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Avoid Search Engine BlacklistingThe best way to avoid being blacklisted by the search engines is to avoid using some questionable techniques that were once popular to gain high rankings. Even if your website is not blacklisted by using some of the techniques below, it may be penalized (buried in the rankings) so your traffic will suffer all the same. When a search engine blacklists a website it will throw your listing off their site and block your site from coming aboard again. This can be done by blocking the domain name, the IP address or both. Here are a few techniques to avoid, so that your site will not be blacklisted: Mirror WebsitesMirror websites are sites with identical content but different URL's. This was once a method used to gain high rankings in the search engines, but since search engines are smarter now, this will only get you penalized or blacklisted. Doorway (gateway) PagesDoorway pages are pages with little real content for your visitors that are optimized to rank highly within the search engines. These pages are designed so that visitors will move deeper into the website where the real content lies. Navigation to the doorway pages are usually hidden from the visitors (but not the SE robots) on the homepage. Invisible Text and GraphicsUsing invisible text (text the same or a very similar color to the background) was once used to spam a homepage and some inside pages with non-stop keywords and keyphrases. Also links to doorway pages and hidden site maps can be done with invisible text (or invisible graphics). Some designers will create a graphic link with a 1 pixel by 1 pixel raster image and link this to a hidden inner page such as a hidden site map. Submitting Pages Too OftenSubmitting the same pages to the search engines within a 24 hour period can get you penalized and may delay your website from being listed in the rankings. Some search engines believe that pages submitted sooner than every 30 days is too much. The 30 day rule is a good rule to follow when submitting to multiple search engines. Using Irrelevant KeywordsUsing irrelevant keywords in a website's metatags and / or body copy in order to achieve high rankings will most certainly backfire. Search engines now want to see parity between these two areas and if your site is thought to be spamming with irrelevant keywords, you site will be penalized or blacklisted. Automated Submissions to the Major Search Engines Using an automated service or software to submit your website to the search engines can be extremely counterproductive. Most of the major search engines and directories accept manual submissions but do not like to be spammed with the automated ones. CloakingCloaking is the practice of deceiving both the search engine and the visitor by serving up different pages for each. The visitor sees a nicely designed and formatted page and the search engine robot scans a page of highly optimized text. Any practice that is deceptive should be avoided and the downfall of cloaking is that, if caught, the website can be banned permanently. Using a Cheap or Free Web HostUsing a cheap or free web host can hurt in the search engine rankings. Frequent downtime, pages taken down for exceeding the bandwidth deter robots from indexing your site. If a robot cannot access your site often enough, your site will be dropped from the search engines. Hosting is cheap, so if you are serious about your website get your own domain name and host not one like geocities.com/yoursite. Sharing an IP AddressSharing an IP Address even from a legitimate web host can get your site in trouble. If you have cleaned up your website from all of the techniques mentioned above and your website still does not get relisted by the search engines in a couple of months, check with your host to see if you are sharing an IP address with other sites. If so, you may consider moving your website to a new host who will give you your own IP address or at least one that is not shared with another company who has had their IP address (an yours) banned by the search engines. FAST's Director of Business Development and Marketing, Stephen Baker, has stated that globally there are approximately 30 million crawl-able servers and approximately two-thirds have been banned by the FAST network for spamming. If these numbers are correct, your site may be blacklisted or penalize for "guilt by association." About the Author:Kevin Kantola is the CEO of SEO Resource, a search engine optimization company, devoted to achieving high rankings and increased traffic. Visit the SEO Resource website to see how your site may benefit at http://www.seoresource.net or mailto:seoresource@excite.com Don`t submit your website to any search enginesThat`s right - this search engine optimisation article is telling you not to submit your website to any search engines. Not Google, not Inktomi, not AltaVista. Sound a bit strange? Read on Submitting to all the search enginesSubmitting your website to every search engine is an incredibly time-consuming process. There are hundreds and hundreds of them out there - no doubt, you`ve come across the companies who`ll submit your website to 1000 search engines for you. Search engine professionals know that the vast majority of these search engines have a very low usage rate and will drive hardly any traffic your way. In fact, it`s only a handful of search engines that drive the majority of traffic from search engines to websites. The major search enginesSome of the most important search engines, probably accounting for over 90% of the search engine market, are: Not heard of some of these search engines? Have a look at who powers who with this excellent search engine relationship chart. Please note that the new MSN search engine will roll out at the end of 2004 and will be very important. Don`t submit to these search engines“But there`s only six of them - why on earth not!?” Well, aside from saving time and a bit of money (some require a submission fee), quite simply there`s no need. Allow me to explain Search engines crawl the web every few weeks (or months) looking for websites to index. Here`s how it works:
Unless today is your very first day on the Internet, you might have heard that inbound links into a website are extremely important in establishing its search engine ranking. If a search engine can`t find you by itself through crawling the web, then your website doesn`t have any inbound links. If so, you`ll never achieve a decent search engine ranking so what`s the point in registering? Getting incoming links quicklyOnline poll
So, how do you get incoming links? Well, this is a vast topic which I won`t be discussing now, but if you want to get a few good links quickly then there is a solution: web directories. If your website is listed in the Yahoo! directory (not the same as Yahoo! search) and the Open Directory (which Google uses) all the search engines should find you within two to three months. There are plenty of other directories you should get listed in too. Global, local and industry-specific directories abound on the Internet. To find them run a search for ‘web directory’ on your favourite search engine. The directories that come up highest in the search rankings will probably generate the most traffic. You can also check these directories of directories:
Another even quicker solution is webmaster forums. Search engines love forums because they include so much fresh content. Most have an area where you`re allowed to enter your URL to get feedback from other webmasters. Find some forums, sign up, and get posting! To find out more about building up links to your website please read the article, Build up links to your website. A quick fixIt can take a couple of months to get listed in some web directories. If you can`t wait that long then it might be worth submitting your site into a paid program and "artificially" boosting your rankings. Again, this is a whole new topic so please feel free to read more about the paid submission options. Long term strategySearch engine optimisation is a long term strategy. You`ll be successful if you:
Register with as many web directories as possible and then concentrate your efforts on these two things. Within a few months you`ll start to see success. This article was written by Trenton Moss. Trenton`s crazy about web usability and accessibility - so crazy that he went and started his own web usability and accessibility consultancy to help make the Internet a better place for everyone. He knows an awful lot about the Disability Discrimination Act and spends much of his time doing DOM scripting & accessible JavaScript. What next?
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