4 Search Engine Optimization Tricks That Can Destroy Your Business

What SEO tricks do you use?

Truth is: we all use tricks most of the time to rank our web pages, and no blogger can deny this.

But when you overdo, or exceed the boundary, these SEO tricks can get you into trouble. You’ve got to stop and look for something legit.

It’s like everyone is looking for that search engine loophole to exploit and drive 1000s free visitors.

No one really cares how much impact we’re making in the lives of our target audience.

We’ve built a thought-pattern that the more traffic you get, the more money, comments, readers and influence you command. But, is this really true?

I think there are some elements of truth in this. Most of the time, you need thousands of visitors to get noticed, increase PPC clicks especially for new blogs – avalanche of free traffic is needed. But more traffic doesn’t equate more money for other blogs.

On the contrary, few targeted traffic could generate more money for you than millions of visitors who do nothing on your blog.

Some of the points listed below, may not apply to you, but if any does, you know it’s time to change your approach or face Google’s wrath.

1.    Stuffing Keyword Into Headline

The headline is the first portion of the article that readers see. It’s going to determine whether they’ll read more, or click-away to more valuable blogs.

Unfortunately, a lot of people are stuffing keywords on the headline with the false hope of dominating search engines. My question to you is this, “how much success have you experienced since you started adding keywords on the headline?”

There is nothing wrong with this approach, provided you do it discreetly. If you’re targeting long-tail keyphrase which doesn’t make any meaning, there is no need adding such term to the headline.

Most of my web pages rank highly on Google, yet, I didn’t add keyword on the headline (it couldn’t fit in).

Quick fix: research the topic you want to write about thoroughly, and as you write, weave in the key terms within the post, without clogging the headline with meaningless terms.

2.    Content Padding Tricks

What’s “content padding?”

Let me illustrate: You searched for particular information on Google and clicked the first result.

When you got to the blog, you started reading, and right from the start to the end, you didn’t get any benefit. I mean, you couldn’t pinpoint one particular solution to the need in your heart.

Has it happened to you before? More crappy contents are being published on daily basis, which does not help the reader in any way.

When someone fills his article or post with “nothing” other than words, sentences and paragraphs which doesn’t relate with the topic, the practice is called “content padding.”

Maybe you’ve done it before. You were asked to write 600+ words articles, and because you do not have the necessary information and points, you decided to fill the spaces with outdated stories and meaningless anecdotes.

This is “BAD” for SEO and Google will take note of this and penalize you. The penalty might not come in a hurry, but it will if you do not change.

Quick Fix: The major reason why people ‘pad’ articles and posts with irrelevant words, sentences and paragraphs is because they weren’t prepared.

Before you write an article, in-depth research has to come in.

Read extensively. Find out what experts have written about the given topic; use your ‘common sense’ to craft an article that’s valuable, helpful and thought-provoking. And when you’re done with passing across the information, conclude and promote to the right persons.

3.    Writing Short Headlines

Basically, search engines accommodate 71 characters on the headline of any post.

But the problem with this strategy is that, bloggers tend to miss out the best words and arts on the headline.

Except for the savvy writers who understand how to craft catchy, keyword-rich and benefit-driven headlines without making it too long, others simply neglect the basics, and follow the crowd. How pathetic?

Do you think that short headlines would rank better on Google?

What Google search does is this: it’ll extract the first 71 characters on the headline and add it to the index.

When a search is done, only these stored characters will be shown. So, whether the headline is short or long, doesn’t matter, but there is something that matters. See next line…

Quick Fix: If you’re targeting a particular keyword which can help the search identify the solution on search results, please add it at the beginning of the headline.

Afterwards, add some power-words like ‘extreme, powerful, smart, effective, surefire, actionable, excellent, strategy etc.” to attract more and better clicks.

4.    Backlinks Builder Tool

The last Google update revealed the dangers of using Backlinks builder tool for your business.

Honestly, I’ve built over 1000 off-page links to my site (not this blog), got a handful of targeted traffic as my blog gained top ranking on the Google homepage, but within 4 months, my web pages started suffering and eventually drowned.

Everyone knows that links are important. In fact, we thought that more links equal better ranking.

If you still hold this concept, you’re not entirely wrong, because more links was the best thing to ever happen to your blog – but that was in the past, before Google periodic updates.

These days, you do not need thousands of backlinks to dominate Google and succeed online, what you need like nothing else are few quality, relevant, and valuable backlinks which can help the reader learn more, and grow their business.

Off course, if you’ve the opportunity to build 1000s of targeted, relevant and helpful links, don’t hesitate to grab it.

But don’t use link-software, you could use modern link building strategies like guest posting, article marketing, forum posting web 2.0 sites.

Quick Fix: The best and formidable way to get thousands of links to your webpages is to create cornerstone contents which readers can benefit from, for months, for years, for decades, and they would link to it naturally.

They will share on Social media network, send your web page link to friends and promote you through word of mouth.

Instead of chasing after the ‘next’ link building trick, or wasting money on backlink tools, focus on your content in-house and let others build links for you willingly.

While waiting for the good people, start guest posting on niche blogs, to gain more relevant backlinks. Stay away from link building software, Google hates it!

Over to you

The above SEO tricks may be juicy, and easy to implement quickly, but it’s dangerous to your blog. The “quick fix” tip is the ultimate way to build a real blog or website that Google and other search engines would fall in love with. Keep marketing your via guest posting, and social media networks.

Are there other SEO tricks I didn’t mention? Please let me know before you leave this page. Leave a comment and share this post with your pals – you’re a bundle of success!

Image Credit: FreelanceSwitch