15 Shades of SEO

15TY SHADES OF SEO If you're into practices that are considered naughty, adventurous and taboo, then boy, do we have the article for you. We're not actually here to discuss the famous EL James novel (you can find our review on www.wedontreadrubbishliterature.com). No, we’re taking things to the next level. We're here to introduce you to the exciting world of search engine optimisation. So put away that leather mask – seriously, it's weirding us out, and get ready for Search Factory's latest master- piece: 15 Shades of SEO! BLACK HAT SEO There's hot wax and black leather kinda 'dirty', and then there's Black Hat SEO kinda dirty, which is much, much worse. Here are five notorious black-hat techniques that should all be hard limits. Link Farming A technique that's as transparent as a parade of mesh shirt-wearing men at Mardi Gras. Unlike Personal Blog Networks (PBNS), these sites are designed purely for spamming links. They don't even bother masking it with content! Don't get caught with your site here... or else! *cracks whip* Negative SEO Smearing the reputation of your competitors by spamming them with links is unimaginative and downright uncool. If you're going to degrade someone, at least ask their permission first! Cloaking The ol' switcheroo! Cloaking is when you mislead a search engine by showing it one page when it crawls, only to display a different page to a user when they click on the site from a search page. Clickbots This takes a lot of effort to set up and do well, but is one of the few Black-hat techniques that still work ...until Google finds out and you're sent to the naughty corner ...without a safe-word! Blog & Forum link spam Spamming online forums with keyword-heavy anchor text is a sure way to get yourself spanked by Google's Penguin ... figuratively speaking, of course. GREY HAT SEO Grey Hat SEO sites might try to hide the fact that they're dodgy by 'dressing up' their existing content, but no amount of make-up can save this ugly duckling. PBNS - Personal Blog Networks Link Building This technique disguises a link farm by filling the site with a small amount of relevant content, only to then post the material on irrelevant sites or hacked WordPress installs. Sitewide Footer & Sidebar links Pushing thousands of links from a site isn’t going to do you any favours. Think quality over quantity. This isn't tinder Buying Fake Social Followers You've got to be kidding right? No, not at all. Websites will actually send false social signals to bulk-buy 'follows'. It's a shame you can't fool Google... Buying Dead Sites to Redirect Link Juice Link Juice This is where webmasters will buy expired domains and redirect the authority. It might work for a little while, but long-term, it's ineffective and does more harm than good to your reputation. Onsite Over-optimisation Many have tried ... many have failed. Stuffing your content with keywords and sharing hundreds of links on a page won't dramatically improve your SEO ranking. You can't outsmart the internet. WHITE HAT SEO This is pure and heavenly, like your very first time.... eating peanut butter from the jar. Quality Content Forget the smut. You want clean, high quality content to feature on your page regularly. You don't need fancy tricks. Keep it simple and do it right. Clean & Natural Link Profile There's a lot of filth online, so a little spring cleaning goes a long way. Scrub the dirt from your backlink profile... literally. Good Website Optimisation For that brand new, freshly shaved online feeling, you can forget Gillette – good website optimisation is all about attention-to-detail. Get rid of duplicate content and trim the fat where necessary. Respect your audience, be confident in the message you want to deliver, and cater your content accordingly. Internal Contextual Linking Are your links contextual and relevant? Everything that appears on your website HAS to have a purpose. The elements have got to work together. You wouldn't find Pauly Shore in a Scorsese film, so don't insert a link to 'adult costumes' in the middle of your craft beer article. 6. Link Bait & Viral Content Production It is one thing having a smooth pick-up line, but to get the girl (or guy), you've got to have a pretty decent follow-up. The same applies to SEO. Yeah, she can be a cruel mistress sometimes, but as long as you've got compelling content to support your high quality link bait, you'll always remain high on her list of preferred websites. We hope you've enjoyed 15 Shades of SEO Keep the nasty methods off your website and in the bedroom... where they belong! O SEARCHFACTORY searchfactory.com.au Get Ranked!