Last Updated on 2022-07-27 by AlexHales
Search Engine Optimization has always been a popular and valuable practice for any website owner to ensure that their site is found and ranked well in Google. But, today, search engine algorithms have changed a lot, making many old strategies obsolete.
Yet Google keeps a constant stream of new techniques and techniques to update its algorithms.
This article will guide you through the now considered outdated tips and what you should do instead. If you’re wondering which SEO techniques to avoid, the list below explains most of them:
1. Don’t Over-Prioritize Keywords
Keyword research has been considered the cornerstone of SEO. It seems that the most logical approach is to create content that reflects the keywords and words your target audience is searching for. However, overuse of these keywords will seriously harm your SEO strategy.
Using keywords in a way that doesn’t sound natural or complement the rest of the content on your web page will come across as spam and may discourage the user from clicking. Instead of keywords, prioritize user experience and create content that is informative and easy to read.
Google is an example of a search engine that supports semantic search – which optimizes the context of the search rather than using exact keywords. This means that Google provides the most relevant results for the search term, rather than an exact match. As a result, you should focus less on including specific keywords on your landing pages and more on creating content that anticipates searcher needs. In short – keyword matching over quality.
2. Don’t Publish Too Much Content
The advent of content as an important ranking factor has brought a plethora of blog articles and text-heavy web pages, with the hope that this superior content will result in increased traffic to business websites. But with this increased production comes a rapid decline in quality.
More content does not necessarily equal more traffic. Any content on your website should have a distinct purpose. If you can’t easily define what that content’s purpose is, it shouldn’t be on your site.
3. Hidden Text
This used to be a great way to allow your keywords to rank in search engines, but no longer. Google now penalizes sites that try to manipulate their rankings and ensure that your SEO techniques are valid and for no other reason than to add quality content.
4. Paid Links
Paid links used to be a great way for SEO, but Google has changed its algorithm so it’s no longer as relevant as it used to be. These days, Google targets sites that use specific link-building methods such as buying links or offering them in exchange for advertising elsewhere on the web. You can be sure that these links will eventually get penalized by Google and your site will be affected as well.
5. Cloaking
Cloaking is when a website owner creates the same page in 2 different styles, one for search engines and one for people to see. This used to be a great way to bypass web spam filters, but these days it doesn’t work like it used to, and so many sites have been penalized for practicing cloaking that Google has now banned it entirely. have made.
6. Spinning Content
As every SEO expert knows, regularly updating your website with fresh content will boost your rankings. This is what has made blogging so powerful over the years.
But writing about original and niche content can be difficult, making ‘content spinning’ a quick fix. The term refers to material that is rewritten from other sources in a way where the source is not outright plagiarism, but also not original. The downside of using ‘spun content’ for your SEO strategy is that it won’t rank very well as the internet is full of similar content.
‘Spun content’ is also more difficult to read because it forces the writer to substitute words that don’t fit the sentence. This will alienate users and reduce the chances of backlinks and credibility.
7. Buying Backlinks
Last but not least, we strongly recommend that you do not buy backlinks.
Backlinks are essential for SEO. The more quality backlinks a website has, the higher its rank. This is because if a lot of users are linking back to your website, it signals to Google’s search engines that you are a reliable source.
Getting backlinks naturally takes time and effort and can only be achieved by creating high quality content. This makes buying backlinks a quick and easy shortcut, although paying for them is against Google policy and can have adverse consequences.
Google can issue penalties to websites that buy backlinks that can lead to the site being banned again. As search engines have advanced, it is more difficult than ever to get away from this approach. This is because most backlinks are of low quality and are sold cheaply – linking to low quality websites that have nothing to do with you. This will easily arouse suspicion.
However, measuring quality ‘white hat’ links from quality sites is still used by Google as a valuable ranking score. Learn more here.
Conclusion
Leveraging the right SEO techniques is very important today. But that doesn’t mean you blindly take advantage of every technology that comes along. Always do a little digging to find out if a technique is recommended. Above are some avoidance techniques.
