How To Boost Search Results, Without Ticking Off Google

Posted by Eric Savitz
Written by Brian Goffman

The New York Times recently reported that Google (GOOG) had “manually reduced” many of J. C. Penney’s (JCP) top keywords after the company was caught using a “black hat” SEO tactic for acquiring inbound links. Penney’s strategy consisted of getting a high number of inbound links to jcpenney.com with anchor text like “bedding,” “area rugs” and “skinny jeans” from sites with no content or relevancy around those items. In doing so, they broke one of the cardinal rules of search engine optimization, which is that the content you create, the pages you build, and the links you acquire should be both natural and relevant. Although many companies use this strategy to drive traffic to their Web sites, it is an extremely risky proposition. The more the content or links you acquire are outside of the guidelines that search engines like Google apply, the higher the probability that you will get penalized (e.g. dropped rankings) or worse – put into the Google Sandbox, where an entire domain is removed from the search index.

Here are some things to consider in your company’s SEO program to keep your brand – and Web site – in Google’s and Bing’s good graces.

First, some “black hat” things to avoid:

Link Farms: A link farm is a group of Web sites that all link to every other site in the group. The primary purpose of linking schemes is to manipulate search engines, as opposed to adding actual content to the Web. This behavior can get you dropped or banned entirely from Google.
Cloaking: Search engines look at all text contained on a given Web page and use it to determine the relevance of that page to a given search query. What search engines can see and what a person can see on a given Web page, however, are not always the same. Cloaking involves adding text that is the same color as the background, thus making it invisible to the human eye, while keeping it visible for search engines.
Doorway Pages and Redirects: Doorway pages are fake pages (a/k/a spider food) that are designed to cater to search algorithms, but are never actually seen by users. Doorway pages, and their sister tactic, redirects, are used for the sole purpose of tricking search engines to get a higher ranking. This practice is strictly forbidden by almost all search engines, and the penalties for those who get caught are stiff.
Irrelevant links: Some sites will allow businesses to buy links with whatever anchor text they want, regardless of whether it is relevant to what they are actually selling. Among other questionable practices, J. C. Penney bought links from sites that had nothing whatsoever to do with bedding, area rugs, or skinny jeans.
And some better tactics:

Know your SEO strategy: Whether you are a small-to-medium business doing your SEO in house, or an enterprise using an external SEO provider, it is critical to have a finger firmly on the pulse of your SEO strategy. Just as businesses carefully monitor employees and other service providers to ensure quality control, accountability and brand management, they also need to have mechanisms in place that allow them to track and control the strategies and progress of their SEO providers. There are many software programs now available that allow companies to audit SEO strategies, and nip bad practices in the bud before they result in harsh consequences. In addition to monitoring SEO tactics where inbound links are placed, businesses must also be clear with SEO providers about the strategies they want them to use, pre-approved tactics, and make sure that policies surrounding SEO and other online marketing efforts are clearly and strictly enforced. According to official statements released by J.C. Penney, the company was unaware that its SEO service provider was using black hat tactics, and it has now fired the provider. Whether J.C. Penney actually knew what was happening or not, they still bear at least some of the responsibility for the predicament in which they are now embroiled. More importantly, regardless of who is actually at fault, J.C. Penney, its brand, and its bottom line, will be the ones paying the price.
Treat your brand and website as a long-term investment. Good SEO is not quick, but the benefits of it can last a long time. While SEO traffic takes time to build up, it will sustain and build on itself over time. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. If you need quick traffic, look at paid media campaigns like paid search, targeted display and smart email.
Invest time and resources in creating good content. Good SEO is built on high-quality content. Mediocre content that is optimized for search engines might result in site visits, but it certainly won’t keep visitors on the site, and it won’t get you customers (i.e., ‘converted’ visitors). Some Web sites are famous for creating content with the sole purpose of optimizing for search engines. Last week, The Huffington Post got lots of attention for its headline, “What Time Does the Super Bowl Start?” The headline resulted in a number one ranking on a Google search on the topic, but didn’t exactly improve HuffPo’s reputation or credibility. While HuffPo took the easy route to attract site visitors, investing time and resources in creating good content that both serves as a useful resource and contains optimized keywords and phrases is crucial to ensuring that website visitors not only go to your site, but stay there. Creating the content and syndicating the content in a smart way will result in higher visibility to your audience and, yes, good quality links back to your site.
Invest your budget in building links, not buying them. The process of link building requires time and resources invested in conducting research, writing content, syndicating the content, and reaching out to relevant audience sites and engaging in that conversation. Short-cuts are not an option. Buying links is certainly the faster and easier route, but the return on investment won’t be as high. The only way to truly build a good reputation, large following, and recognizable brand is to invest the time and resources necessary to research, create content, and establish relationships within the industry.
Your brand is your biggest long-term asset. This is especially true online where reputations are critical and the speed of conversations is increasing at an exponential rate. If you want people to do business with you online, you need to take care that your brand is presented in the most favorable light possible, which includes using white hat SEO practices.

Brian Goffman is CEO and co-founder of Optify, an online marketing software and services provider for the real-time Web.