SEO Tactics You Should Avoid
A strategy for search engine optimization is a crucial part of building your presence online, and there is plenty of advice floating around the internet on the dos and don’ts of SEO. Still, search engine marketing has changed significantly over the years and what worked wonderfully yesterday can appear stale and spammy today. To help you get the most out of your SEM efforts, here are 7 outdated SEO tactics that you need to avoid at all costs.
Writing for Search Engines
One of the primary goals of your content strategy should be to elevate your visibility in search engine results. In the past, this meant writing specifically to appeal to search engine crawlers. Today, this is no longer the case. Search engines have developed to the point that they also pick up on intent, so take the focus off of them and put it all on appealing to your audience.
Keyword Fouls
Unfortunately, too many businesses are still adhering to outdated keyword strategies, and it’s damaging their ability to attract and convert new customers. In 2019, you want to stay away from trying to make your content “fit” a strictly defined keyword strategy, and you want to avoid keyword stuffing. Both of these approaches feel spammy and get the thumbs down from search engines.
Purchased Links
Link building is one of the most challenging aspects of SEO, so it’s understandable that you want to take shortcuts whenever you can. Purchasing backlinks is tempting, but it’s also a strategy that can come back to haunt your SEO well into the future. Purchased backlinks not only seem dishonest, but they’re also often connected to low-quality sites – which damages your reputation and works against SEO.
Unoriginal Content
Gone are the days when you needed to publish content just for the sake of putting something out there. Trust that your audiences are looking for something unique, soaked in value and relevant on a very specific, personal level. This means staying away from topics that have been done a hundred times over and avoiding the temptation to spin another article to make it your own.
Exact Match Search Queries
Both consumer search patterns and search engine technology have changed in recent years. Fortunately, this means that you are no longer bound to the confines of trying to match search engine queries exactly with your keyword strategy. Instead, try focusing on long-tail keywords and natural language patterns.
Exact Match Domains
A while back, some businesses came up with the brilliant idea that they would match their domain to common keyword searches. For example, “topseotips.com”. The goal is to appear at the top of search results for targeted keyword phrases.
The problem is that tactics like these appear deceptive and spammy to both search engines and audiences. Plus, it does nothing for establishing a reputation or authenticity for your business.
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Expert SEO Tactics
The world of SEO is constantly changing, but we’ve taken on the challenge of staying on top of the trends and constantly adapting to the shifts in search engine technology and consumer behaviors. We’re ready to roll up our sleeves and work to build winning SEO tactics and strategies for you. Contact us today and learn more about our SEO services.
