11 ways SEO proxies could harm your ranking

As we have mentioned in other articles, using private proxies for SEO without a clear strategy will not help improve your rankings. You must have a clearly defined strategy with actual steps that you need to take in order to improve your ranking. Moreover, not using private proxies correctly could even harm your SEO rankings and actually can lead to a downgrade in rankings. This is why you must be prepared before using private proxies. Furthermore, to better show why you must be prepared and define a strategy before using SEO proxies we have created this article with eleven ways that SEO proxies could harm your rankings.

1. Not using SEO proxies

The first and major mistake that most webmasters do is that they do not buy SEO proxies. Instead, they look for cheap private proxies and use them instead. However, most cheap shared proxies are cheap for a reason. They do not connect to most online platforms. Moreover, some proxy provider will even sell flagged IPs thus your SEO tools will not even connect to search engines, let alone do their job. Therefore you must always buy SEO proxies if you plan on using private proxies to improve your website rankings.

2. Automating every aspect of SEO proxies

One mistake that even those that buy working SEO proxies is that they automate every aspect of their SEO proxies use. In other words, they will set their SEO proxies tool on a basis of „spray and pray”. They automate every aspect of their SEO proxies use, from scraping search engines to creating forum accounts and posting links in blog comments. However, this approach will not improve your website’s ranking. This approach is guaranteed to block your proxies and flag your domain as spam.

The right step to take when it comes to automating SEO proxies use is to not automate everything. Instead, you should automate only certain parts of your SEO proxies use. And the part we recommend automating is the research and scraping phase. Apart from that, if you decide to automate something else, we recommend you proceed with caution.

3. Using flagged private proxies

As mentioned above, some proxy providers will even sell flagged SEO proxies. These proxies, although they look the same as regular private proxies, even if they are anonymous they will not connect to search engines. Moreover, they could even trigger captcha verifications. Thus making your connections to search engines almost impossible to complete through an automation tool.

In this instance, what you should do is to ask your proxy provider for working proxies. Moreover, once you received your private proxies, test them by connecting manually to search engines via your Internet browser. In this way, you make sure your proxies are not flagged and you can set them in your SEO tool of choice.

4. Posting too many backlinks

Now that you have real working SEO proxies, that are not flagged and able to connect to search engines the next mistake that could harm your ranking is to post too many backlinks.

Do not get too greedy! And do not post too many backlinks. If you use your private proxies for SEO tasks, do not automate link posting as well. Instead, you should pay attention and post your backlinks manually. In this way, you make sure they are in context. And the webmasters where you will be posting your backlinks will not flag your links and domain as spam.

5. No control over scrapped domain

Similar to posting too many backlinks is posting links on the wrong domains. Google, while did not acknowledge it, takes into accounts the domain authority where a link is posted.

So in other words, if you do not have control over what domains backlinks are posted is better to slow down your link posting strategy. Furthermore, you should analyze the domains where backlinks are posted. You can use tools such as Moz – Open site explorer. With this tool, you can analyze the domain authority of the websites scraped. And post on the websites that can actually improve your rankings.

6. Using few private proxies for SEO

One aspect that is neglected by many is using a few private proxies instead of using enough of them. In other words, webmasters or SEO specialists buy a few private proxies for SEO and then automate every aspect of their SEO through these proxies.

Unfortunately, this is not the best way of using private proxies for SEO proxies. And, at times, it is important to use the right number of SEO proxies. Because using a few private proxies and abusing their IPs can actually harm your rankings.

7. Spamming Google

A sure way of harming your website’s ranking is to spam Google. This can be achieved by using and abusing a few SEO proxies and making too many requests through them. This will trigger captchas and even get your domain flag as spam.

8. Using SEO proxies for a new domain

SEO proxies should never be used as a first way of building links for a freshly new domain. This is not an organic way of building links. And it is a certain way to get your ranking harmed even before beginning to build backlinks.

When creating a new domain and straight after its launch, you should refrain from using SEO proxies right away. Instead, you should create a few backlinks and wait for search engines to index your website with organic backlinks.

SEO proxies and link building strategies should come into play only after a certain period of time. After your freshly new domain is „warmed up”. Thus, in other words, you should use your private proxies for SEO and mask your link building strategies among organically created backlinks.

9. Reckless PBN use

Similar to using SEO proxies for a new domain, you can harm your website ranking and even get a Google penalty if you use a PBN recklessly. It is known the fact that Google and other search engines do not agree or tolerate private blogging networks. And upon discovering such PBNs they will downgrade and incur a penalty to the website that is using them.

And a big part of creating and maintaining a PBN is to build backlinks through SEO proxies and link posting tools. This way of posting backlinks for the PBN domains could trigger a penalty in itself and then your website could suffer a downgrade in rankings. Thus, if you decide on using SEO proxies and build a private blogging network you should pay attention to how you create your backlinks. This is a risky strategy and is seldom encouraged. Moreover, it is recommended to stay away from such a strategy.

10. No IP refresh or randomization

If you used your SEO proxies in a poor way and you manage to trigger IP blocks, spam flagging and even downgrades to your website’s ranking, it is best to stay away from those SEO proxies.

This does not mean to throw away your private proxies for SEO. Instead, you should ask your private proxy provider for an IP refresh. And allocate you new working IP for your SEO proxies.

Moreover, we recommend that you ask for an IP refresh for your SEO proxies everytime you think there is a slight risk of getting your link building strategy in trouble.

11. Derogating someone else to use your SEO proxies

As appealing as it sounds to let someone else do the SEO for you. You should never allow it. Nor you should let them use the SEO proxies on your behalf. Doing SEO for your website should be a primary task for both you and your team. Thus, you should never leave other, third-parties, do the SEO for you. Moreover, if you plan on hiring an SEO agency to do this tasks, make sure you know them well. Furthermore, when hiring an SEO agency, you should not let them build backlinks for you. Regardless if they will use your private proxies for SEO or not. Instead, you should hire them only to do research and scraping. And then you should use your SEO proxies and build your backlinks manually.