As there are many ways to optimize a web page, Webmasters should always avoid utilizing black hat SEO techniques so as to avoid getting banned from the search engines. This article discusses some of the most common pitfalls that the Webmasters should bear in mind and how using these techniques can lead to disastrous situation. The most commonly seen black hat technique is keyword spamming. Some Webmasters place a whole lot of targeted keywords in their sites just to boost up the keyword density ratio. Stuffing keywords across the page is not recommended as it adds no value to the users. Webmasters should not focus purely on the density ratio but to go for content readability. Another common method is to hide a significant content from the user by utilizing div blocks. This technique often adopted by the Webmasters when they want to hide a repetition of a series of keywords away from users but still indexed by the search engine bots. Again, this is another bad practice that should be avoided at all cost. Doorway pages contain highly relevant content so as to achieve top ranking in Search Engine Ranking Page (SERP). These pages only have one purpose, to direct traffic to another site. This is not recommended as the doorway pages themselves do not contain any valuable content for the Internet users. Some Webmasters prefer a totally flash powered design as it is more interactive and attractive to the Internet users. A fully flash powered site will not be indexed by the search engine and hence, will not appear in the Search Engine Result Page. This is bad especially for those that needs to attract search engine traffic to their sites. Some workarounds can be done to Flash site to increase its visibility on the Net. First, Webmasters can use two version of the site, one in HTML and the other one in Flash. This is common for large sites that cannot forgo both search engine traffic and design. Another fix is to create a partly Flash enabled site rather than a fully powered version. This is another common method as it allows the bots to still index most of the relevant content with some Flash plug ins. In conclusion, Webmasters should follow the guidelines provided by the various search engines to ensure that their sites adhere to the regulations. As long as the content shown to the users is identical to the search engine bots, most sites should not have problems listing in the search engine index.
KC is a SEO consultant with several years of related experiences. His advice has helped several Webmasters to increase their SERP. KC owns a SEO site that provides <a href="http://www.useseo.com/freetools.php">Free SEO tools</a> and free <a href="http://www.seo-ebooks.info">SEO eBooks</a>. He is also the founder of <a href="http://www.csslayout.info">CSS Layout</a> blog.
