The Webmaster Guidelines put out by Google help people who build websites learn what to do and what not to do in terms of designing and creating their homes on the web. Basically, there are some things you can do that might penalize you in the eyes of the search engine. Webspam content violations are a big problem and could prevent people from seeing your site. This means reduced visibility and business. Not good things!
First up with regard to SEO is syndicated content. This is content that has been copied from another website. While some sites only include relevant content on their sites, many syndicate a wide variety of articles and blog posts about every topic under the sun. These sites add no additional value to the content and don’t offer anything unique to their visitors. These sites can be penalized by Google because they don’t provide anything useful to the web or to people who are searching for the topics covered.
Affiliate programs are another problem area. If you only provide the content the affiliate provides without adding anything new, your site isn’t going to rank very well. Unique content is where it’s at in terms of proper SEO. So, if you have an affiliate site, offer up original product reviews and descriptions, and provide real value to your visitors. Basically, create something different than what the affiliate provides out of the box.
Another thing you need to watch out for are doorway sites. These sites attempt to clog up the search results for specific keywords or phrases and merely exist to offer a link to another site. That’s their sole purpose. This is bad for SEO because it doesn’t provide any value to the user. That is, it will make the search results for a phrase unhelpful to users because many of the results will link back to the same site.
All of these constitute violations of the Google Webmaster Guidelines. These violations can result in poorer ranking in the search results and in some cases, even removal from the results altogether.
You don’t want these things to happen as they will negatively impact your business and visibility. Your best bet is to follow the guidelines and provide your visitors with a relevant, interesting, and high-quality experience. At the end of the day, that is how you rank well in the search engines and how you give your business an overall boost.