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SEO Do's and Don'ts

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Search Engine Optimization Tips and Red Flags

You know you need SEO to get your website to rank high in the search engines. And maybe you've heard that there are risks, that if you do certain things you might get penalized or even BANNED by them (let's say "them" in this case means "Google" just for the sake of argument). Well, then, here are the top 10 things you SHOULD do and the top 10 things you should NEVER do when you tackle your own search optimization.

Bear in mind that lot's of professional search optimizers will tell you that you need to hire them to make it in the search marketing game. For some, that's a good path to take. IF you do your homework first and make certain that the SEO company is reputable, reasonably priced, and reliable. Always do your due diligence.

Table of Contents

The SEO Good vs Evil Quiz

Think you already know the difference between right and wrong? We'll see!

10 Things You Should NEVER Do in SEO

(in no particular order)


  1. Buy links. Google hates it, as do many other search engines. Link buying is a quick way to get penalized.

  2. Stuff keywords into meta tags. Jamming dozens of keywords into your title, meta description, or meta keywords doesn't really help much anymore, and it can get you busted.

  3. Cloak. Cloaking is when you use JavaScript or some other technology to serve a different, highly optimized page to search spiders than you serve to regular visitors. Back in the day it used to be hugely successful. Now it is a death penalty.

  4. Stuff keywords into alt tags. Using alt tags with every image on your site is a good thing to do. Stuffing the alt tag with bunches of keywords is a very bad thing to do.

  5. Hidden text. There are many ways to hide search-engine tasty text from your human visitors—font color the same as the background, font size .001 pixels, pushing it so far down or right of the page content that few would ever scroll to it, using the z-index to put it behind images, etc. The search engines are on to all the tricks. If they don't catch you immediately, they will later.

  6. Hidden links. Like hidden text, hidden links are no-no.

  7. Scrape content from other sites. Stealing content is not only a criminal violation of copyright law, but it is also violates most search engines terms of use.

  8. Automated rank checking software. Google, at least, can detect unusual patterns of search and if they suspect you are running a rank checker, they will shut your IP off from Google results for a period of time. That can really put a spanner in your day. If you get caught often enough, they may ban your IP altogether. HOWEVER, I confess to using automated rank checkers from time-to-time. It is just so darn tedious to check more than a handful of terms manually. Sometimes you have to weigh risks against potential gain.

  9. Fake content. Do not build a slew of pages that are simply vehicles for keywords. For one thing, it's against most terms of service. For another, when humans get to those pages and read "Red widgets are real red and widgety so get your red widget before the red widgets are gone" they will think you and your business are idiots.

  10. Blog farming. With enough time and interns, you could open 300 free blog accounts and write some link-text-rich gibberish in each one every day for a year. That would probably work for a time, but cheaters never prosper in the end.

10 Things You Should Always Do for SEO

(in the order I thought of them)


  1. Write good content. Always try to make your content worth somebody's time. And by somebody, I mean some human body.

  2. Keyword awareness. This cannot be over-emphasized. YOU MUST KNOW WHAT KEYWORDS YOU WANT. Sounds silly, but it's shocking how many web businesses have no idea at all what keywords will actually help them. It's simple, though. What keyword would a customer use in a search engine to find something on your site they want to buy? Know the best keyword for every page on your site. How? See the next bullet.

  3. Keyword research. Spend the time to discover the keywords that are most likely to result in sales, and most likely to be used by the highest number of buyers. There are many many many tools out there to help.

  4. Unique title tags. The title tag is your very best shot at keyword ranking glory. Don't waste it. Use a different, deliberately chosen keyword for every page.

  5. Spiderable navigation. Make very sure that spiders can 1) find your site; 2) read your content; and 3) follow your links. If they can't, you will not succeed in search.

  6. Internal link text. Your site is full of links pointing to content within your site. These links count towards your link popularity score. Try to use valuable keywords as link text inside your site wherever possible. Of course, the main point of the navigation is to help people find their way around. Don't sacrifice user-friendliness for killer link text.

  7. External links. I know. It's really really hard. But you must get as many quality links from other sites as you can. There are hundreds of strategies for link building. But you better do it.

