How to Tell if Your Website Was Damaged by Shady SEO

Brought to you by:

Upswing Interactive

UpswingInteractive.com @GetUpswing

It’s a Zoo Out There!

• Google has become a real zoo when you look at the recent algorithm changes…literally!

• Many of us were recovering from Panda and were later hit with Penguin and even Hummingbird

attacks.

• While some of the Google updates have some humorous names, the damage they can inflict on our

marketing efforts is no laughing matter.

• The line between white and black hat is a fine one that as marketers, we are constantly forced to walk.

• If you are not controlling your SEO in house, you may not even know if your website has recently been

impacted by shady SEO techniques and of course, if your agency is implementing these practices in the

first place, it’s unlikely they would want to implicate themselves by telling you!

• So if you have noticed some negative changes in your ranking and traffic, you might want to take a

closer look at your website and see if you have been impacted by questionable SEO techniques.

Be your own detective and see if your

marketing department or outsourced

SEO agency has been taking part in

any of these widely regarded black

hat techniques.

Step 1: Has Your SEO Firm Done Any of These Shady SEO Techniques?

Cloaking

• By definition, cloaking is “the practice of presenting different content or URLs to human users and search engines.”

• This is one of the easiest ways to get your site blacklisted or banned.

• If your website has been using cloaking, it’s likely the reason it is no longer being indexed.

• Basically if you are using cloaking, you are showing search engines one thing and your reader another in an attempt to gain rank.

Duplicate Content

• This is one mistake that many newbie marketers make that could be seriously impacting site ranking.

• If you have a piece of well optimized SEO content, you may think that sharing it in many different areas would be beneficial but it actually has quite the opposite impact.

• When search engines are faced with the same exact content on different URLs, they are not able to determine which is more beneficial or timely. As a result, these pages

will actually hurt your ranking.

Spun Content

• In years gone by many marketers were guilty of taking one piece of content and spinning it or having it written more for search engines then for people.

• This content was not particularly helpful, was extremely low quality, and was often stuffed with an excess amount of keywords.

• In 2011, Google’s Farmer update hurt a lot of “how-to” sites and other low quality content websites.

• While spun content is now easier to spot since most marketers have turned away from it, in some cases it still may be used by black hatters.

Unrelated Keywords

• Have you ever been reading an article and suddenly come across a word that has nothing to do with what you are reading?

• This is another black hat technique that is deemed “shady” in the SEO world.

• This once again goes to show that if you are writing content for search engines and not for readers, your site will be

negatively impacted.

Excess Link Exchanges or Paid Links

• Link exchanges or paid links are known as “link schemes” and should definitely be avoided.

• Taking part in buying or selling links or doing excessive link exchanges will often tip off Google to your shady SEO schemes.

• Natural is always better and if it seems you are trying to manipulate PageRank, you are going to pay the price.

• So now that you know just a handful of the many shady SEO techniques, how can you spot bad links pointing to your site?

$

Step 2: Identify Bad Links

• Bad links may be hurting your SEO efforts, but do you know what to look for?

• Basically, there are many ways you can spot bad links and there are also many tools out there that can help you do this.

• A “bad link” can be defined by any of the following factors:

• Has exact anchor text coming from many different URLs

• Comes from websites that have nothing to do with your industry, product, service or topic

• Comes from low quality websites

• Comes from comment sections

• Comes from sites with malware warnings

• Comes from de-indexed sites

X

SEMrush and Ahrefs

• You can use the following tools to help you dig a bit deeper in to your links.

• SEMrush offers both free and paid versions of this tool. You can find out the quality and type of links that are coming to your site.

• Ahrefs is another tool you can utilize that will help organize your link data and is easy to use.

• These are two popular websites but there are many others to choose from.

• Of course, Google Webmaster Tools is also very helpful and will issue warnings if you are earning spammy or shady links.

• Other tools you may find helpful include Open Site Explorer and Cognitive SEO.

SEMrush Ahrefs

Step 3: Remove Bad Links

• Once you have identified bad links, you are going to want to remove them.

• You will need to contact the webmaster and ask for your link to be removed from their site.

• Fortunately this is made easier with the help of several tools.

Rmoov and Remove’em

Rmoov:

• This service is great for helping you clean up backlinks that may be

harming your website.

• Finding contact information manually can take too much time, so this tool

pulls that info for you and helps send emails, follow up messages and also

checks to see if your link has been removed.

Remove’em:

• This tool is similar to the first and helps you find bad links and compile webmaster contact info.

Step 4: Make Sure You Are Working with a Legit SEO Agency

• The best way to make sure you are following the best marketing practices is to hire a great agency. Sounds easy right?

• Don’t make the mistake of getting fooled by companies offering fast results by using shady SEO.

• Here are some tips for finding the right company for you.

Get Involved with the Community

• You might be surprised to learn there are many marketing meet-ups in your area.

• These mix-and-mingle events allow for great networking and word of mouth recommendations.

• In addition to physically attending these events, you can read blogs and forums to find what others in your industry are

recommending.

• When you get involved with the Web and local marketing communities, you will begin to hear both the good and the bad

about SEO companies.

Ask for References

• The best way to know if a company is legit or not is to talk to current and previous customers.

• A legit SEO company should be able to offer you testimonials and references.

Ask for a Brief Background on Strategies They Are Implementing

• While the strategies are constantly changing (and no good SEO wants to give away all their secrets) you should be able to get a background on what strategies the company is currently using.

• Obviously if they mention anything we already listed as black hat in step 1, run like the wind!.

Do They Have Their Own Web Presence?

• Is the company actively blogging and contributing useful information about their industry?

• It’s a good sign when a company practices what it preaches.

• You will want to see social media presence and activity on the company’s site that shows they care about

the industry and keep up with current trends.

Trust Your Instinct

• If something feels off, it probably is! Trust your gut when it comes to outsourcing your SEO.

• Remember, bad SEO can happen to good companies!

• Unfortunately, many companies are now worried about outsourcing their online marketing efforts, but there is no

reason to panic.

• While several Google updates have hurt many websites, those that stand on a solid foundation will continue to thrive.

• There are still many marketing firms that can help build your online presence without hurting your reputation.

• At the base of it all, any “quick fixes” in the SEO world are not worth the risk.

• Too many links, too much content etc. too quickly can be the downfall of your website.

Taking Control of Shady SEO

By first identifying shady SEO, fixing it, and then

making sure you are outsourcing to a legit company,

you can relax knowing you have done all you can to

protect your website from facing massive damage

when the next Google algorithm update occurs.

Have Upswing Look at Your Campaign for Free!

Visit Upswing Interactive

1.877.736.5673