What are the Top 5 SEO techniques to avoid for Google?

[hermosa]

As suggested by one of the moderators. I think that this is an EXCELLENT topic. There has been way too much learning by trial and error of late. That's much too expensive a way to learn. I run two bonafide business sites that have a lot of content (articles etc., plus pages that describe our services). Both sites rated in the top 10 for years for 6 keywords that are critical to our business. That situataion seemed to change drastically after Hilltop. I compared my page to the pages in top positions and concluded (incorrectly) that I needed to repeat the keywords more often in the meta tags and H tags.

The results...a disaster....my home pages and the 3 pages related to the specific subject dropped out of the top 100 for "red widgets". If I do a search for "red widgits mycity", in some cases those pages appear in the top 2. The Google page ranks are 6/10 for the index.html and home.html pages on one site and 5/10 for those pages on another site.

Two questions, now that I have stopped the keyword stuffing and worked hard to build even more reciprocal links anchored with the text "red widgits", will I ever see those pages return to top 10 status? Roughly how long do you think it will take? (When I run the pages "red widgets" keyword through Scroogle, I am in the top 5.

So that I don't make the same COSTLY mistakes again:

- What are the top 5 SEO techniques to avoid AT ALL COSTS, for Google?

Thank you.

[Teknorat]

Don't sign lots of guestbooks or BLOG's and leave your URL.

Well not TOO many. :D

Don't submit spam reports. ;)

If they're your competitor report away. Do you really think they wouldn't report you in an instant?

[photonstudios]

"Quality Black Hat Sites"

LOL, how about white hat spamming :)

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

... and grey hat ;)

[nippi]

>>Lianne

I still see most of the top sites in criteria I am interested in, having heaps of recip links.

One lcoal directory that is way ahead of the rest has a prerequisite of a recip link... so MOST of their links are recip links.

What are you basing the don't recip link statement on? Can you sticky me an example of a site who has done this and suffered? I am not saying you are wrong, only that I am not seeing it myself.

[beakertrail]

I have many .info domains and have no problem getting them listed, same goes for new registrations.

It has not been unknown for a .info domain to be registered, a 1000+ page site built in 3 weeks, then within 2 weeks of going live to obtain exceptional positioning in Google for very competitive phrases.

I would dispute any theory of "Google not liking new domains" whatever a new domain may be, TLD or registration.

Beaker

[Andrew Thomas]

Keyword Density.

What % of keywords should be on a page? Ive looked on this post and it mentions that keyword stuffing is bad etc...

I havent exactly stuffed my keywords in, but have put a few within the text.

What figures should i be aiming for?

[mars9820]

Hi nippi,

recip links to a local directory most of the time are ok since they list all the shops in a shopping mall or something.

It is easy to implement this in your own website as well. (something like...you can find us in this shopping area...or shops around us).

Google however is thinking....who you link to is who you are. Esspecially if the other party links back to you which gives a confirmation to Google that this statement is true.

However if your linking partner is also linking to say 100 pages that contain adult materials and you have a children toys store. Most likely you will come in a complete other toy interest group if you understand what I mean :).

Therefore it is wise to do a little bit research about your linkpartner if they request recip. links. Most advisable is to browse through their site and see who else is listed overthere. As well check the source of the website (view source). To see if they use some hidden text or hidden links.

Last is just follow your feeling. Think about if they would ask 100 USD....will you pay or not?. If the answer is yes go for it. If not ditch it.

[randle]

Don't take updates or algorithm changes personally. If you drop in the rankings no one is trying to screw you and you can waste a lot of energy cursing the Google gods. The more challenging the field of play, the better the opportunity.

Do adjust to the change as quick as possible.

Don't just copy other peoples work, everyone has there own style and what works for them may not work for you. You have to learn it.

Do try different techniques and free yourself from being afraid of slipping back down.

Don't try to find an answer for every wierd site you find thats at the top of the SERP's and you can't for the life of you figure out why.

Do be able to look at your site as critically as possible and generally speaking you will find your ranked where you belong.

Well,,,, I try to convince myself of these things anyhow.