of the worst decisions you could ever make. This is a complete violation of Google policy. This is something to keep in mind every step of the way. At the same time, link diversity techniques and other beneficial practices from your SEO provider can help you to build relationships organically, and ultimately, safely as well. When it comes to acquiring links, white hat tactics are the only tactics that you are going to want to concern yourself with.
2. Link farms/wheels: Link farms consist of a group of websites created by an SEO provider, with the express plan of creating backlinks with specific sites. Beyond their potential at manipulating search engine results, they really do not serve any purpose. Link wheels are created by linking to money articles from others. The article linked to the money site will then be linked from different articles, which will also link towards the money sites. There are white-hat link wheel tactics, and then there are tactics that resemble link farms, which you don’t want.
3. Penalized websites: Remember when we told you about the array of headaches that can come from being penalized by Google? We weren’t kidding. In fact, the last thing in the world that you want to be caught doing is linking from websites that have been penalized (sandboxed) by Google. You want links from trustworthy sites. Talk to your SEO company about what they’re doing to get links and where those links are coming from. If you’re working with a company that vets potential links with Pixelgroove or Moz, then you are working with a company that is worth your time and money.
4. Buying links: Some claim this tactic isn’t so bad. The truth of the matter is that if you do your research, you will discover that buying links is pretty close to one of the worst decisions you could ever make. This is a complete violation of Google policy. This is something to keep in mind every step of the way. At the same time, link diversity techniques and other beneficial practices from your SEO provider can help you to build relationships organically, and ultimately, safely as well. When it comes to acquiring links, white hat tactics are the only tactics that you are going to want to concern yourself with.
Easy Pitfalls To Avoid
As you can see, the list above isn’t that hard to avoid. If you are trusting these things to an SEO company, then you don’t really need to worry about it at all. That is, provided you have properly researched and vetted the company you ultimately hire. Talk to any SEO provider you are interested in about the items above. Don’t compromise. This isn’t a situation in which one or two points are more important than others. All four items mentioned above are important and should be taken seriously.
As you can see, the list above isn’t that hard to avoid. If you are trusting these things to an SEO company, then you don’t really need to worry about it at all. That is, provided you have properly researched and vetted the company you ultimately hire. Talk to any SEO provider you are interested in about the items above. Don’t compromise. This isn’t a situation in which one or two points are more important than others. All four items mentioned above are important and should be taken seriously.
If an SEO provider is willing to let even one of the above items go, then that is not a company or provider that you are going to want to concern yourself with.