Increase On-line Traffic: Don’t Be Tempted To Use These Tricks!
By Stephen On December 29, 2008
Under Internet Marketing
OK I know we’re all fired up and wanting to get as much traffic as possible in order to win the $1000.00. prize Alex Jeffreys is offering for the student who generates most traffic. But isn’t it important to keep our integrity, and also guarantee that our website will remain indexed by Google in years to come attesting to our stories?
It’s been said on some blogs that people are using Black Hat tactics to generate more traffic. That’s really not a good idea because the good people at Google aren’t stupid. Indeed the word Google is synonymous with ’smart’.
I’ve written previously about keeping within Google Guidelines and the reasons to do so. Let me state here and now that if you attempt to play chess with Google you will lose, and you will go down.
Here are some Black Hat ticks to avoid:
1. Keyword stuffing: Don’t fill your text and meta tags with meaningless keywords. Google has a system that knows if the keywords in your site are relevant to the content of the article you’ve written. Also if you add too many keywords into your text and meta tags Google may still penalise you because they will assume that you’re writing for them, rather than for people.
2. Paid Links and Link Farming: Some people treat these two Black Hat techniques as different categories but essentially both involve buying links to your website either by belonging to sites that will provide you with a link, for a fee, or using link building software that builds incoming links automatically.
3. Automatic Linking: It doesn’t follow that who you follow will necessarily follow you. Links that do so may have been generated by software. The aim is to have websites that look, and are organic. Google likes these. In the context of Alex Jeffreys’ current program I think students should only include sites in their blogroll that are adhering to the standards that Alex Prescribes, and take care not to link to websites with inferior content.
4. Duplicate Sites and/or Content: Don’t steal someone’s content, change a few words or tags and represent it as your own. Google are far cleverer than you may realize. The same rules apply when using, or quoting others, as in any other form of publishing. If you’re quoting someone else then give them credit, and provide a link out to their website.
5. Hiding Your Text: Don’t put hidden text on your website. Hidden text is when you write something in the same colour ink as the background. The object is to fool the Google into thinking that your website is about one thing when it’s about something else. The Google robot may not be able to tell the difference, for example, between black writing on a white background from white writing on a white background, but Google will eventually catch you out ~ Game Over!
6. Doorway Pages: These are pages that are optimised for specific keywords but point to a hub website. Google doesn’t like these and will penalize you if you attempt such tactics.
7. Cloaking: On no account display one website to visitors and another to the Googlebot. Indeed you’re best to avoid using framed content on your website at all. I’m not suggesting that YOU would think of using any of these Black Hat tactics that can get you penalised by Google, but offer this page as a guide in case others offer you bad advice.
What then is my recommendation for achieving high a high page-rank at Google? Easy, simply write useful, original content 
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