I meet lots of people who are trying to improve results in Google.
On many occasions I have been asked about a tactic they are ‘thinking of using’ or someone has suggested they use ‘because it will work’.
In every such instance I have challenged the tactic by saying ‘What is your opinion – does it sound right to you?’. 99% of the time, the answer comes back ‘no’.
This highlights how many web site owners are actually better at SEO than they think. Often site owners lack confidence to follow their instinct and go with what they think right. In the many occasions I have met people who have done exactly that, their results are generally better since they have applied common sense and good marketing to what they are doing.
So what sort of things should we consider when deploying tactics for SEO improvement? Here are a few to get you started:
- Is it being done to help your users in some way? – Yes/No
- Are you doing it specifically for search engines only? – Yes/No
- If you are linking out to other websites, do you know why? – Yes/No
- Are you comfortable with what is being proposed? Yes/No
By answering simple questions like the above, you can start to see how close you are to SPAM and techniques that may fall outside Google webmaster guidelines.
My advice, follow your instinct!