Is Your Website Marked as Spam?
Nobody likes spam- nobody. That’s why Google works so hard to stop spam sites from getting through their algorithms and annoying their users. Many people create web spam in order to manipulate search engines and increase their rankings. While Google’s search algorithms are the best in the business, they can be a little too good at times, and mark perfectly good websites as spam for all the wrong reasons.
Despite that, most of the website spammers have some key behaviors that clue Google in that a website isn’t doing things quite right. Here are ways that spammers make it obvious to Google that they’re not legitimate websites:
- They don’t use social media.
- They use “keyword stuffing”, flooding their pages with keywords that are pointless.
- They don’t have clear content.
- Their websites are overloaded with advertisements.
- They have poor quality links.
- They have many dead-end pages and broken links.
- They use black hat SEO tactics. These are non-standard, spamming techniques used to trick search engines into ranking the site high.
The current world of online automotive marketing optimizes more for the web user and not the search engine. If you create a great site with amazing content and a user friendly experience, you’ll get a lot further than if you try and use sneaky SEO tactics- which could just get your website permanently removed.
It has been said before, but it can’t be said enough: have great content, create a site that is user friendly, create strong and solid links, and make sure that potential customers will find your auto shop’s website useful. This will lead to real and honest web traffic, which will increase both your page views and rankings.
Once you implement solid SEO and content strategies, start tracking your results to measure improvement. Tracking will help you to see what is really working for you and what you might need to switch up.
If you are concerned that you have been marked as spam here are some ways to check:
- Search for your own website name and see if you can locate it.
- Check your website traffic and see if it has increased, decreased, or stayed the same.
- See what kind of inbound links are coming to your site.
- Find out if you are still getting leads or new customers from your website.
If it feels like nobody can find your site, including you, Google may be marking your site as spam. As a professional in the automotive industry, you probably don’t have the time to invest in learning and implementing SEO and web strategies to fix a problem website.
If you’re having problems with your automotive website, contact us for a free consultation. With over 30 years combined experience in the field of web development , design and SEO, we’re here to help with all your website needs.