Which SEO Risks To Avoid
There are certain SEO risks that are worth taking; however, there are other risks that should not be taken as they can damage your business and your bottom line. Let’s take a look at the risks that you should avoid.
1. Doorway Pages
Doorway pages are easy to make and are used for specific keywords or keyword phrases. Expert SEO experts typically avoid using doorway pages because Google does not like doorway pages and often penalizes websites that use doorway pages. For this reason alone, you should avoid using doorway pages.
The only reason that Google will not penalize a doorway page is when it offers clear, unique and valuable information or content to its visitors. This type of doorway page is similar to the other content on your site and is viewed as such by Google.
Because of Google’s negative view of doorway pages, they should be avoided and not used on your website.
2. Neutral Backlinks
Although you want high-quality backlinks on your site, you do not want poor-quality backlinks. But, what about neutral backlinks? Neutral backlinks are those that do not help or hurt your website’s page ranking. Neutral backlinks do not boost your website; however, Google no longer penalizes you for including neutral backlinks on your website.
With Google’s latest update, Penguin, it was determined that websites often do not have control to sites that link to the website. This is beneficial to website owners because they will no longer be punished for backlinks due to the owner not necessarily having control over the backlinks created to their website.
The only way you will know if a backlink on your website is bad is if is low-quality and spammy. Google may take action against these backlinks and remove them from your website manually.
If Google does not take any action, then you can assume that the backlinks on your site are safe, even if they are not high-quality backlinks that can boost your page ranking on internet searches.
Although you can disallow certain backlinks, you need to take care. If you disallow the neutral backlinks on your website, you may risk blocking websites that can help to improve your page rank.
3. Condensing or Deleting Content on Your Website or Removing Entire Pages
You may assume that removing content or deleting an entire page off your website about a service or product that is discontinued. However, when the page is deleted, the keywords that helped to rank your site are gone. Furthermore, the URL of the page, including page-specific keywords and keyword phrases vanish.
Instead of taking a hit on your page ranking, you may want to keep the webpage, even if you have discontinued the service or product. Leave a message on the page that informs your visitors that you have another product or service that is similar and leave a redirect link.
If you are condensing or merging pages into one page, ensure that the 301 redirects are included to ensure that the links and the traffic continues.
4. Avoid Exact Match Keywords in Your Anchor Text
You may think that including your targeted keywords as the anchor text for your website is a good idea. You want your website to rank using those targeted keywords or keyword phrases.
This practice was popular in the past when SEO experts followed the same logic. Unfortunately, black hat SEO professionals began using the technique of using exact matching keywords as links for their websites excessively. Furthermore, these links were not from high-quality websites.
Google has since cracked down on exact match keywords as anchor text. Those who use this technique will be punished and their page rank can slip. Therefore, you should avoid using this technique. Instead, look for a natural way to create a diverse backlink portfolio and quality sites to link to your website.
5. Avoid Making A Lot of Small Changes to Your Site
Updating content on your site is typically a great idea and Google prefers updated and fresh content. However, if you constantly change the content or the look of your website, it can negatively impact your page rank and can make website visitors feel uncomfortable.
Making a lot of changes or making them too often can flag your website as suspicious. Google often penalizes websites that make a lot of changes or make changes often. Therefore, you should limit the number of changes that you make to your site.
Additionally, regular site visitors will notice the changes that you make to your site, especially if these changes were made to improve page ranking rather than delivering more high-quality content for your visitors. Furthermore, these changes can make your website more difficult to navigate and can make your site visitors suspicious of your website.
How to Balance Reward and Risk
In order for your business to succeed, you need to perform expert SEO. However, there are many risky practices that can damage your page rank. Alternatively, there are certain risks that can improve your page ranking. You must learn which SEO risks to take and which ones to avoid.
Although certain risks are associated with SEO, not performing search engine optimization is the riskiest thing you can do.
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