Perpetually in motion, SEO is often the subject of many questions that lead to a multitude of interpretations. From there to say that there are as many referencing solutions as there are referencers, there is only one step.
However, Google regularly publishes its “Quality Rater Guidelines“, a 160-page summary of good SEO practices. We have read it for you and listed 16 signs that send a bad signal to Google.
1 – The use of clickbaiting
Clickbait is the act of giving a page a catchy title and not producing content related to that title or writing poor quality content. The reader feels cheated and leaves the page directly, which Google does not like.
Remember that you write primarily for your visitors and that Google is increasingly trying to judge the quality of a page in the same way as an Internet user would.
2 – A lack of expertise on the subject
One of the important criteria in Google’s eyes is called E.A.T., for Expertise, Authority, Trust. For some topics that have a strong impact on a person’s life, such as money and health, Google favors sites whose authors are references in their field.
Put yourself in the shoes of the person for whom you are writing and adapt the accuracy and density of your text according to what they expect from your site.
Let’s take the example of a company that offers river trips by Canoe Kayak.
Who will the company talk to?
- To the family man who wants to spend a few hours with his family on a small river accessible to beginners?
- For the thrill-seeker who wants to organize a sports trip down the Zambezi River during high water periods?
- To the young athlete who would like to learn a little more about this sport?
Probably all three. And that’s where the mistake is. Because by addressing the three profiles in the same article or page, the article will be considered as lacking in precision and therefore expertise. In this case, it would be better to create three distinct and well-targeted pages.
3 – Pages with little content
Ideally, a page should contain at least 300 words (a blog article at least 500). Below this quota, Google considers that the content is insufficient. As a result, Google will consider that this page has little interest and it will be poorly referenced.
The length of a content depends above all on the subject matter and the quality of the response. The right length is therefore the one that achieves its objective: to provide useful information to its reader.
4 – Few or no sources
Do you advertise figures or elements found in certain sources? In this case, it is important to always mention which are your sources. If you don’t, Google will find that your site lacks relevance.
5 – Not using titles and meta-descriptions
Title tags and meta-descriptions are elements of SEO that should not be forgotten because they are taken into account by search engines. You just have to make sure to add your main keyword in these tags as well as in the alt tags of the images.
6 – Too few links
Incoming links prove that the content of a page is interesting and recommended or shared by Internet users. The more authority the site that links to yours has in your field of activity, the more positive the impact of that link is in Google’s eyes.
7 – Ignore loading speed and mobile friendly compatibility
Search engines take into account the loading speed of your pages and obviously penalize those whose pages are slow to load. gtmetrix.com and Page Speed Insights are good free tools to measure the effectiveness of your site.
Engines consider that if your site is not compatible with mobile devices you are not providing a satisfying experience to your audience. If this is your case your position in search engines will be penalized.
8 – Non-optimized content
To properly refer a web page, Google needs information such as keywords or vocabulary related to the topic addressed. If you don’t use one keyword per page, your site is likely not to be perceived as a quality site by Google.
To ensure the relevance of your keywords we suggest the simple and effective Google Adwords Keyword Planner tool, it has the great advantage of using the rules that google applies to its crawler robots. Ubbersuggest is another very powerful tool but it does not allow to suggest words for Luxembourg and Belgium.
9 – Duplicated content
The duplicate content is always tracked by Google. In general, it is said that a page cannot contain more than 70% identical content to another. However, it is better to be careful. Google also favors pages whose content seems to have been written by a human and not a robot.
10 – An anonymous author
It is important to indicate who is the author of your articles. The greater its authority in its field of expertise, the more Google will tend to find its content relevant. On the other hand, if you do not mention the author’s name, it can be penalizing, especially in technical fields.
11 – No contact information
General information about the company, association or persons owning a website must appear on the website. Google will penalize sites that do not include contact information, customer service data or the name of the person in charge.
12 – Irrelevant links
You create links between pages on your site that have nothing in common? Be careful, the web page may be penalized. If you create an internal or external link, make sure that the anchor of the link corresponds to the content of the page to which it points. If this is not the case, your link will be perceived as irrelevant.
13 – A too high rebound rate
The search engine absolutely wishing to provide a relevant answer to Internet users, it will penalize sites that have a rebound rate (i.e. Internet users leaving the site without consulting a second page) too high. Beyond 60% bounce rate, Google considers the page as bad.
14 – Over-optimized content
Google penalizes pages that use keyword stuffing. Integrate your keywords naturally into your content and especially in the right places: title, H1, H2 and sometimes in the paragraphs.
Google uses a semantic method to determine whether your text has a meaning and whether it addresses a subject with the necessary details.
For example, if your site page or article deals with Gardening, the use of words such as: watering, seeding, vegetables, harvesting… will be considered more relevant by the engine than if you repeat gardening 7 or 10 times in a 300 word text.
15 – Harmful pages
Google is on the lookout for fraud. If one of your pages is considered malicious (pishing, viruses…), your site is likely to be considered risky. In case of suspected fraud, the quality rating assigned to your website may be a zero score!
16 – Cloacking
Some blackhat referencers use cloacking. The technique consists in writing content for users and another for Google in order to be well referenced. Be careful, this practice can lead to serious penalties from Google.
To Conclude
If your site has these 16 errors, congratulations! We would be happy to meet you because your site is a rare specimen that we would like to dissect.
More seriously you have seen it, SEO is a discipline that has very specific rules. But it is also a long-term job that requires professionalism, involvement and regularity, 3 qualities that we modestly believe we have and that we like to put into practice in the projects that our clients entrust to us.
