On May 14, we covered the "dos," about search engins. So today here come the "don'ts." Although these questionable tactics have worked well in the past, the search engines absolutely hate them. If they catch you using any of these tricks, they may go so far as to drop you from their listings like a hot potato.
1. BEWARE IRRELEVANT LINKS!
Yes, it's a good idea to get a lot of different links pointing to your site, but the search engines only like RELEVANT links. If they find sites that have nothing in common with the content on your site linked to your web site, they'll lower your relevancy rating.
2. BEWARE IRRELEVANT KEYWORDS! Search engines hate finding irrelevant keywords on your site, especially in your meta tags. If they catch you using keywords that have nothing to do with the actual content of your site, they'll penalize you for it.
3. DON'T "KEYWORD STUFF" YOUR META TAGS!
In the past, people used to repeat their keywords in their meta tags over and over again. This used to get them a high ranking with the search engines but not any more. Search engines are on to this trick and will punish you for it by dropping your ranking.
4. DON'T CREATE "LINK FARMS"! "Link farms" are the evil cousins of the "information pages" we discussed before. In the past, some spammers used to build multiple "doorway" sites that existed only to multiply the number of links pointing to their sites. Unlike content-rich information pages, these doorway pages would usually only include a string of keyword terms that would earn them a high ranking with the search engines. The search engines have caught on to this tactic, however, and will drop you from their listings if they find you using it.
5. AVOID "FREE FOR ALL" LINK PAGES!
Don't bother placing links to your site on pages where everyone and their dog is invited to put up a link. Such sites have extremely low relevancy ratings and will cost you points with the search engines.
I hope that will help you. Don't forget AVERTISE! and "Let us mind your business."
Gaidi