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8 ways to get rejected by search enginesHere are 8 ways to get your webpages rejected by search engines.
Spam your pages with keywordsWhen it comes to search engine ranking, 'spamming' is trying to fool the search engine into ranking your site higher. Key words are crucial to your search engine rankings but it's equally crucial that you don't go overboard with your keywords or you risk being penalised. Your keywords should relate directly to the content of your webpage. Don't gratuitiously list keywords one after the other (except in your keyword meta-tag). Instead, they should be integrated into your body text as naturally as possible.
Repeat the same keywords repeatedlyWhile it used to be common practice to load your meta-tags (and visible copy) with the same crucial keywords repeatedly, websites are now being penalised or removed from search engines for this practice. Don't repeat a word in your meta-tags more than half a dozen times.Similarly, don't use the same title in more than one page. I know I often do this by accident by forgetting to change the title for each new page. This means you don't need to repeat the business or website name in every subpage's title. Effectively, what you're telling the search bots is the content on all your pages is the same. Less pages on your site will get indexed and hence less traffic. Don't duplicate any pages on your website - search engines view this as spam. Also don't repeat tags in your HTML. For example, using the TITLE tag more than once.
Repeatedly submit your pageTheoretically, you shouldn't even need to submit your site to search engines. If you have other websites linking to you (which should be a priority in your online marketing), eventually a search engine's spider should follow that link to your website and index your pages. It can speed up the submission process if you manually submit your site (and who wants to wait?) But be patient - search engines have cycles where they crawl the web, indexing new sites. Don't resubmit your URL if it isn't appearing immediately - it can take up to 2 months for your site to get listed (submit-it.com have a table of the estimated listing time for the major search engines). If you submit your site more than once within 24 hours, you may be penalised.
Dynamic URLsMany search engines won't index dynamic URLs. These are webpages (usually database driven) with %, &, Session ID's in the URL. For example, www.tipsntutorials.com/article.php?ArticleId=23. If you are using database driven pages where you need to pass parameters through the URL, use mod_rewrite or some other URL rewriting technique to convert all your URLs to a search engine friendlier version.
Use framesThere are many reasons not to use frames, attractiveness and functionality not being the least. However, just the fact that search engines have trouble indexing framed websites is enough reason for me to give them a wide berth. Google explains their own troubles with frames in their page explaining why your site isn't listed.
Make your text invisibleAn old-hat technique to trick search engines was to hide paragraphs worth of keywords by making the text the same colour as the background. Nowadays this can also be achieved with layers by hiding text behind pictures or other objects. Search engines have wised up to this trick and if they find invisible text, may penalize or black-list your site. Don't risk it - even accidental invisible text can burn you.
Use a splash screen for your homepageA splash screen (also called doorway page, bridge page, etc) is a 'welcome' page visitors are forced to view (usually animated) before taken to the 'real' website. Two good reasons not to use them: firstly, many users (including myself) are frustrated by these time wasters which serve little practical purpose. Secondly, many search engines visiting your homepage won't go further, resulting in none of your webpages being listed. But if you really, really want one, at least include a 'skip introduction' link (it'll be the most clicked link on your website).
Use graphic intensive designA latest trend in web design has been the use of text links in navigation rather than graphics. Two good reasons to opt for text links over graphic links is they load quicker and search engines are more likely to follow the links to other pages in your site (and index them). Using keywords in your text links doesn't hurt either - both for the page with the link and to improve the 'relevancy' of the page being linked to. But if you do have to use graphics in your design, at least insert a couple of keywords in the ALT tag used to describe the images.Comments
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