Top 10 ways to get on Google’s naughty list

For the 2017 holiday season, I thought I would share some of the more annoying things I see in the SEO world, and there’s a chance these would land you on Google’s Naughty list. Here’s my top 10.

• Send a spam email to google themselves. Tell them how you can help them increase the rankings and traffic. Ah those lazy spammers. 
• Using paid links to specifically increase your rankings in Google+. 
• Using Doorway pages or anchor pages. These are pages that are designed to rank for different keyword variations. In the past, often the tactic that would be used to get these pages indexed would be the hidden one X one pixel. 
• Cloaking. Delivering different content to robots versus actual users. Still doing that? Really?
• Hidden text. As to why this day and age someone would want to have hidden text is beyond me. Just try to write better content, create a better user experience.
• Keyword stuffing. In an attempt to get more traffic, often you will see pages or websites that have keyword stuffing possibly at the bottom of the footer of the pages. Keyword stuffing can come in many different variations, either way it is very annoying and not on Google’s recommended to do list. 
• Machine generated content. Why be so lazy? When’s the last time a machine wrote a Best selling novel? Hasn’t happened yet. Make a connection with your audience. Leave the robots to cleaning your carpet. 
• Keywords that do not relate to your topic.  they could be just add more keywords to attempt to get more traffic. Non-related keywords to your topics will most likely lead to higher bounce rates and not be that helpful. 
• Using virtual office for your Google local rankings. Yes if google finds out you are using a virtual office then this listing will be route from google’s local maps. Local rankings have become a greater source traffic. This has led to many people trying to get more traffic from metropolitan areas that they normally would not be able to receive it in their actual location. 
• Keyword Spamming within Your Google My Business Listing. I had to add this as a separate entry from Keyword Spamming. Google states that the business name on the listing should be the exact name appearing on the signage or known to the real world. Keywords cannot be added to the name. This is a personal big pet peeve of mine. Especially SEO companies/Consultants that keyword stuff their own Google My Business Listings just to try and get higher local organic rankings.