In any case, the result is still the same: Michael Hill is showing the Google bot two different websites.
The obvious reason you shouldn’t do it is because it’s against Google’s terms of service. And as Reseo chief executive Chris Thomas points out, you’ll receive a pretty massive penalty if you get found out.
“You’ll most likely cop a ranking penalty, especially if Google decides to make an example out of you. Then you not only have to go to the trouble of fixing it up, but you’ll get penalties and it’ll end up making your life a lot harder.”
Just in case you think this can’t happen then think again. BMW was socked with a huge penalty after Google found it was using exactly this technique. Its page ranking score was set to zero, and it dropped to the bottom of the rankings.
Thomas says you should set up Google Webmaster tools, because the company may end up contacting you through there first if you’ve done something wrong and give you the chance to fix it up.
Occasionally you may visit a website and see some odd words at the top or bottom of the screen. It’s pretty obvious what they are: keywords.
Sometimes businesses will try to get away with it by sticking these words at the very top of the screen in small text, as the Google Bot doesn’t really care what size font you use. But to be sure, it’s what Google calls an inappropriate use of the style sheet
Not only is inappropriate use of the style sheet against Google’s rules and regulations, but according to Chris Thomas, Google will notice if you’re using it and punish you in the rankings.
“It’s only a matter of time before they find you doing it,” he says.
This is actually a more recent development. Similar to the idea of cyber-squatting, someone will buy a whole bunch of domains and use them to link through to their own website. These domains could be totally unrelated to what the business actually focuses on, but they end up moving through to the website anyway.
Considering domains are actually fairly cheap, this can be a cost-effective way to drive traffic to your website even if they have absolutely nothing to do with your company.
Not only does this usage tend to annoy the people who are looking for the domain you bought, Google has recently started weeding out companies that use this tactic.
Monte Huebsch of AussieWeb says Google has been implementing ways to find out this tactic, even as recently as 10 days ago.
