When Search Engine Optimization Turns Into a Nightmare

There was a resounding cry of “ouch” heard across the cyber world when Google released Panda and later on, Penguin. Simultaneously, there were loud celebratory noises among websites which championed good content and condoned spamming even before these updates were rolled out. Every SEO company was forced to rethink its practices and needless to say, getting favored by search engine leviathan Google has become more difficult than ever. Still, there are remnants of the past SEO practices that are finding its way through the present web ecosystem and it would be very easy for someone novice (or a brand looking for dirt cheap services) to fall for these scraps. In a more sanitized search engine world, not all SEO practices are created equal and below are few of the mistakes you can make that can turn your SEO success dreams into a horrible nightmare. Spinning Out of Control Unlike in the fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin, spinning won’t give you gold in search engine optimization. At this point be forewarned: it is very easy for an article spinning hoax to pose as legitimate SEO companies, so be careful when you’re outsourcing your SEO content needs. Basically, article spinning is the shameless practice of taking content and feeding it into a software which replaces a few words with synonyms to create multiple versions of the same article. The product is sloppy articles composed of words which do not make sense and loaded with keywords which are not even related to the topic being discussed. Non Sequitur Comments Non sequitur basically means “it does not follow” and is basically used by grammarians to describe a statement which does not go along with a previous statement. Spam comments behave the same way. Don’t be surprised if you’re reading a blog or a forum about “How to Avoid SEO Blunders” and then somewhere along the thread, you’ll see something like: “I’m glad I made the right choice by choosing .” These comments are there hoping that some of the readers will actually click on the link, generate traffic and who knows, even buy something. Before it worked, today, Google’s Penguin and Panda updates will bring you down. Putting Anchor Text First before User Experience Basically, an anchor text is a link which contains the exact same words as a search term. For example, if you’re selling organic coffee and you believe your customers will be typing the exact same words in Google, then it is logical to have “organic coffee” as your anchor text in your SEO content strategy. However, what used to happen is when companies use anchor text carelessly. It’s anchor text for the sake of anchor text! Today, Google puts user experience as top priority, hence, anchor texts should be all in context and internet users should be able to tell what content they should expect to see by simply looking at the link. Truth to be told, these are just few of the SEO malpractices you can commit. Even if you have outsourced your need to an SEO agency, you still owe it to yourself to find out what can give you the ROI and what would end up to be an epic failure.