With Google’s constant upgrades to its search algorithms, more and more websites are starting to fear that they’ll one day wake up and their site will no longer be found on the popular search engine.
Google is a smart company, and they know that some websites are using deceitful tactics in order to increase their visibility. But instead of sitting back and allowing these sites to rule the search engine and outrank those sites that use true organic SEO tactics, Google is now fighting back.
The release of Panda and Penguin have allowed Google to punish those sites that either don’t contain any decent content or those that are using black hat tactics in order to increase their rank.
But before you fear for the indexing of your own website, there are a few things you can do to ensure that your website remains listed.
Create fresh content on a regular basis.
The more fresh content your site can generate, the more often your site will be crawled by spiders, which can improve your rankings. If you don’t update your content on a regular basis, these spiders will stop crawling your site, which will push your site down on the list.
Create unique content.
Along with updating your content on a regular basis, it’s also extremely important that you create unique content. If you simply copy and paste someone else’s content to your site, it will be a red flag to Google.
Earn backlinks naturally.
Placing links on your social media account is a great way to push your content out and get others to share your content in a more organic way. If you pay a company to provide backlinks for you, or if you start spamming websites with links to your content, you will find your site may be de-indexed.
Don’t keyword stuff your content.
Keywords are important—everyone knows that. But if you stuff random keywords into your content just to get the search engines to notice you, you’re not going to be noticed for the right reasons. SEO works best when your keywords come naturally in your content.
Ditch the black hat tactics.
If you use any type of black hat SEO tactic, you’re eventually going to be de-indexed. The use of cloaking, redirects and hidden text are just a few of the black hat tactics that Google is looking for to determine whether or not a site remains listed. If your website is using any type of black hat tactic, your days are numbered. Instead, keep your SEO efforts in line with white hat tactics. Though you’ll have to wait longer to see results, it will keep your site listed on Google.
As long as you are following these suggestions, your site should remain indexed on Google. Using honest techniques and refraining from cheating your way to the top will give you better results, and will keep Panda and Penguin off your back.
Prepared with the guidance of SEOMap a group dedicated to teaching corporations and individuals how to select keywords for their SEO campaign. You can follow SEOMap @seomapsocial.