Trying to get to and maintain high search engine rankings can be a daunting and difficult task. At Saints at Play we work hard to make sure every client's project has a solid SEO base from meta data and keyword/phrase integration to page mark-up structure. Even so, there are a few things we always caution our client's with when discussing how to manage their own website SEO:
- NEVER ever stuff your web pages with keywords that have absolutely no relevance to the web page content. Remember, you're providing content for human user's first and foremost. Attempts to influence your search ranking placements by incorporating keywords/phrases that don't match your site's content WILL be penalised by the major search engines
- NEVER ever write 'invisible' text into the background, or any other area, of the web page. This quite often involves typing in text in the same colour as the page background, thereby obscuring it from a user's eyes. Search engine's however WILL remove you from their index if you do this
- DON'T use software programs to submit your URL to the search engines. These programs are blacklisted by most search engines now, particularly Google
- Similarly DON'T use services offering to submit your website to multiple search engines. Most search engines now will more than likely consider this spamming and your website will be removed from their index permanently
- DON'T compete on exactly the same keywords that your competitors are using. Be smart in your use of keywords and phrases. Do your research and implement those that offer the best possible placement for user queries
- DON'T engage in link schemes with other websites that don't provide reciprocal value. For example, if you're linked with websites completely unrelated to yours it can have a negative effect on your google pagerank
- DON'T create multiple versions of the same page as this will be interpreted negatively by search engines and, more likely than not, will get your website instantly removed from their index
- DON'T repeat the same keyword or phrase over and again in each page
SEO is a long term strategy not a quick fit scheme. Search engine rankings are an organic process and can take weeks and sometimes months to appear. Don't sacrifice the rewards that can come with patience for shortcuts that can see your website removed completely from a search engine's index.
