3 SEO violations that can kill your rank

What we seek for when we’re in the process of writing about a topic is to position ourselves as number 1 on search engines, but we have to bear in mind that there are several factors which helps the search engine decide where to place a webpage content. Furthermore, the content needs to be simply extraordinary and interesting for the users to read.

What is SEO and why do you need it?

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is basically the optimization of website content so that search engines are interested in showing it in the top search results for searches of a certain keyword.

The simplest way for your users as well as potential clients to find your business is through your website using search engines. Even the tiniest bit of details on the websites are analyzed and scrutinised by search bots to place the webpage at its deserved position in the search engine result page (SERP).

3 SEO violations that will definitely kill your rank on search engines.

The list of don'ts in SEO is really long but we are only talking about 3 violations here which are often ignored by many.

1. Cloaking: Cloaking means to show a different page or a different content to the user than what the potential visitor to your site sees. For e.g. the content which a search bot sees is not what the searcher sees. This technique is adopted to position the low quality content better in SERP in a fraudulent way. It is considered as a violation of Google Webmaster Guidelines. More about cloaking - https://youtu.be/QHtnfOgp65Q

2. Overuse of the keyword: There is a belief that repeating a keyword multiple times in the content will give a better search position to the webpage but that is far from reality. Forcing the keyword into the content only ends up with Google punishing your site for poor quality content. Instead, using primary, secondary and tertiary keyword properly in the content based on a specific theme for each page may guarantee a better positioning and avoid sanctions by search engines like Google. Refer Google Penguin Update for more on spamming.

3. Page load time: This is different to site speed. Page load is the time taken to fully display the content on a specific page. It is one of the signals used by Google's algorithm to rank pages because page speed is important to user experience.

Now-a-days users expect the load time to be optimal and quick even from mobiles - an optimal page load speed is between 2-4 secs. Slow page load could push your webpage down the SERPs and you may even end up loosing potential customers through online. Evaluate page load speed with Google's PageSpeed Insights

Building an SEO strategy considering the factors that could potentially affect your organic ranking will help you improve webpage's ranking in the long run.