Any marketing professional will tell you that one of the key ingredients to success is being able to adapt to the constant changes that occur in their field and that they must be vigilantly monitored. This is even more crucial when dealing with internet marketing as changes in algorithms can affect an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) campaign much quicker than almost any factor in other forms of marketing. The way in which search engines rank websites are in a constant state of flux confirming the premise that internet marketing must be an ongoing process in order to maintain a high ranking. Although there are several search engines such as Yahoo and Bing, Google continues to be the most prominent one in most parts of the world. All the changes incorporated by Google are certainly worth noting even though many of them are not huge game-changers. However, every once in a while one comes along that has a significant impact in the world of internet marketing and SEO campaigns. Such was the case with the Panda Update a year ago as well as the latest Penguin Update which was introduced just a few weeks ago.

The Penguin Update is significant in that it specifically targets websites that insist on employing questionable SEO practices along with sites that are being over-optimized. Two of the major areas affected deal with

• Illegitimate Links
• Keyword Stuffing

The last few blogs dealt specifically with these and other common forms of search engine spamming that would inevitably lead to sites being banned.  Both these practices are viewed by search engines as spamming and are considered serious infractions by all search engines. Even websites that may, in the past, have used such questionable tactics but have since ceased these practices may be in jeopardy of being penalized.

This reaffirms the importance of using only reputable SEO service providers such as Metamend that constantly monitor all changes in algorithms and ensures that your website is in keeping with only the best practices in SEO marking.

Because of the significance that Google’s Penguin Update has for all website owners, we will explore what these changes mean in more detail in our upcoming blogs.

We’ve spoken in the past about search engine spamming and why it is never used by reputable SEO (Search Engine Optimization) professionals such as Metamend. In these blogs the subject of Metatag Stuffing and Irrelevant keyword usage was explained in some detail. There are few other common tactics that that must be avoided in order to achieve long term success in any SEO campaign. Here we will describe three of these pitfalls in order to help you better understand how and why they must be avoided at all cost.

Tiny/Invisible Text – The challenge of having a website appeal to both search engines and users alike was difficult because it was almost impossible for a web page to contain every single keyword/phrase within the written content (or text) of a site. Some web operators came up with the strategy of using text that was the same colour and the site’s background making it “invisible” to search engines but not to users. This also led to “Tiny Text” that was viewed as dots or periods on a monitor but was read as text by the search engines. Search engines have since banned this practice.

Meta Refresh Tag - This practice is similar to cloaking, albeit a low-tech one. The purpose was to conceal “leap pages” or “doorways” which would automatically redirect users to an alternate page.  This redirection usually took less than one second to occur. This practice enabled web site operators to hide the doorway from users but allowed search engines to spider the doorway page and follow the link while taking users to a completely different page. This was a common tactic used by adult sites and redirected them to their website regardless of what the user was searching for. Because there were so many variations using this method, most administrators have banned this believing that users must see the same page as do the search engines.

Excessive Search Engine Submission – Knowing when and how much to submit is a key element in any SEO campaign. Regardless of how professional or content rich you website is, over submission can result in getting your site banned completely. There was a time when resubmission resulted in search engines “thinking” that your site was “active” and would re-index it. This is no longer the case as most search engines have now established a limit on how many submissions they will accept from a particular website within a specified time period.  These time periods can be for a month, a week or even a day. There are areas in SEO where one can go overboard and will actually work towards your marketing goals but over submission is definitely not one of them.

Spam it’s Never A Healthy Choice!

Whether it’s in your kitchen cupboard or part of an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) campaign, spam, also referred to as “spamming the search engines” or “search engine spam” is never a good idea. Any type of spamming is designed, by some web site operators, in an attempt to trick search engine robots or spiders in order to receive better site rankings. One of the techniques used to trick search engines is a method called, cloaking, which we talked about in a previous blog and another is spamming which we will cover here. Search engines do not take kindly to spam because a lot of work goes into giving users only the most relevant search results and spamming greatly reduces the validity of those results.

Search engine guidelines, rules and algorithms are constantly changing and unless you have kept up with these changes, it is possible that you might be incorporating spam in your online marketing campaign. SEO experts such as Metamend will monitor your website to make sure it conforms to any and all changes as it relates to the latest rules and algorithms that are in place. There are several schemes used by spammers, a few of which we will explain here, which should give you a better idea of what search engines are looking for.

