Ultimately, the goal of every business owner is to achieve exceptional rankings on search engines such as Google. However, using dubious techniques to increase your online standing can backfire.

As a business owner, you are aware of the importance of online marketing and search engine optimization and how it can boost your revenues. SEO is vital in pulling in leads and turning them into conversions.

This branch of online marketing allows you to access a massive pool of prospective customers. Did you know that more than 65,000 Google searches take place every second? These searches account for more than 80 percent of web traffic on a business’ website.

While boosting your SEO is one of the most helpful local search engine marketing services you should employ, there are corrupt practices you need to avoid. Knowing the right way to utilize SEO will help you avoid getting penalized by Google – which can lessen your search engine rankings.

Google Penalties 101

Google, arguably the most prominent internet company in the world, implements stringent marketing policies. These marketing practices ensure the integrity of their search engine processes for other local businesses to follow. These practices also correct any dishonest tactics, also known as black hat SEO, which ultimately damages a business’ online presence.

Panda and Penguin: Google Ranking Algorithms

Google loves good-quality websites. The Panda algorithm actively prevents sites with poor content from getting into search results. The Penguin algorithm, on the other hand, punishes excessive link-building tactics. This includes any links that are solely there to manipulate your site’s Google search results ranking.

Avoiding Google Penalties

Here are some good practices you can follow to avoid getting penalized by Google:

Always be updated on Google’s algorithms.

Google is always updating its sets of algorithms to uphold integrity, quality, and relevance. These updates affect penalties are monitored and allocated over time.

Always stay updated on the advisories Google releases. This will help you make the changes needed before Google implements new changes.

Be mindful of your backlinking strategies.

Neglecting backlinking means Google bots not finding your page. Creating backlinks help add to the credibility of your page as an essential resource in the world wide web, which is good news for Google.

However, backlinking can also be misused for black hat SEO. If you employ local search engine marketing services from a reputable company, you wouldn’t have to even consider dishonest tactics.

If you get a penalty from Google from a bad link that you didn’t realize you had, disavow and take that link off from your website right away. This step helps resolve the issue and improve your online ranking.

Produce original, engaging, and relevant content.

A tried and tested way to significantly improve your website’s online ranking is to produce good-quality content. Consistently including content that proves to be useful to your site readers adds value to your website; website content includes blogs, videos, infographics, images, etc.

When users deem your content useful to them, it will help generate traffic. In turn, Google bots will perceive your site as a credible one, thus raising your online ranking.

Using keywords.

Overusing keywords, which is also known as “keyword stuffing,” is a standard black hat SEO strategy. While local search engine marketing services providers will stress the importance of utilizing keywords to improve your online ranking, they will also emphasize not cramming too many of them into your content.

Using too many keywords tends to create content that doesn’t really make sense to any readers. While you’re ticking the “use keywords” step on your SEO strategies list, you’ll end up sacrificing the readability and quality of your content if you do it excessively. On top of senseless content turning site visitors off, Google will see it as a red flag and penalize your website.

Hidden texts.

Cloaking is the term used when black hat SEO strategists hide texts throughout the site the increase the SEO. Google is particularly strict when it comes to this tactic. Ensure that you are obtaining your ranking organically. Work good keywords into your content to make it useful and relevant.

What if your site gets penalized?

Google recognizes that minor violations can be unintended. Thus, they have a way to resolve this situation. Read Google’s Manual Actions section to know the necessary steps you need to take to address the issue. Once you or your local search engine marketing services provider have completed these steps, request for a site review.