In the past it was easier to achieve high search engine rankings by “gaming” the system with questionable SEO tactics. But as search engines have evolved, many suspect SEO practices have been rendered useless. However, if you visit any SEO forum or upstart SEO blog, you will see many of these outdated tactics still endorsed as legitimate techniques. In an attempt to end the misinformation, below are five popular, yet outdated SEO tactics that no longer work — and some legitimate alternatives.
1. Keyword stuffing
In the late 1990s, search engines were unsophisticated. The
more frequently a keyword appeared in a page’s content, the
better it ranked. This practice of “keyword stuffing” was an easy
way to manipulate search rankings. Since then, search engines
and their algorithms have matured.
What to do instead:
Stuffing pages with keywords can have a negative impact; as
Google actively imposes penalties on gamed content. So if you
want your keywords to have maximum impact, it’s far better
(and safer) to employ legitimate SEO practices, such as:
• Creating content for people, not search engines
• Making sure keywords are present in prominent regions of
your Web page; such as headers, subheads, title tags and
meta description snippets
• Structuring a website so that important keyword pages are
high up in the site architecture and easily found by both
search engines and people
2.Blog Comment spamming
Many search marketers and webmasters still aggressively drop
links in blog comments as their primary link building strategies.
This outdated SEO tactic is better known as blog comment
spamming. To address the abuse, Google introduced nofollow
link tags (a signal to search engine spiders to ignore a link) and
is known to devalue links in blog comments.
What to do instead:
Rather than comment spam, try producing something of value.
Creating well-written, engaging and thought-provoking content
is one of the best ways to attract quality links, naturally.
Good content often generates editorial links — naturally occurring
links from other blogs and news sources that search
engines value far more than comments in blog posts.
3. Search engine submission
I’m still amazed by how many companies offer search engine
submission as a service. I’m equally amazed by how many
professional Web developers and designers still believe that
submitting to search engines is necessary. It is not. Google’s ability
to discover and index new content is so advanced that search
engine submission is obsolete. So, paying a company for a
search engine submission service is a waste of money.
What to do instead:
To ensure that your new website gets discovered quickly,
get links. This can be as quick and easy as dropping a link to
your website on a social media platform. For example, if you
have a Twitter account, tweet a link to your new website or
add it as your profile link. Twitter is crawled by search engines constantly; so a link to your new site will be discovered
quickly. To increase your chances of getting found, use a site
like Ping.fm, which offers the ability to post a message and
link to dozens of social media sites simultaneously.
4. Meta tag optimisation
There was a time when meta tags (snippets of information
embedded in the
role in influencing search engine rankings. This was particularly
true of the “meta keywords” attribute; a common way
for site owners to reinforce terms important to their websites.
However, unscrupulous site owners and SEOs abused the
meta keywords attribute by including misleading terms entirely
unrelated to their content.
What to do instead:
These days, Google is on record as saying they pay no attention
to the meta keywords tag. So, the era of keyword stuffing
meta tags for impact is officially dead. If your objective is to optimize
a website or blog pages to rank for more keywords, try
using category and tag systems to better label and organize your
website content. Actively tagging your posts and pages is one of
the most effective ways to enhance functionality, usability and
overall “searchability.”
5.Link exchanges
Exchanging links or reciprocal linking is a popular method
of building links. Website owners exchange inbound links
with one another in an attempt to improve site rankings and
traffic. Reciprocal links in moderation are not really an issue;
as interlinking is glue that binds the Web. The trouble occurs
when website owners actively engage in link exchange
schemes to intentionally influence rankings — which Google
deems a violation.
What to do instead:
Rather than participating in link exchange schemes, offer testimonials
to business vendors you work with. Providing testimonials
is an easy way to get a link to your website in return for
writing something favorable and sincere about a vendor.
SEO, like any other industry, undergoes changes as it
evolves. Be sure to avoid the outdated techniques mentioned
here. Not only will your website suffer in rankings (to the satisfaction
of your competition), but even worse — your site
might be penalized for banned tactics.
* This article is extracted from website magazine, UK.
