Search engine optimization (SEO) experts worth their salt know that content-rich, well-crafted web sites get high rankings. They also know that a good overall marketing strategy is the key to web success. Unfortunately, whether we like it or not, SEO experts are also human and they can perform some unethical practices. Here are a few of them:

Using “hidden” text that isn’t really hidden – Web visitors can’t see or read hidden text on your web site but search engines can. SEO experts who advise hiding text may suggest putting invisible keywords on the page or hiding keyword-rich text behind layers or images.

However, the big search engines where your readers will most likely originate from consider hidden text as “search spam.” They will penalize your web site for doing this. It may fool the search engines initially but upon recognizing hidden text in your web site, they will often ban it from their searches. Well designed, content-rich web sites are good performers when it comes to search results. Things the user can’t see will be a red flag for search engines.

Using redirects – There are legitimate reasons for using redirects but a top search engine ranking is not one of them. SEO consultants who recommend creating information-rich content for a page and then redirecting it to another page in your web site do not have your best interests in mind. In fact, the practice has been so common in the past that search engines have learned to penalize pages that use redirects and META refresh.

There are valid reasons for and ways to use redirects. Even so, anything but a permanent redirect is a disservice to your web site. Perhaps you’ve decided to change the domain name and you don’t want to lose the content you’ve already created. Use robot exclusion tags for this purpose to minimize spam penalties.