I've spent the last few weeks discussing items that you should perform on your website to increase your search engine rankings. This week I'm going to list a few things you shouldn't do!

1. Don't copy content!! I've seen many of you who are using a few inspection hosts that load your site with tons of content. The problem is that they load the other inspectors site with the exact same content. These hosts are giving you a template to get started with, which is great. You are responsible for editing the pages and making them your own. If you don't you're hurting your rankings. If search engines see your exact content on other sites, then what makes you so special that you should be ranked highly? Start editing those pages!!

2. Do not hide text on your website. Sometimes when people hear that it's good to include your keywords on your page they load up the bottom of their page with the names of every city within 100 miles and make the text the same color as their page background color so that humans can't read the text. The problem is that search engines are much smarter now than they used to be. They check to make sure the color of the text is not similar to the background color. If it is, you get PENALIZED. They know you're hiding stuff. Don't do it.

3. Don't overload your page with the same keywords over and over. Having your target keywords on your page are extremely important to getting prospective client clients to your site. But if you go overboard and include the words 'Home Inspector in Los Angeles' 50 times on the same page you'll get dinged for keyword 'stuffing.' Your usage of keywords within your page needs to be realistic.

If you have any questions about these tips, let me know!