Negative On-Page SEO Google Ranking Factors

Since they are under your control, try to avoid them if you wish to have a good ranking. Green rows are confirmed by Google patent. Rows maked with are bad factors, with a quite negative influence on your ranking, while rows maked with the question mark are only supposed negative ranking factrors.

	Negatice On-Page SEO Factor	Brief Note
	Text presented in graphics form only. No actual body text on the page.	Text represented graphically is invisible to search engines.
	Affiliate site?	The Florida update went after affiliates with a vengeance - flower and travel affiliates were hit hard - cookie-cutter sites with massive inter-linking, but little unique content. Subsequent updates have also targeted affiliates.
	Over optimization penalty (OOP)	Penalty for over-compliance with well-established, accepted web optimization practices. Since the Florida update, if you simply cannot achieve top position, your only alternative to first page SERP exposure may be Google AdWords (you pay per click and you get the exposure).
	Link to a bad neighborhood	Don't link to link farms, FFAs (Free For Alls) Don't forget to check the Google status of everyone you link to periodically. A site may go "bad", and you can end up being penalized, even though you did nothing.
	Redirect thru refresh metatags	Don't immediately send your visitor to another page other than the one he / she clicked on. If you move a page use 301 redirects.
	Vile language - ethnic slur	Including the George Carlin 7 bad words you can't say on TV, plus the 150 or so that followed. Don't shoot yourself right straight in the foot. Also, avoid combinations of normal words, which when used together, become something else entirely.
	Poison words	"Links" in title tag, etc. Here is my list of Poison Words for Adsense. This penalty has been loosened - many of these words now appear in normal context, with no problems. But watch your step.
	Excessive cross-linking	Too many links between your own sites - if within the same C block (IP=xxx.xxx.xxx.CCC) If you have many sites with the same web host, prolific cross-linking can indicate more of a single entity, and less of democratic web voting. Easy to spot, easy to penalize.
	Stealing images or text blocks from another domain	Copyright violation - Google responds strongly if you are reported.
	Keyword stuffing threshold	In body, meta tags, alt text, etc. = demotion
??	Keyword dilution	Targeting too many unrelated keywords on a page, which would detract from theming, and reduce the importance of your really important keywords.
??	Page edit - can reduce consistency	Google patent - Google is now switching between a "Newer" cache, and an "Older" cache, frequently drawing from BOTH at the same time. This was implemented to frustrate SEOers. Did your last edit substantially alter your keywords, or theme? Expect noticeable SERP bouncing.
	Frequency of Content Change	Google patent - Too frequent = bad
	Freshness of Anchor Text	Google patent - Too frequent = bad
??	Dynamic Pages	Problematic - know pitfalls - shorten URLs, reduce variables, lose the session IDs.
??	Excessive Javascript	Don't use for redirects, or hiding links.
	Flash page	Most (all-?) SE spiders can't read Flash content. Provide an HTML alternative, or avoid Flash.
	Use of Frames	Spidering Problems with Frames. Avoid frames.
	Robot exclusion "no index" tag	Intentional self-exclusion.
	Single pixel links	A red flag - one reason only - a sneaky link.
	Invisible text (Google is now devaluing some pages)	OK - No penalty - Google advises against this. All over the place - but nothing is ever done. (The text is the same color as the background, and hence cannot be seen by the viewer, but is visible to the search engine spiders.)
	Gateway, doorway page (I see changes here - not only does the doorway page disappear, but the main page gets pushed down, as well - this is a welcome fix.)	Avoid doorway pages - Google advises against this. Google used to reward these pages, but not anymore.
	Duplicate content (YOUR'S)	OK - No penalty - Google advises against this. Google picks one (usually the oldest), and shoves it to the top, and pushes the second choice down. Currently a big issue with stolen content - the thief usurps your former position with YOUR OWN content.
	HTML code violations (The big G does not even use DOCTYPE declarations, required for W3C validation.)	Doesn't matter - Google advises against this. Unless of course, the page is totally FUBAR. Simple HTML verification is NOT required (but advised).
	Since the above 4 items are so controversial, I would like to add this comment: There are many things that Google would LIKE to have webmasters do, but that they simply cannot control, due to logistical considerations. Their only alternative is to foment fear and doubt by implying that any violation of their "suggestions" will result in swift and fierce demotion. (This is somewhat dated - G is getting around to fixing these things.)	IN GENERAL, this works pretty well to keep webmasters in line. The fallacy of this is that even the casual observer can readily observe continuing, blatant exceptions to these official pronouncements. SPAM reports elicit no response, unless specific-case, knob-tweaking penalty imposition is authorized. There are many anecdotes about GG "taking care" of a problem. Google states that they do not provide hand-tweaked "boosts", but are silent about hand-tweaked demotions. They occur, for shure. To believe otherwise is naive. Wouldn't YOU swat the most obnoxious flies? I would. Avoid any Google blacklist which may exist.