How to avoid SEO penalties in industries affected by algorithms – Watch Engine Watch

When trying to rank on Google with search engine optimization, there are some industries that are much more competitive and prone to algorithm updates than others.

Industries such as casinos, insurance, lending, hosting and FX are very competitive and many SEO professionals will turn to black hat techniques to secure positions.

Google is the most popular search engine used by consumers; changes the algorithm regularly weekly. As a result, companies may find that their initial SEO progress is ruined by a penalty, which can ultimately lead to a significant loss of traffic and revenue.

The guide below offers some important tips when trying to rank in the most penalized and changing search results on Google.

Choose a good domain

When trying to rank for a highly competitive keyword, SEO experts can consider choosing a domain that is very similar to the “big money” keyword. There is certainly evidence that a domain with competing keywords will boost SEO. For example carinsurance.com or onlinecasinos.com

However, in today’s marketing environment, this is not so essential and Google is looking more at brands and not just keywords within a domain name.

Companies that have exact match domain whether a partial match of the domain (i.e., the loan or collateral is in the domain name) will need to be somewhat cautious, however. This is because there are likely to be more mentions of ‘dangerous’ words, such as insurance and loans, in the content, metadata and links obtained.

SEO professionals need to be aware of keyword stuffing or excessive use of sensitive words, the anchor text of their brand, as this is probably the first thing Google will look at if they are penalizing a company.

Strong analysis of competitors

Competitors are a good starting point for any SEO expert. Those that rank on the first two pages of Google’s search results will provide insight into what works and what doesn’t.

Not only can SEO then mimic the right types of techniques for the said industry, but they can also see who potentially fell on the search rankings and was most affected by algorithm updates and penalties.

Since the gaming and insurance sectors are known to have their own types of algorithms, SEO operating in these markets will need to pay attention to whether the landing page or home page is used for ranking. URL structures, metadata, and the frequency of the keyword on the page will also need to be considered.

When you look at URL structures, there may be a specific layout that is best for Google. If we take the example below from the loan industry, they apply https://dollarhand.com/installment-loans/ instead of ‘loan / installment’ or ‘/ installment / loan’.

Considering language, SEOs will also need to pay attention to what rhetoric and language are used in competitors ’scenes, as well as what links are used.

Therefore, looking at competitors is essential to rank in a highly specialized and competitive industry. Companies that are well established in the market have probably gone through shifts and have beaten penalties in the past to secure such a strong position.

Use strategies to build low-risk relationships

SEOs that help companies in industries that are more burdened with penalties will need to be more careful with built and acquired links.

For starters, getting brand links to your homepage will always be a low risk. Disseminating these links in more ingenious blogs and guides will help build a business as an authority while looking organic.

Links to home pages and guides are much harder to penalize than if links are built into the “money page” with hyperlinks to words like casino or loans. However, companies need to ensure that their content is not thin and includes real statistics, graphs and images that confirm their resources.

Therefore, it is important for SEO professionals to review what percentage of links go to their organization’s home page, money pages, and guides; looking at competitors and dividing them can be very helpful here. In fact, using tools like Majestic can show you that right away.

Be careful with the link anchor text

SEO should ideally be careful when choosing link anchor text. In general, no legitimate website will offer hyperlinks to “car insurance” or “best casinos”. Instead, SEOs should look for hyperlinks to phrases like “find more information here” or “check your relevance”.

Hyperlinks to actionable phrases – such as “$ 300 per month citations” – are also likely to be more effective. Using a mix of these techniques will make the money pages look more organic.

Using synonyms can also help you think about which phrases you want to hyperlink. The word “car insurance” can be easily confused with, for example, “car insurance”. Transformation is also a popular technique used by SEO experts – instead of ‘insurance policies’, try ‘insurance for your car’.

Avoiding abbreviations is also a common technique used by SEO. instead of saying ‘VPNs‘,’ virtual private networks’ can be used for more natural text anchoring.

Patience is key

Overall, the competing industries mentioned in this article are so valuable that they attract a lot of attention from SEO experts, meaning black hat techniques trying to play the system and generate some quick traffic.

While careful techniques will take months to take effect, companies can rest assured that you will maintain quality rankings and traffic and avoid future penalties.

Businesses that make sure they look closely at competitors and avoid overuse of big keywords in their content and links should be good!