As search engine optimization has continued to become more, well, optimized over the years, we’ve seen wave after wave of creativity from webmasters and bloggers alike who want a quick and easy way to game the system. In the old days, it was incredibly easy to find ways to shoot up the rankings of most search results and make easy cash. These days, however, most of the holes have been plugged in terms of blatant abuse – with even many subtle forms of black hat now barred from use. All too many people make the mistake of doing things that Google will see as spam or abuse, but are unaware due to not keeping up with the latest changes. Below, we’ll review a few actions that you need to avoid if you want to keep the Google Gods happy.

Domain Abuse

In the past, it was commonplace to grab up several domain names that either looked a whole lot like more popular competitors or that contained one or more trademarked terms. These owners would then begin pinging links to search engines from these domains and naturally, primitive Google would give them plenty of clout in SERPs. In the case of trademark domains, many people did (and still try to do) this in order to scrape content from the legitimate site. Today, however, the blatant use of these tactics can get your site blacklisted and marked as a spam site, so avoid this behaviour at all costs.

Cookie Abuse

Some people have been known to use cookies as a way to make money without necessarily earning it. One way that people do this is by embedding cookies into other people’s caches through images that are posted on other forums. This can lead to increased affiliate referrals and make some people some serious money. Unfortunately for them, Google will keep an eye out for this and disable any affiliate programs you have with them if you are caught doing so. In addition to this, if you use your own domain as a platform for this activity, it too can be impacted.

Expired, Unrelated Domains

There has been a recent surge in buying up domain names that had high PageRanks and tons of traffic in past lives. This is because these domains appeared to be easier to boost to the top of SERPs than any regular ol’ domain. The problem you’ll encounter with Google and others when you start pinging links from domains like these is when it pertains to unrelated content. Many people have used these domains to link to something completely different than the name would have you believe. In recent months, the crackdown from Google on those who continue to try to game the system has been harsh.

Conclusion

There are dozens of spam techniques and tactics that at one point produced benefit but no longer do. In the modern day, watching out for cookie abuse, expired domain abuse and trademark domain abuse are some of the most important structural no-nos you need to consider. This by no means is an exhaustive list, but one that will point you in the right direction.