According analytics firm NetApplications, Google currently has over 75 percent of the search engine market. Thus, if you want your site to be successful, you’ll have to play by the search giant’s rules. Else, your portal’s ranking can get pushed. The worst case scenario is Google removes it from its index. With that said, here are the top 6 SEO mistakes you might be doing that Google hates and make you blacklisted.

  1. Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing is an unnatural repeatition of keywords in hopes of pushing the page to a higherranking. The overusage of keywords can ruin the content – at best, it will be barely coherent. Bear in mind that according to a Google’s executive statement back in 2008, keyword density no longer plays a vital role in the rankings. Mountain View made the adjustment was made in order to address keyword stuffing, which was rampant until the said year. Needless to say, content quality should never be sacrificed for keyword density. s5i-small-business-seo-mistakes-you-must-avoid-featured-image

  1. Buying Links

Backlinks are important. However, buying links in order rank better in SERPs is a big no. Most of the links used are disreputable sites, spammy or social networking accounts. It is like going to a job interview with a recommendation from a notorious crack dealer. Instead of helping you, it hurts you.Some “SEO companies” claim that they will never be found out by Google as they are creating smart ways to appear legitimate but then, Google is endlessly evolving its algorithms. Moreover, several of these shady SEO firms, along with their affiliate sites, have already been flagged. Buying links from them can get your site unindexed.

  1. Article Marketing

Article marketing is writing an article and spinning multiple versions. The spun versions arethen submitted to various websites in exchange for a link back to your site. This SEO technique was the fad in 2008 and it did use to work. However,that is no longer the case as Google’s A.I. is now quite smart. In fact, it can already deduce an image with 94 percent accuracy and create a caption that includes how each of the objects within the image relate to one another. Spun articles don’t stand a chance.

  1. Poor Content

Google wants content to be intended for human readers, not for its search engine. Moreover, its A.I.can nowrate the quality of content on a page. Hence, if your pages are hosting poor content (i.e., too thin and generic, not keyword-focused) it can backfire.On the other hand, writing an informative and detailed content for readers can help better your pages’ rankings. It’s also a good practice to citesand link to sources in order to validate the points raised and make it relevant both to the reader and Google’s algorithm. 

  1. Unoptimized website

Websites should be optimized both for the users and search engines.Otherwise they will stay insignificant. An optimized website should fast load times as users wouldn’t want to wait for more than a minute for the pages to be ready, attractive design, easynavigation and an inituitive user interface. It’s also a good idea torefrain from too many “gimmicks” that irritate the users such as multilple videos playing when the page loads up.

  1. Non Mobile-Friendly Website

Screen size is influencing the future of the Web. Screen sizes are decreasing and becoming irregular as new types of devices are coming out. The number of people using their mobile devices to browse the web is steadily increasing each year. In fact, ,mobile searches started to outpace desktop searches in 2014 and is still soaring. Google knows this and emphasized it with updates like Mobilegeddon.Needless to say, it is much better if your site is mobile-ready and friendly.Billions more are going to move into the mobile space.Ignoring this trend could be one of the top 6 SEO mistakes you might be doing.