The second part of this summary of SEOptimise’s article on Google penalties covers Content, Ads and Reputation Management and again shows the value of ethical basics of SEO.
Content
SEO myths include duplicate content. Well, Google says this isn’t a penalty but there are lots of examples of people experiencing ranking and search volume issues that seemed to be completely related to duplicate content – myth or fact?
Poor quality content was a target in the recent Google Panda update. The impact on organic SEO has been severe for some sites. Make sure all content is quality content to gain higher search engine ranking.
Scraped content is material that is taken from other sites and presented as your own. This is not tolerated and neither should it be. There are many people out there touting fully automated sites and this is definitely contravening the basics of SEO.
Unreadable content written in broken English can be the result of ‘spun’ content. Many people buy cheap services and the result can be appalling English. All content should be readable and understandable and add some value in some way, particularly as Google has human quality raters to check material.
Ads
Very little content versus lots of ads, especially Google Adsense ads, may get your site penalized, especially since the Panda update.
Affiliate sites need to provide some extra value. So if a site is simply a hand-off to an affiliate product, then that is likely to be frowned up with bad consequences sooner or later. The quality of the end site is very relevant and, in the past, this has not always been highlighted when discussing SEO strategies.
Bad press and reputation
Bragging about grey or black hat techniques or successes that are based on doing things that Google doesn’t approve of, is a sure way to bring your site to Google’s attention.
Some people lose sight of the fact that the internet is very open and if they post tirades and attacks against Google, it will come to Google’s attention and it is likely Google will respond.
Google needs to make money and maintain its own reputation. It does not take kindly to people sullying its image or making it look bad.
Maintaining good SEO basics will ensure a good reputation is retained.
Content is the holy grail and creating issues around spamming, duplication and poor quality just demonstratesbad basics of SEO.
To review part 1 of this article, just click Basics of SEO 1.
Basics of SEO by Jedda Kelly