How To Avoid The Page Optimization Tricks That Google Hates

We all want our pages to rank high in Google searches, but that’s led to a number of techniques that can actually be counter-productive when it comes to page optimization. The Google search algorithm is pretty quick to catch on to web creators when they try to game the system, but people still keep trying the same tricks. The trouble is, this can end up hurting more than helping your search ranking.

Here are a number of techniques that Google isn’t very fond of, thanks to Search Engine Journal. It’s best to do everything you can to steer clear of these if you can.

Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing means that you keep on using the keywords for the page over and over again. The problem is that this reads poorly and Google is all about user experience over everything else.

To avoid this make sure that your keywords line up with your page title and description. Also, the right keyword usage amount is about once per 100 words or less. Remember, in this case less is really more.

Not Optimizing For Mobile

As of March of next year, Google will begin to index your site based on its mobile presentation first. That means that you have to make sure that you spend the same amount of time or more on mobile optimization as on desktop optimization. Almost all website creation tools provide the ability to both view and optimize for mobile, so now is really the time to use it.

Using Deceptive Keywords

What that means is you have a keyword in your title that doesn’t match the content. A good example is that your title contains the words “Bruno Mars” yet the page has nothing to do with Bruno whatsoever. What you’re trying to do is deceive the search engine to sending you traffic that you don’t deserve since you have nothing to offer on the topic. Google absolutely hates this and will make you pay for the violation.

Bloated Footers

Just like keyword stuffing, bloated footers means that your footer is filled with dozens of links and tags that don’t have much meaning to the page or site. Take a look at most big corporate sites and you’ll see they also might have dozens of links, but they’re all logical to the site and any one of them could be meaningful to the viewers. Spammy footers are a good way to get on Google’s bad side, yet they can be so easily avoided.

There are other potential problems that you can read about in the article, but the easiest thing to remember is that user experience always comes first. If something is deceptive to the user, that’s spells trouble with Google and calls for a new look at your page optimization.

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