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Did you know that some SEO companies can actually use tactics that result in your website being blacklisted from search engines?  Certain old-school techniques that used to be acceptable with search engine guidelines are now banned, yet some SEO companies still use them because they can produce good results in the short-term.  These tactics are generally  referred to as, “Black Hat Search Engine Optimization”, and businesses must be aware of these tricks so that their rankings are not stunted, or even worse their website is blacklisted from places like Google.

Here are a few of these black hat techniques to look out for:

• Duplicate content- be aware of SEO firms that create 2 or more pages that use the same content – sometimes this is done to drive up the number of pages for a key search term.
• Invisible Text- this tactic involves adding keywords in white writing on a white background which makes them invisible to the human reader, yet search engine spiders can still read the text.  Search engines like Google can determine if the text color matches the background and will penalize a site for this.
• Keyword Stuffing- Simply cramming in keywords into content can produce the opposite affect of what you want even though it can show good results for a short time, long term results will be negative. Be aware of these companies that try to fit an unnatural amount of keywords into your content.
• Mirror Site- Some SEO companies will create an exact replica of a website and use different a domain name, yet doing so is a breach of terms and conditions, and can have very negative side affects.

Very frequently Internet marketing companies that got good results using some of these tactics several years ago continue to use them, sometimes aware that they are violating a search engines terms and conditions, and sometimes not even knowing they are hurting their client’s rankings.  This makes it much more difficult for a website’s owner to know how to select a good SEO firm or if their current SEO firm is doing whats right for them.  Often by the time rankings start to decrease, damage has already occurred and it could take months to repair a websites rankings.

The best way to protect yourself from a bad SEO company is to do proper research about each company that you consider.  Obtain references and site rankings for a couple of their existing clients.  You can also ask when the last time their SEO team read the terms and conditions for each of the major search engines to adjust their tactics to make sure they are all in-line with what the search engine’s say is ‘legal.’

Seogon will show you the content written, work with you to write quality information, and interact/ answer any questions you have about our SEO tactics.  We believe in showing our clients everything that we do to help their rankings.  Choose a professional SEO company that is upfront and reliable, so you don’t worry about getting punished for something you didn’t know was wrong.

Seogon will provide a free evaluation of your website and your current SEO strategy to ensure that your website is in the clear of black hat tactics.

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