It is erroneous to avoid the usage of proven SEO techniques. You might never get far with your quest for SEO dominance. However, using obsolete SEO techniques is an even greater mistake. They not only thwart your dreams of achieving better rankings but also waste your time and resources. Sadly enough, many businesses are involved in using antique SEO techniques without their slightest knowledge. Eventually, they end up hurting their search engine rankings instead of pushing them up with every strategy. If you aren’t certain of what to do and what not to do, you can have a look at the proceeding list and avoid them at all costs; just for a start.
Automating Title Tags and Meta Descriptions
Title tags simply refer to the short descriptions within the html codes in your site. They give an overview of a page’s theme or subject matter. After a series of optimisation exercise (probably a dozen or so), many people simply opt to repeat the titles and descriptions without understanding the effects. For others still, using WordPress SEO plugins, which automatically generate Meta titles and descriptions, is the way to go. To them, this is an easier way of summarising a hectic job. Titles and descriptions generated from such software are never fully optimised. Truth be told, descriptions and titles might not affect the SEO rankings directly but they influence click through rates. Being the elements displayed in Google search engine results, these elements have a significant effect on the user’s first impression. Nothing pains like being on the first page and still not catching the user’s attention. The only reason businesses want to grace first search engine pages is for them to get an upper hand when it comes to interacting with customers. Lower click through rates because of poorly optimised Meta tags is almost unacceptable. Before you think of automating the process next time, think of the possible effects.
Addition of Optimised Anchors
At one time, putting keywords in anchor text was an acceptable idea. Things change; you need to come to terms with new realities. If you didn’t have an idea, doing such a thing in the new generation SEO might attract a penalty from search engines. Currently, Google considers such an attempt as a link scheme. Before you know it, your business might find itself down the SERPs.
A better alternative is using a branded URL where the name of the company serves as the link. You can also use a bare URL of the company. Alternatively, you can have long phrases on your links. Anything contrary to that might thwart your SEO efforts and quest for search engine dominance.
Over-optimisation of Keywords
Long gone are the days when keyword density was synonymous to SEO. Things have changed and any business that fails to acknowledge that is swept away by the waves of new generation SEO. Google semantic search has made the relevance of keywords lesser than it used to be in search engine optimization. Try seeking SEO services in USA for your company and you will be told that SEO is all about providing value to your users. Never forget that every content you create is for the sake of your users and not search engines. As such, you should not focus on enhancing optimal keyword density at the expense of quality. Better-quality content encourages user engagement and works a long way in furthering your campaign efforts. With informative content rather than keyword-optimised articles, readers will be willing to share and comment increasing viewership and raising potentials for organic backlinks.
Emphasizing on Content Quantity over Quality
A recent survey showed that many of the top tanking content for searched keywords averaged 1100-1300 words. Many who might have come across this may have got it wrong. Providing lengthy content for your site is not a bad idea; it has never been. Provided it is well optimised and highly informative, you can give your readers a couple of hundreds of words and have it your way. It is even better when you are able to maintain the consistency of such posts (say weekly or after a few days). The only problem sets in when your gaze shifts to length rather than value delivered to your target audience. If your content is not informative, then even length won’t save you. You need high-quality content to be able to dominate the search engine realm.
Often repeated, quality content achieves more than just satisfying your clients. With great content, there will be better user engagement including shares and comments. This increases viewership, which works perfectly in fostering your SEO campaigns. It is easier to get quality backlinks using informative and captivating content. Anything that is contrary to that not only hurts your ranking but also brings down the image of your brand, something you might have struggled to build.
Accepting Sub-Optimal Guest Posts
Using guest posts is an easier way of getting organic links back and increasing quantity of relevant content. It works both ways in promoting SEO campaigns. While it might seem like a great idea using the posts of other people to increase content volume in your site, you should be careful not to accept anything that comes your way. It is advisable to have every guest post pass through a checker before having it on your business blog or site. Some of the critical aspects worth considering in this checker include the length of the content, relevance and the amount of links. You do not want to accept something that is going to hurt your rankings instead of taking it a notch higher. It is better to have fewer posts that are more SEO friendly than several which are poorly optimised for search engines.
Time to Step up Your Campaigns
SEO comes with new opportunities every passing day. More SEO friendly techniques are setting in with each passing minute. You can never get the most out of such techniques when you are still stuck in backward SEO practices that only hurt your brand instead of making it soar it higher in the search engine pages.
