SEO or search engine optimisation is the main way in which a website creator can drive traffic towards their website. Traffic is especially welcome to a website if its main purpose is to sell certain products or services, as without traffic converting into customers the website will not make money for its owner. By using good SEO a website can experience high volumes of traffic and the more traffic it receives the more chances of visitors being converted to paying customers – which is the overall aim if you are looking to make a living from your website.
Good SEO can be excellent for getting increased traffic to a website and raising profits, bad SEO on the other hand can lead to poor ranking, reduced traffic and in some circumstances the banning of a website from search engines. To make sure that you avoid falling into any of the bad SEO traps that can ruin your website here are some good SEO and bad SEO tips:
Good SEO
* Using keywords effectively – by ensuring a good keyword density in the body of text on your website you will improve your search engine ranking. Many websites can achieve first page and even first place ranking by utilising keywords correctly.
* Make sure you submit your site to as many search engines as possible. There is no limit to the amount of search engines you can submit your website to so take the time to do this and you will reap the rewards. Without being indexed on search engines your website will not be returned on searches.
* Have good links – linking to and from other websites is one way in which many websites increase their traffic. Make sure that all the sites you link to and from are good quality however or links can have the opposite effect.
* Think about hiring a professional – if you are unsure about good SEO employ someone who has experience in this field. Many website owners do this and after a short time see their traffic increase.
* Make sure your websites content is original – anything that is copied can result in you being penalised for plagiarism which can lead to your website being suspended until the content is revised.
Bad SEO
* Keyword stuffing – this is the practise of using keywords too many times on each page for the purpose of increasing the websites ranking. This leads to content that is not organic and does not flow, keyword stuffing can lead to a website being banned from search engines.
* Poor quality links – too many poor quality links on a website, also known as link farming is a black hat SEO method and is frowned upon by search engines. Link farming websites are often short lived as they get closed down quite quickly.
* Copied content – copying content from other websites is a definite no-no and can lead to search engines imposing penalties on the website. This can be anything from suspension from the search engine to a total ban, do not copy content. If you are doubt about the originality of the content on your website there are online tools you can sue to check it. Duplicate content is also bad for your website, so keep everything fresh and original.
* Cloaking – this is the act of present content to a search engines spider that is different to what a visitor sees. This is a deceptive method of getting traffic and is an offence that carries penalties.
So if you want your website to be highly ranked and ethical follow these rules and watch your visitor count grow.
Adrian McLean is Head of SEO and SEM at Search Engine Optimising Ltd. Put your website first with search engine optimisation services from the leading uk seo.
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