This document discusses SEO best practices and risks of penalties. It outlines "white hat" tactics that are safe, such as publishing unique quality content and linking to authoritative sites. "Black hat" tactics to avoid are also detailed, like keyword stuffing, cloaking, paying for or duplicating content. Taking shortcuts with SEO is not recommended, as penalties can hurt traffic and revenue significantly.

1. SEO Do’s & Don’ts:
White Hat vs. Black Hat Tactics

2. According to Matt Cuts, former head of the
Google web spam team, there are over
400,000 manual penalties initiated every
month.

3. As you focus on growing traffic to your
website, it can be tempting to cut corners
and take shortcuts.
Don’t.
Before you possibly put your website in
jeopardy, find out which SEO tactics are do’s
and which are BIG don’ts…

4. SEO tactics that are safe to add to your
marketing strategy are called:
White Hat Tactics

5. White Hat Tactics you should do…
Do publish unique and quality content.
Do create engaging title tag and meta
descriptions for every web page on your
site.
Do link to authoritative websites.

6. SEO tactics that are NOT safe and can
result in a Google and Bing penalty are
called:
Black Hat Tactics

7. Black Hat Tactics you should NOT do…
SEO Don’ts
 Don’t replicate title tag and meta descriptions. Create
unique copy for each page.
 Don’t partake in “keyword stuffing.” Only include
relevant keywords for a page.
 Don’t hide links and/or content from search engines,
also known as “cloaking.”

8. Black Hat Tactics you should NOT do…
Linking Don’ts
 Don’t link to low-quality websites, including question
and review forums, and adult-themed sites.
 Don’t pay for links – earn them!
 Don’t have a high number of outbound
links on a single page.
 Don’t “link build.” Outreach and build relationships
instead.

9. Black Hat Tactics you should NOT do…
Content Don’ts
 Don’t publish duplicate content* on your site or
across site domains.
 Don’t partake in content spinning.**
 Don’t publish poor quality or thin content.
 Don’t plagiarize.
*Duplicate content: exact pages or blocks of content that are published in multiple areas of a site.
** Content spinning: rewording an entire article and publishing it under the assumption it’s unique and
original.

10. Review

11. Review
Create quality content other sites will
naturally want to link to and share.
Link to authoritative websites that are
trustworthy.
 Don't take shortcuts when it comes to writing
title tags and meta descriptions or building
links. Take your time.

12. Penalties can happen to anyone…
In 2014, Google flagged eBay with a search
penalty. The drop in rankings resulted in a
loss of traffic which amounted to $200
million lost in revenue.

13. Next…
Getting Started with Google Analytics