Metatag Stuffing – Simply put, “stuffing” refers to inserting as many keywords as possible into metatags which are then used by most search engines in reviewing a site. If, for example, you inserted the word, “bicycle” numerous times in your tags, you would pretty much be guaranteed to receive top ranking for that specific key word. Search engine operators were able to overcome this “stuffing” issue by setting character limits for meta keyword tags and the meta description. This resulted in only the first specified number of characters being read and would be ignored if you went over the limit. Search engines also set a limit on the number of times a term could be used within a tag preventing operators from simply using the same word over and over.

Irrelevant Keywords And Terms in MetaTags – The importance, or value, of a website was determined by how many users actually saw a site, making it possible to drastically improve the ranking of a site by simply using irrelevant but popular terms inserted into tags. The use of terms such as “coupons” or “XBOX” would pump up your ranking even if your site was about running shoes. Search engines soon adapted to this scheme by penalizing websites that used keywords or phrases that did not appear, or had nothing to do with the actual content of the website.

Other popular spamming techniques include Tiny and Invisible Text, Meta Refresh Tag and Excessive Search Engine Submission. For more information about these terms and what they mean, you can visit the Library page on Metamend’s website.

Is Cloaking Ever Acceptable?

There are two core strategies in online marketing that should never be used even when they promise to deliver huge gains in a short period of time because any success they may provide will certainly be short lived. The first is cloaking, which we will talk about today and the second is spamming which we’ll cover in a subsequent blog.

Cloaking is the practice of feeding one specific type of content to search engine spiders while displaying a completely different topic or content to the searcher. The reason people feed certain content to search engine spiders is to achieve a high ranking for the cloaked page. Search engines put a lot of effort into making sure that users have a “What you see is what you get” experience every time they search for something. Search engines do not take kindly to this type of misleading advertising and take instances of cloaking very seriously.

Some may argue that there are instances where cloaking is acceptable, for example when trying to overcome browser compatibility issues. Although this practice can be technically viewed as justifiable in overcoming these issues, it is not acceptable to search engines. The reason for this is simply that although this method can be used in a positive way, it can just as easily be used as a deceptive way of getting people to an alternate site. Even though the tool itself is not the “bad guy”, it has all too often been used to deceive search engines and therefore any usage is simply not acceptable by them. While those who use cloaking as a strategy in getting you to their site may see some initial success in increased traffic, it will not help sites that are poorly designed in the first place and that lack quality content.

The positive thing that can be taken from all this is that a professionally designed website with strong, relevant content put together by SEO (Search Engine Optimization) experts will always yield far better results with a much better ROI (Return on Investment).

Free Powerful SEO Tools

In the last couple of blogs we spoke about some powerful, free SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tools that Metamend offers to help you maximize your ROI (Return on Investment) in regards to your online marketing campaign. Previously, we covered the Enquisite Search Metrics and the Keyword Density Analyzer Tools. Two additional, free SEO tools are the HTTP Head Request Viewer and the SEO ROI Calculator.

The HTTP Head Request Viewer has two main functions. The first is to show the response information that is sent to search engines or web browsers before actually displaying the page. Its second function is to test for the successful implementation of “301 Moved Permanently” Redirects. It is important to understand precisely which HTTP Headers are seen by search engine spiders; this is vital information for any SEO campaign. Metamend’s HTTP Header Request Viewer will show you exactly how search engine spiders react to a site’s HTTP Headers. This free SEO Tools will help you more accurately optimize each page of your website. You can give this free tool a try by simply entering a URL in the query box which will prompt Metamend’s search engine spider to analyze the HTTP Headers of that page. Performing this simple procedure will allow you to see what HTTP Headers the search engines are extracting from that page.

The SEO Calculator is able to measure the ROI of organic web traffic that is generated from an SEO campaign. Metamend’s SEO ROI Calculator can be used for either B2B (Business-to-Business) or B2C (Business-to-Consumer) websites. Everyone wants to achieve the best possible ROI for their online marketing campaign but knowing what method will best help you achieve your goals can be a difficult task. The most effective ROI strategies continue to be ones that follow a robust SEO plan along with some basic guidelines such as: organic optimization, adding relevant links, measuring web traffic, etc.

Trying Metamend’s free SEO tools can help get you on the path to increasing your visibility and meeting all your long and short term marketing goals without spending anymore money. You certainly have nothing to lose and may have much to gain.