If you strictly pay attention to search engine rules, there are only two ways of avoiding putting spammy content on your site. The first is to only do what you would do if search engines didn’t exist. The second is to get written permission from the search engines to do what you want to do.
Neither of these options is very practical. The first sounds good, but comes from the core of what search engines wish sites would do, which is not SEO at all. The second is also a good idea, but not always possible. Part of SEO is about appealing to search engines without overdoing it, and notifying them of every technique is somewhat giving the game away.
The only real way to avoid spam on your site is to have a rough idea of what it is. This is a big part of what SEO is all about. SEO professionals spend a lot of time studying the behaviours of search engines and reverse-engineering their algorithms. This is, in part, to know what will appeal to the search engines, but it’s also in order to be aware of what will put them off.
There are two basic types of search engine spam. On-page spam is everything you can do wrong within the visible areas of your site, and off-page spam is everything you do outside that. Your on-page and off-page factors are something your SEO consultant will focus on in trying to appeal to the search engines as well. This is because search engines drive their algorithms toward these two basic factors.
When it comes to on-page spam, there are several things it is generally understood you should not do. Including keywords in a tiny or unreadable font, or in your alt text, is something most search engine optimisation professionals avoid. Similarly, including any text that is the same colour as the site’s background will raise the search engines’ suspicions. Hiding or cloaking anything is also one of the things that can get you kicked off the index. These things can all be used for legitimate reasons, but it is often wise to communicate with the search engines when your site implements these techniques. You can talk to us at SEO Consult for advice on optimisation grey areas.
Off-page spam can involve spammy codes or the way you go about gaining external links. This is where a failure to be choosy about who links to you can get you into trouble. To search engines, not all links are equal. Linking to a bad neighbourhood and becoming involved in link farms are just two ways to get into trouble. Stuffing keywords into your meta tags is also frowned upon.
The troublesome areas of SEO are why most businesses rely on SEO companies when they wish to optimise their site. Even if your site has been optimised, it can be worth consulting an expert if the outcome isn’t what you expected. Many of these sorts of problems lurk in the background and take an expert eye to track down.
