Eight worst search optimization techniques - Cloaking or using redirect pages

June 25, 2007

What it is:

It has become increasingly common for site owners to create a separate page for search engine spiders than the one for viewers. When the spider hits the site, it crawls a specific robot version, but when actual site viewers click through to the link it automatically redirects to a different version of the site. This allows the site owner to create a version of the site to optimize rankings without affecting the readability or content of the actual site intended for viewers.

Why you shouldn’t do it:

This tactic is difficult for spiders to detect, and it has great potential for abuse. Site owners could create a page to optimize a site for terms that are not actually relevant to the content. Ideally your site should gain rankings through the merit of its content and not through this type of deception. In addition, most search engines are very much against this and if they detect you using it, they may ban your site, which eliminates your rankings entirely.

Oversubmitting your site to search engines

What it is:

This is the practice of repeatedly submitting your site to crawlers, on a schedule that could be as frequently as weekly or daily, despite the fact that the crawler has already indexed your site.

Why you shouldn’t do it:

More is not better for submissions to search engines. Submitting multiple times is a waste of time and has no bearing on your search rankings. Most search engines simply delete multiple submissions, and they may end up ignoring your site altogether.

(Part 4 of 5)

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