One dictionary states that the term faux pas means “an embarrassing or tactless act or remark in a social situation.” Coming from the French word literally translating to ‘false step,’ the expression has been used in English conversations for over three centuries — in speeches as well as on the Internet. And in the world of SEO, or search engine optimization, faux pas are alive and well. From Utah to the East Coast, here are some practices in the SEO industry that are considered very serious faux pas.
Copying and pasting is rarely a good idea — whether it’s for a school paper or a blog post. Even from your own pages, it’s not a good way to improve search engine rankings.
First of all, this type of online marketing strategy is unfair and it is tacky. This is when content producers cheat by hiding links or text on their pages. They do this by using the same text color as the background. Search engines penalize hard for this and it’s not good SEO. Period.
In the SEO world, about the only thing more obnoxious than an indestructible woodpecker on your headboard at four in the morning is keyword stuffing. Readers don’t like reading paragraphs where keywords are blatantly repeated three or four times to meet Google’s keyword requirements.
Linking to spamming sites is never on anyone’s list of polite attributes of good websites. Now, whether you’re in Utah or South Africa, this is just not cool.
Sometimes writers will use common misspellings of words because that’s what users type into the search bar. However, this is pretty unprofessional and there are better ways to reach those users (however spelling bee challenged they might be).
Doorway pages are external pages which only exist to link back to your website. They direct traffic to your site but like a trashy, gossip girl in high school and it won’t get you far in the long run.
Modern marketing is pure chaos. Consumers are revolting against stagnate companies and abandoning traditional media in droves. Only those who adapt will succeed. The revolution is in full-swing.
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