Is Your Website At a Risk of Being Mistaken for Spam?

There has been a lot of spam content of the web lately. The truth is that everyone amongst us who are reading this blog or even skipping it, HATES SPAM.

The bitter truth is that not only the online consumers but also search engines hate SPAM in all of its infinite forms. The latest updates in Google algorithms, officially named as Panda, has particularly focussed on reducing thin, low-quality and spammy content in the search results.

And in this attempt, sometimes even the non-spammy and legitimate websites get targeted. So, now is the time for your webmasters to review your sites and keep a close check on what the search engines treat as spam.

Let us closely monitor a few important factors:

1. Content

Content is the driving force of SEO for any website. As spammers do not bother to engage with the audience, they never focus on content on their website. In fact, if at all content is posted by spammers on their website it is likely to be stolen from others.

Thus, it becomes an add-on to regularly publish quality content on your website and remove older content which you think may fail to pass the spam filters. Re-visit the old content on your website and make it look fresh because one bad post can bring a disgrace to your website and mark it spam.

2. Keywords

There are a few websites where every next word is a keyword. Stuffing your website with keywords won’t help you but only drop you in the bucket of spammy websites. Google SE algorithms have taken the front seat in identifying content which doesn’t hold any value but is merely stuffed with keywords.

Stuffing the site elements with keywords will get it knocked down by Google. So, it is strictly advised to deploy your keywords wisely and deliver only valuable information.

3. Social Networking

Social Media will be the last platform used by web spammers. This is because they are in no way interested in building a relationship with their website visitors and user base. So engaging in social interactions with the audience remains out of question.

Search Engines, especially Google assesses and examines websites and businesses through their social interactions with the public. So, the bottom line is if social media doesn’t play a role in your SEO, then your website is at a high risk of being mistaken as a spam.

Tip: You can simply start by including social media sharing button on your websites.

4. Broken links

Regular evaluation of websites is crucial for any online business. Any website that has broken links or 404 Error Not Found errors holds a red flag for Google spam filters.  Keep a check on your sites and make them free of such broken links or dead ends to save yourself.

5. Bad inbound links

Inbound links are links coming from other websites to yours and are good for SEO. Link building has the potential to make your website go round and anon, but only high-quality links serve the purpose. Bad inbound links can put your website into trouble and mark it as spam. So, if you at all find your website has any annoying links, take them off without any delay.

Elements to Remove from your Website Immediately

To help you further, we have brought forward a list of desirable elements that you should do away with:

1. Vague Headlines

Headlines are the first thing that a person notices on your website. And if a headline fails to narrate what your business does, it’s not worth calling a “headline”. Your headline should be stating the main category that your business deals with.  Avoid vague text and try to make your headlines specific to deliver value to the visitors, at a glance, within seconds.

2. Section Headers

Web pages are broken into smaller sections, all of which contain headers stuck above them. These headers are sometimes larger than the items inside the section but do not portray any meaning. Such elements only add visual noise to a webpage rather than value.

So, either frame descriptive headers or just take them off your website making the items prominent.

3. Long Paragraphs

Make your content scannable by avoiding long, bulky and tedious content on your website. Visitors dislike reading words stuffed together and prefer reading short paragraphs.

So, never write content longer than four lines. Also, it is recommended to use bullet pointers, and other formatting options to make your content appealing.

4. Testimonial Page

Testimonials are an evidence of your business and how well you serve your customers. Every Smart marketer bases his marketing claim with evidence.

And, evidence should be kept close to the claim, so that they are visible to the visitors clearly. Creating a separate testimonial page will put it out of context making it weak because such pages are rarely visited and clicked on.

Add testimonials to every webpage in your site, so that they are clear and visible again and again.

5. Dates

Adding dates to a blog or article makes it look older after a certain point in time. So, dates should be definitely avoided.

For example, if you write how-to articles or some other content that is evergreen and never obsolete, then mentioning dates is neither relevant nor necessary. You can skip it and make your content look fresh even after a point of time.

6. Longer forms

Do you like filling big forms, just for subscribing to a newsletter? Well, I’m sure you wouldn’t, because most of us don’t.

The bigger your subscription forms are, the lesser will they get filled. There is a thumb rule for optimizing conversions that says, the more the form fields, lesser it converts. There are some brands which request a form of 20+ fields to be filled as the subscription process, and that is where they hit the bottom.

Ask for just basic contact info like email id, contact number, and name. These minimal details are sufficient for the first-time subscription. However, if you wish to get additional details, they can be requested over email sometime later.

7. “Submit” CTA

A call-to-action should always specify the benefits that a user is about to get after clicking it. So, it should be clear and precise. A good CTA is descriptive while a bad CTA actually says nothing. Putting text as “Submit” inside a CTA button doesn’t help because it says nothing about the next action or the benefit that the user will receive.

Highlight the benefits in CTA and use descriptive action words. For Example, “Create My Account”, “Get Instant Access”, “Find your Store”, etc. help. Also, research says that using words like “Now” and “Instant” in a CTA converts better because it shows urgency, no delay basically.

Pretty sure that there may be other issues as well with websites that can mark it as spam but these are the major ones. If you address the above, you probably jump on to the safe side.

Good Luck and Happy Reading!