Is your SEO provider about to get you penalized? Hopefully not, but there is a chance it might. It is too easy to put up a website and advertise SEO services without actually knowing what they are doing. There are also marketers out there who don’t keep up with Google best practices and still use old methods that are ineffective.
If you have never been hit with a Google penalty, let me just tell you it is an experience like no other. Your heart falls into your stomach, you become short on breath and your eyes start to hurt from staring at your computer screen wondering what happened. It’s not a good feeling and one that you never want to experience. Even worse, when potential clients or partners look you up on Google and see you’ve been penalized, kiss your reputation goodbye.
As you plan your SEO strategy for the year, here are four things to watch out for. If any of these are happening, there is a good chance you are on your way to a Google penalty.
1. Linking to your homepage
First, there is nothing wrong with including homepage links into your backlink strategy. However, it must be done the right way.
Some people still believe that acquiring more links to the homepage of your website will help that website rank higher. Those people are still living in 2005. Google doesn’t rank websites. It ranks pages. That is why you need to link to quality content within your website and not the homepage.
A sure sign that your provider is doing things wrong is if they link your homepage to an exact match keyword. For instance, linking the term “SEO provider” to the homepage of an actual SEO provider.
Exact Match Anchor Text + Homepage Link = Road Leading to Google Penalty
Homepage links are fine if they are done naturally. The only “natural” way I see homepage links is if it is branded (e.g., the article is talking about a specific company and links to the homepage of that company) or a quote that links to the homepage of the person giving it (even this is iffy as some black-hat marketers are oversaturating Google links from quotes).
If you only have a homepage and product landing pages on your website, it is time to start reevaluating your marketing plan. Start a blog and generate quality content that people want to read. This is the only way to ensure quality links to your site.
2. Link farms and wheels
A link farm is nothing more than a series of websites…