Bad SEO: What is it, and how do you avoid it?

What is bad SEO?

Bad SEO is essentially the opposite of good SEO. It lowers your ranking in the search results, sometimes affecting the ability to rank at all. It also results in poor user experience which is something that search engines such as Google are really cracking down on. 

The use of bad SEO can be accidental, such as unknowingly having duplicate content on your website. But it can also be intentional. Unethical techniques are actions that violate search engine guidelines and can be penalised.

Avoiding bad SEO is, therefore, essential for the success of your website. 

How can you avoid bad SEO?

Create high-quality content

High-quality content translates to impressive SEO results. Poor or thin content is bad practice and can result in your website being penalised and moved down the search results. 

Low-quality content is unoriginal, lacks creativity and inspiration, and is usually not helpful or relevant to what the user was searching for.

One way to improve the quality of your content is to write with your site and your audience in mind. Make sure your content is useful and relevant to your audience, and think about what will be the most beneficial piece of content for them. Avoid writing the first thing that comes to mind.

It should be readable and accurately represent your products and services. Do not copy other high-ranking articles and blogs; search engines want to see original work!

This is why it's especially important to not ‘content spin’. Spinning content is rewording somebody else’s work but in a slightly different way. The search engines won’t highly rank content that has already been written about - they’ll prioritise content in the search results pages that is useful and original.

Check for duplicate content

If you have duplicate content on your website, it means that several of your website pages have the same or very similar content. This is an example of bad SEO because it doesn’t offer anything new to people searching for what you offer. As a result, your site will rank lower in the search engines because of its low quality, repetitiveness, and unoriginality.

Checking your site is void of duplicates will ensure better results for your website. The most efficient way to check for duplicates is through a website audit. 

Logica Digital offers free audits for businesses like yours, and you can request yours here.

Don’t overuse keywords

Although keywords are ‘key’ to directing relevant traffic to your website, using too many of them too often is unnecessary. It’s called keyword stuffing, and you don’t need to do it. It makes the text hard to read and often sounds unnatural.

To avoid this, you should use keywords only where necessary and where they feel natural to the flow of the sentence. Ideally, they should be in the title, meta description, opening paragraph, and main body of text.

If you feel like you’ve had to ‘stuff’ your writing with keywords, you’ve probably fallen prey to keyword stuffing. Remember to only include the necessary keywords! Plus, if you’ve had to stuff keywords in or shoehorn them in unnaturally, they’re probably not relevant to the piece of content you’ve written. 

Don’t have too many ads above the fold

It’s not a bad thing for your website to feature advertisements. It only becomes an issue when ads dominate the page and overwhelm the top of your site. 

Users ultimately visit your page because of what your site offers. Clouding their first impression with ads isn’t an effective SEO strategy.

You should ensure that there aren’t an overwhelming amount of ads above the fold, AKA at the top of your site. The first thing users should see is what they searched for, i.e., the answers to their questions or the product they searched for. Ads aren’t always bad, it’s how you use them that counts!

Don’t overuse links

Search engines are clever enough to detect spam and unethical behaviour. Unfortunately, they can be detected even if they are accidental.

Having too many unrelated links attached to your site can negatively impact its ranking, as search engines may label them as spam. This can often be the case for paid links and clusters of links. Plus, if your backlinks aren’t up to scratch, search engines can view it as a manipulation of the backlink system and penalise your site as a result.

Overall, don’t overuse links. You can link build, but use them when they’re necessary and where they fall naturally in the flow of the writing. Ensure that the links you use are relevant, targeted to your audience, and provide helpful information for users.

Don’t over-optimise anchor text

Anchor text refers to the actual text you click on for a link. Bad SEO practice involves optimising anchor text for irrelevant content. For example, if you’re writing content for a car garage, you wouldn’t need to link anything to the word ‘car’ or ‘wheels’ because it’s too vague - the user wouldn’t know what the link would take them through to.

The links attached to the anchor text should therefore be informative, useful, and relevant to what the rest of your content is about. Only add them where it feels natural, so that you’re not being repetitive or forcing links in places where they don’t make sense. This will promote good user experience because it effectively directs searchers towards what they want to know or find out.

At Logica Digital, we utilise successful and effective SEO tactics. For a free audit of your website, or to find out more about what we offer, please contact our team on hello@logica-digital.co.uk.

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