WebProWorld
As you may have read about by now, Google’s Matt Cutts participated in a fairly lengthy Q&A session at SMX Advanced in Seattle. One interesting question that Matt got was about how webmasters should deal with display:none and AJAX without being penalized by Google.
Cutts recommends making sure that whenever you write your own mouseover code that you don’t roll your own custom solution, which he says might do some really weird things that nobody else has done before.
Not long ago, another installment of the wacky car race known as the LeMons was held. Rule-breakers are penalized by being forced to do things like paint Bob Ross landscapes on their hoods and participate in conga lines. Google’s punishment system isn’t quite as obvious, though, so Matt Cutts discussed the matter at SMX Advanced.
There are two words that are guaranteed to strike fear into the heart of any website proprietor: penalties and filters.
They damage rankings and ultimately may result in banishment from the search engines. However, before panic sets in, let us guide you through the basics of penalties and filters.
A penalty is caused by significant violations of a search engine’s website guidelines, such as:
People who have believed downloading copyrighted content did not pose any kind of legal problem have faced plenty of legal troubles, but the real trouble comes as enforcement against illegal downloading makes people fear legal downloading.
Jane stared at the computer screen with a mixture of disbelief and horror. Her website had disappeared from the Google listings, and her Google toolbar showed a grey line. After thinking back for a moment, Jane remembered what might have incurred Google’s wrath. Her fly by night alleged search engine optimization (SEO) expert had added violated Google’s webmaster guidelines, and used her site to do it. The doorway pages, cloaked sections, and hidden text, he had assured her, would give her site much higher search rankings than ever before.
Sorry to crash your party, but as we bring in the New Year, it’s also time to bring in a New Tax Season.
