An article directed toward individuals who utilize Google Search to manage, monetize, or promote online content they own.
As someone who has been in the SEO industry for a while, I have seen my fair share of outdated practices still being used by so-called “experts” in the field. It’s not just frustrating, and it’s downright dangerous. These obsolete practices harm the websites they are being implemented on and give the entire industry a bad name. Here are some outdated SEO practices you should avoid at any cost.
Keyword Stuffing: The practice of cramming as many keywords as possible into a piece of content to rank on search engines. This used to be an effective tactic, but not anymore. It will now get your website penalized by Google. But yet, I still see it all the time.
Buying links: This used to be a common tactic to boost a website’s rankings, but it is now considered a black hat and will penalize your website. But yet, I still see companies offering to sell links and “experts” recommending this practice to their clients. It’s mind-boggling.
Meta keywords: This used to be an important factor in ranking, but Google stopped using it as a ranking factor years ago. Yet, I still see people wasting their time adding.
Duplicate content is when the same content is used on multiple pages or websites. This used to be a common tactic to try and rank for various keywords, but now it can harm your rankings. Google may penalize you for having duplicate content or ignore the duplicates and only index the original content.
Hidden text or links: This is when text or links are hidden from users but still visible to search engines. Back in the day, it used to be a grey tactic to stuff keywords or links into a page without users noticing. But now, it’s considered a black hat method and will get your website penalized.
Exact match domains: This is when a domain name is an exact match of a keyword or phrase. This used to be a tactic to try and rank for that keyword or phrase, but now it’s considered a spammy tactic and carries less weight than it used to.
Using irrelevant or low-quality backlinks: Backlinks are still important for SEO, but the quality of the links is more important than the quantity. Buying low-quality or irrelevant links will not only not help your rankings but also harm them.
Not Optimizing for mobile: With the increasing use of mobile devices, Google prioritizes and considers a website’s mobile-friendliness in search engine ranking. Having a mobile-friendly website can help your ranking.
Automated link-building software: Some companies use software that automatically generates backlinks, but these links often need more quality and relevance, which can harm your rankings. Google can also penalize your website for using these types of software.
These are just a few examples of outdated SEO practices still being used in the industry. The list goes on and on.
But the bottom line is this: if you want to be successful in SEO, you need to stay up-to-date with the latest practices and algorithms. You must rely on more than just the tactics that used to work in the past. The industry is constantly evolving, and you need to evolve with it.
Otherwise, we’re just shooting ourselves in the foot and giving the industry a bad name. It’s time to step up our game and start doing SEO the right way.
Please note SEO is constantly evolving, and the best practices may change from time to time, so the best way is to follow the guidelines of search engines like Google.