Five Old SEO Tactics You Should Stop Using Now
1.
Keyword stuffing.
When search engines were less sophisticated, the more often a keyword appeared in your content, the higher it ranked.
This "keyword" stuffing was an easy way to improve your ranking.
Since the search engines have grown up, this no longer works and can even cause a drop in ranking.
Instead do the following: a.
Create your content for people to read and enjoy, not search engines.
b.
Place your keywords in prominent places in your content but do not exceed 5% or one keyword phrase for every 20 words.
Prominent places are the title, and in the first and last sentences of your content.
c.
Your website should have important keyword pages high up in the site's architecture so they are easily found by readers and search engines.
2.
Blog Comment Spamming.
It is still common to drop links in blog comments as a primary link building strategy.
This is known as "blog comment spamming".
To stop this from causing a high ranking Google start using nofollow link tags so search engines would not rank these kinds of links.
As a result these links are now devalued for ranking purposes.
So rather than comment spam, make sure your comments have real value.
Good content can generate editorial links, which if picked up by other blogs can be valued by search engines much higher than blog comments themselves.
3.
Search Engine Submission.
You can still find companies offering search engine submission as a service, and it is amazing how many web developers still think that you should submit your site to the search engines.
Don't bother.
Google relies on its own search engine to rank sites.
Paying to have your site submitted is a waste of money.
To get your site ranked quickly, get links.
You can drop a link to your website on your social media site.
You can write articles and have the author's resource box link back to your site.
Set up a blog and maybe even several blogs and link back to your site.
Use a site like Ping.
fm, which lets you link a blog to many social sites with one ping.
4.
Meta Tag Optimization.
There was a time when meta tags embedded in the Head of a site's code had a big effect on a site's ranking.
However, when some site owners began to put misleading terms into these meta tags to draw visitors to achieve a high ranking, Google stopped paying attention to the meta tags.
Today the best way to attract attention through keywords is to organize and label your site and pages using category and tag systems.
Setting up a good system of tagging your posts and pages is one of the most effective to improve "searchability" of your website or blog.
5.
Link Exchanges.
Exchanging links is a popular way of increasing the number of links to your site.
Done in moderation this is still a good way to improve your ranking.
However, if Google believes that this is being done for the sole purpose of getting a good ranking, Google will punish you.
Don't link just to link.
There should be a logical connection between linked sites.
Offer a valid favorable testimonial to your business vendors, and ask them to link back.
As in everything else related to the internet, SEO is continually changing.
As search engines like Google discover tactics that they feel subverts the system, they will find ways to identify the transgressors and punish the ratings of their websites.
So you need to be alert to this changing world.
However, if you adopt business tactics that are based on providing ever improving content for your visitors and not just trying to achieve a high ranking, you will find that the search engine ranking or your money making website rises and you will have no fear of any punishment from the search engines.
Keyword stuffing.
When search engines were less sophisticated, the more often a keyword appeared in your content, the higher it ranked.
This "keyword" stuffing was an easy way to improve your ranking.
Since the search engines have grown up, this no longer works and can even cause a drop in ranking.
Instead do the following: a.
Create your content for people to read and enjoy, not search engines.
b.
Place your keywords in prominent places in your content but do not exceed 5% or one keyword phrase for every 20 words.
Prominent places are the title, and in the first and last sentences of your content.
c.
Your website should have important keyword pages high up in the site's architecture so they are easily found by readers and search engines.
2.
Blog Comment Spamming.
It is still common to drop links in blog comments as a primary link building strategy.
This is known as "blog comment spamming".
To stop this from causing a high ranking Google start using nofollow link tags so search engines would not rank these kinds of links.
As a result these links are now devalued for ranking purposes.
So rather than comment spam, make sure your comments have real value.
Good content can generate editorial links, which if picked up by other blogs can be valued by search engines much higher than blog comments themselves.
3.
Search Engine Submission.
You can still find companies offering search engine submission as a service, and it is amazing how many web developers still think that you should submit your site to the search engines.
Don't bother.
Google relies on its own search engine to rank sites.
Paying to have your site submitted is a waste of money.
To get your site ranked quickly, get links.
You can drop a link to your website on your social media site.
You can write articles and have the author's resource box link back to your site.
Set up a blog and maybe even several blogs and link back to your site.
Use a site like Ping.
fm, which lets you link a blog to many social sites with one ping.
4.
Meta Tag Optimization.
There was a time when meta tags embedded in the Head of a site's code had a big effect on a site's ranking.
However, when some site owners began to put misleading terms into these meta tags to draw visitors to achieve a high ranking, Google stopped paying attention to the meta tags.
Today the best way to attract attention through keywords is to organize and label your site and pages using category and tag systems.
Setting up a good system of tagging your posts and pages is one of the most effective to improve "searchability" of your website or blog.
5.
Link Exchanges.
Exchanging links is a popular way of increasing the number of links to your site.
Done in moderation this is still a good way to improve your ranking.
However, if Google believes that this is being done for the sole purpose of getting a good ranking, Google will punish you.
Don't link just to link.
There should be a logical connection between linked sites.
Offer a valid favorable testimonial to your business vendors, and ask them to link back.
As in everything else related to the internet, SEO is continually changing.
As search engines like Google discover tactics that they feel subverts the system, they will find ways to identify the transgressors and punish the ratings of their websites.
So you need to be alert to this changing world.
However, if you adopt business tactics that are based on providing ever improving content for your visitors and not just trying to achieve a high ranking, you will find that the search engine ranking or your money making website rises and you will have no fear of any punishment from the search engines.
