“It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference.” ~ Tom Brokaw ~

Avoid

Keyword stuffing
Years ago, stuffing lots of repeated keywords into pages used to be a way to get higher rankings. That was until the search engine algorithms were improved to prevent this form of trickery. It’s now important not to overdo the keywords. These days if you cram too many keywords into your page content and Meta tags your ranking can actually be penalised.

Frames
Some of the major search engines are unable to follow frame links, as the robots view the web like a very old browser would. This can mean a search engine may not index any or all your webpages, so ensure there is an alternative method for them to enter and index your site to try and avoid this problem. Sometimes this can be achieved by including a text link within the <NoFrames> HTML code.

Graphics & Flash
You will often see websites presenting large sections of copy as graphic images. Whilst it can certainly look pretty, search engines simply cannot read the text on those graphics for indexing. Search engines are also unable to index text contained within Flash movies. So avoid the overuse of graphic content and Flash as it may impede your relevance in the eyes of the search engines.

JavaScript
Large sections of JavaScript within the HTML code of your webpages can also hinder your rankings. This is because JavaScript is normally towards the start of a page’s HTML code and search engines read this information first, causing the page’s text to seem lower on the page. Try to place any scripts towards the bottom of your pages, or ideally put them in external files, eg: function.js. This will improve your keyword density and raise your content with keywords closer to the top of the page.

Dynamic & database content
On more complex websites, pages are often generated via CGI or from a database. Symbols such as ‘?, $, &, $, =’ often form part of these webpage URLs but most search engines are unable to index them. It is best to create static pages whenever possible and just use the database to update the page content, rather than generating them on the fly. If you are unable to use static pages to replace such symbols with a ‘/’, in the very least make sure your URLs remain constant to give yourself the best chance.

Spamming
Abusing Search Engine Optimisation strategies in an attempt to obtain higher rankings is considered ‘spamming.’ Sites that use spam SEO tactics degrade the relevancy and value of search engine listings and results. Gateway pages, cloaking, redirects, shadow domains, and other such tactics are normally seen as trickery and fail.

This is a driver for the search engine providers to modify their algorithms to become even more complex and penalise or ban pages from their listings. If the search engines aren't aware of certain spamming techniques now, they will be soon and spammers run the risk of being penalised.

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