The concept of SEO has evolved a lot more in the last couple of years from what it used to be. You might find it shocking that a majority of the so called SEO professionals are still stuck in the past and work with outdated SEO strategies. While the new SEO jargon is all about creativity and hard work (Content on offer), the previous strategies were mainly centered on building links, and a ton of them, as quickly as possible. If you still follow any of SEO strategies listed below, it is time to reconsider their use.
Buying multiple domains:
Buying multiple domains for the same site does not do anything SEO positive. You can’t trick Google and even if you could, why would you want to dilute your brand across multiple names. Spend your time and effort into one name, build your brand.
Note: This is different from buying out domain TLDs of your company name to stop domain squatters, spammers or ransomers.
Building links in bulk:
In the earlier stages of Search Engine Optimization, it was all about building links, irrespective of from where and how you build them. People used to follow some aggressive link building strategies via directories, blog comments, forum signatures etc to achieve this goal. However, these strategies are no longer effective as it was used to be. Link building is still important, but when building links, it is critical that you consider the following relevant factors:
Only focusing on Keyword rich content:
Keyword rich content is no longer the only secret ingredient to a perfectly optimized page. It is more about page topic. Additionally, user experience, engagement (comments) or value is one of the major factors, that is directly proportional to the topic search engines will pickup from your web page. You maybe topic relevant, but if users leave your page quickly you will loose your long term ranking quickly. Keyword stuffing is just a big no no. Not only does it make your content read really weird, if Google catches you out your brown bread (dead). I suggest being concise and explicit, such as referring to items by their full name instead of it, their, basic noun. You don’t want to be over the top though, easy of reading is important to satisfy the user experience quotant.
Creating more pages for more traffic:
The belief that lengthy content can help you rank, gave rise to the concept that “creating more pages brings in more traffic”. While it is true that lengthy content can be helpful, the idea of creating more pages to bring in more traffic is worthless. If there is no basis for it. No user will wade through 500 pages of content to find one nugget of quality content. Always focus on the quality of the content rather than the quantity. To expand your content look to create a quality relevant blog, Vblog, Howto guides, social media. Relevant useful content is what works, not copious amounts of garbage.
If you need an example look at the big brands. The stuff that works for them is concentrated effort to create engagement, exciting events and their presentation, such as; Red Bull and Monster. Not the community service type blogs from Coke Cola.
Filling pages with content and no images:
It was a big misconception that adding images to web pages was waste of time and effort as search engines cannot comprehend them. However, search engine algorithms have improvised a lot and today; Search Engines can index images and other media. As a matter of fact, images are currently considered as a powerful factor that seconds user engagement. Note: Don’t forget to descriptively name your image files, don’t be lazy and leave them IMG323.jpeg.
Performing Massive guest blogging campaign:
In the past, people used to go on massive guest blogging spree to bring in traffic and link juice. Today, massive guest blogging campaigns hardly bring you any edge over your competitors or positive results in terms of link juices and traffic. However, if you invest a lot of time to only identify the authoritative websites in your niche to submit blogs, it can be as beneficial.
A true authority can still have an influence, as far as opening your content to a new or wider audience instantly. However, opening a new door can sometimes slam in your face again even harder. Therefore, you will need to ensure the content is good enough to keep the new audience interested. Short lived bleeps in traffic ultimately end up costing you money long term.
Keep yourself updated with the latest SEO algorithm changes and strategies to stay in the game. If you snooze, you just loose.
Bibliography:
Nicole rende. (2016, no-date). 9 SEO Tactics That Just Don’t Work Anymore. [Weblog]. Retrieved 7 June 2016, from http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/seo-tactics-that-dont-work-anymore
Cory collins. (2016, no-date). Determining Relevance in Link Building. [Weblog]. Retrieved 7 June 2016, from http://www.pageonepower.com/linkarati/relevance-in-link-building