  8. External link text. And while you're at the link building thing, try extra hard to manage the link text that the other sites use to point to you. If a site gives you a link, that's good. If they give you one using one of your favorite keywords as the link text.... w00t!

  9. Use an xml sitemap. Most search engines have now adopted the Google standard xml sitemap. Believe it or not, these things are pretty useful. Look it up.

  10. Regular sitemap. A great sitemap is useful to search spiders and to lost human visitors equally. One note: if your sitemap has more than 100 links, you will need to break it up into multiple pages.

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  • kathysart Nov 27, 2011 @ 3:53 pm | delete
    I am in the process of redoing one of my websites.. ooof a lot of work! lol Great info here. THUMBS UP!
  • AnthonyAltorenna Aug 21, 2011 @ 9:36 am | delete
    Thank you for the clear and concise SEO information. I'm working towards including better SEO techniques in my content, but still struggling with getting visitors to my lenses.
  • RadioGuitar Jul 20, 2011 @ 5:32 pm | delete
    Great information. Thanks.
  • LisaAuch Jun 24, 2011 @ 7:35 am | delete
    I love it nice clean info! yep the days of "cheating the system" are over, and making it a much fairer playing ground! Nice to see such great info!
  • hamshi5433 Jun 19, 2011 @ 3:22 pm | delete
    I agree with every one below! Very informative and useful lens about search engines. Thanks a lot for making the effort. :)
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Linky linky, rich and stinky

SEO and Search Marketing
Just another SEO consultant trying to make a living.
Google Webmaster Central Blog
Great resource for identifying "don'ts."
Resources for Search Marketing
Big annotated list of useful stuff for SEO.
EugeneSEO
A blog of SEO-related news and opinion.

Bonus Don'ts


  1. Framesets. Never use frames for content that you need to do well search-wise. Spiders will not see it.

  2. Stay out of bad neighborhoods. Never put a link on your site that leads to a shifty website or sketchy industry—your site will be tainted by their poor reputation. Also, don't actively solicit links from those sites. Of course, you have no control over whether somebody else links to you or not, and "bad neighborhood" links pointing to you won't hurt you. Unless they constitute a very high percentage of your total backlinks.

  3. Don't get discouraged! Unless you can fix a really nasty problem that's keeping the search spiders completely out of your site, the SEO work you do on your website today will rarely have much impact right away. Sometimes it takes 6 months or even longer for the engines to catch up with your new tags, content, and links. PATIENCE IS AN SEO VIRTUE.

  4. Don't do what JC Penny's did—that is, hire an SEO of ill-repute! Their search marketing provider engaged in very sketchy link-building practices that earned the retail giant a giant Google penalty. Ouch!

  5. Don't get caught up in chasing the algorithm. Google changes their algorithm on a schedule known only to them. But it happens. A lot. All you can do is pay attention and try to adapt when necessary. That doesn't mean you should panic every time you lose two places in your ranks. Doesn't mean you should change your whole SEO strategy every time some shouts "PANDA!" Just use common sense and keep a half-watchful eye on the scuttlebutt.

Bonus Dos



  • Start with a great domain name. The best domain names will have your most effective and profitable keyword right in it, such as www.martyswidgets.com. If it's too late for that, consider using keyword-based directories on your site, like www.marty.com/widgets/file.html

  • Always be thinking about how your site looks to search spiders. Try to keep up with the search industry's thinking. There is always something more you can do—some new link opportunity, some brilliant content idea—that's worth a try.

  • Do something every day. No matter how busy you are, if you try to do at least one SEO task every day—submit to one directory, or post a little new content, or tweak one title tag—you'll be surprises at how much you've accomplished in just one month.

  • Consult a pro. Contact Speed of Light Enterprises for SEO at the Speed of Light.
    • Tell 'em sent ya.
  • Optimize your page load. Page load speed is now a pretty important ranking element with the G. Make sure all your images are optimized to as small a file size as possible without hurting quality; keep all your scripts off-page using includes; and be very frugal with animations, sound, and stuff that may be cool, but doesn't really add much to the user experience.

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cthulhu

I'm cthulhu, the evil alien squid! When I'm not busy doing unspeakable things with Elder Ones, I allow my minion, Max, to help small and medium-sized... more »

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