You should be able to find several indispensable facts about SEO
in the following paragraphs. If there's at least one fact you
didn't know before, imagine the difference it might make.
View the source of each and every page: is there JavaScript and
CSS on the page? Remember that spiders may not index pages that
have more than 10k or so of JavaScript or CSS embedded in them.
Spiders don't enjoy getting tangled up in JavaScript. So as a
general rule you should avoid putting out prompts and alerts
using JavaScript every time that a page loads. Because of this
rule, it is also wise to avoid link partners who do so on the
pages that they link to you from. If anything looks fishy, it
probably is.
CSS won't give you many problems. If you are going to use CSS,
it is best to link to it from another source. Create a separate
CSS page and use the tag to work it into the head of your HTML.
This method will keep your file size down considerably, and
since you will probably be using the same CSS on several pages,
decrease your bandwidth usage. Normally a large quantity of CSS
within the document isn't indicative of any suspicious behavior
on the part of the linker. If you feel that you are, indeed,
suffering from the fact that the site uses such an excessive
proportion of CSS on the page itself, suggest to the webmaster
that he/she may want to create an external CSS document and link
to it in his/her header.
Check that you're still on the domain you clicked on a link to,
and you haven't moved to another site or a subdomain. Some
people will move you to another domain while telling that's
their site and your link is there, relying on you not checking
the address bar. This trick is all too common and happens to
folks who are new to SEO every single day. This sad fact will
continue until people begin to catch it every time.
If you don't have accurate details regarding SEO, then you might
make a bad choice on the subject. Don't let that happen: keep
reading.
If the domain has changed, delete your backlink to the site in
question immediately and then email the webmaster with your
complaint. If the webmaster does not fix the problem you may
even want to request that they remove the link as the site may
wind up discredited as a link farm or some such thing that you
do not want to be associated with for fear of being banned from
many popular search engines with technology used to combat link
farms.
On a related subject, when you check your back links, make sure
that these links appear in legitimate places. If the site is
completely dedicated to linking to other sites and doesn't seem
to be a directory or something similar you will want to get your
link removed as soon as possible. There is no time when one link
is worth the risk of being permanently banned from any popular
search engine. Aside from the traffic that you will lose from
that one search engine, you may wind up "red flagged" so to
speak. It seems to be common practice among search engines that
if one finds faulty activity the rest seem to find out soon
afterwards.
Overall, if it seems dodgy, leave it alone. It's better to
sacrifice one link in caution than to destroy your site's
rankings by accepting one you're not sure of. There are hundreds
of situations aside from link farms that can and will give you
trouble. It would be impossible to list every scam as there are
people who make their living (or seem to anyway) in creating and
executing these scams. Whenever there is a new form of "SEO"
technology that "can't fail," you should watch out because it is
almost guaranteed to blow up in your face. The only truly
powerful and guaranteed method of SEO is to make your site
valuable to your visitors and then let it fall where it may in
the realm of the search engine.
It is difficult, after you have optimized your pages and
submitted them to search engines and directories, to sit back
and wait, but there is not much that can be done aside from
attempting to accumulate links from good, solid places. The work
that you have done is bound to pay off sooner or later as long
as you stay honest. When it comes to the world of SEO, honesty
is, indeed, the best policy.
When word gets around about your command of SEO facts, others
who need to know about SEO will start to actively seek you out.
About the author:
James Mahony is the founder of
Search Engine Optimization
Tips - A site dedicated to Search Engine Optimization
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