Although the content of a website is encouraged to be original and unique in terms of plagiarism, the content itself must not be negative. Therefore, irrelevant search phrases and keywords should not be used simply to garner hits on the website.

For example, if your website is in the business of marketing horseshoes, it should not use key search phrases and words that do not relate to horseshoes to promote its ranking. Therefore, the website should not use platform shoes or high-heel shoes in its content, as this will boil down to negative content.

Negative content can have the following effects:

• Negative content can alienate visitors from the website. If a visitor is confused by a disparity between your URL, website name and the content – this confusion can create a negative impression of your website.
• Negative reviews of your brand on other websites can also affect the brand of your company, and these reviews should be dealt with.
• Negative content can also be reported and as a result have the website removed from search engine results.
• Negative content can easily undo SEO efforts as irrelevance and confusing keywords can make a search engine rank a website lower.

Therefore, when engaged in SEO activities for your website it is imperative to revise your content and make is positive – this means:

• No spamming links on the website.
• Original and friendly copy that engages visitors.
• Effective use of keywords without making the content feel forced and built around keywords and no use of unrelated or irrelevant keywords.
• Always fact check your content and correct potential errors – inaccurate information can have an incredibly negative impact on the credibility of your brand.

In conclusion your content can make or break your website’s ranking and should therefore be one of the key elements that you look at when attempting to boost your ranking.

Search Engine Optimization explained.

Keyword Assessment | Meta Data | Webmaster Tools | Google Analytics | Monthly Reporting | Robots.txt | .htaccess | Favicon | Site Map | Search Engines | Google Maps | Forms and E-mails | Footer Link | Google Search Engine | Picture Tagging | Directory Page | Social Media | Heading Tags | Indexed Pages | Robots | Sitemap | HTML Errors | Search Engine Errors | Broken Links | Pages and Content | Search Engines | Picture Tagging | Flash and iFrames | Hierarchy | Forms and Emails | Add Media | Static URLs | Descriptive URLs | Duplicate Content | Plagiarism Check | Positive Content | Negative Content | Character Coding | Downloadable Files | Optimize Graphics | Optimize Navigation | Incoming Links | Outgoing Links | Page Content | Meta Data | Rich Content | Reduce Bounce Rate | Social Media | Analyze Competitors | Website Security | 3rd Party Tracking