Do Search Engines Hate Your Site?

Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
Sometimes certain websites rub search engines the wrong way.  But keeping search engines happy with your website is enormously important if you want website traffic.

So...what kinds of things tick search engines off?

1. Site Structure. I talked a little bit about tables vs. DIV/CSS in a previous entry, but to reiterate, search engines aren't big fans of websites constructed in table format.  If your website is made using tables, it's probably time to rebuild.

2. Buckshot style keyword selection. In an attempt to drive traffic to their sites, some people select tons of semi-relevant keywords.  This might have helped their search engine rankings 5-7 years ago, but search engines have become wise to this overkill technique, and now having 67 keywords can actually make your search engine rankings lower.

3. Irrelevant tags. Another way some people try to slyly increase their search engine rankings is by including slightly relevant or completely irrelevant image (or other) tags.  Again, this sneaky idea might have helped them out back in the day, but in 2010, search engines will put the hurt on you for that trick.

4. Irrelevant content. From an SEO standpoint, the content of your site has to be relevant to the back end content of your site.  Among other things, making sure your relevant keywords are present in the copy is big.

5. No updates. Search engines like dynamic websites that change and grow.  If you are neglecting your site, so will Google.  Keep things interesting on your website, and the search engines will appreciate your efforts.

Not sure if your website is a culprit of a search engine faux pas?  We'll gladly check it out, and, if needed, work to patch up the relationship between the search engines and your site so you can all be friends.  That's what we do - making peace on the web, one website at a time.