Innovation and invention have led to progress in information technology. SEO practices that used to work in the past no longer work because of these changes. Sites like WordPress have made website creation easier.
Search engine algorithms have evolved to include images in their search results. Focusing on keywords alone is bad SEO in today’s world. Here are old SEO methods that you should avoid to protect your brand.
1. Abuse of Keywords
The SEO techniques used in the past stressed on the use of keywords. However, using too many keywords in your brand’s message could lead to confusion. Keyword research is a vital process of SEO, but abuse of the same is often ignored.
Keywords are meant to fix your content to suitably fit in with the context and topic. For example, if your page content talks about your mission and vision, don’t include keywords that talk about products. The message will be too confusing for the readers. You should discuss with an SEO agency about the best keywords to use.
2. Focusing on Quantity
One of the essential selling points of SEO is content creation. Therefore, you should create content that is appealing to the readers. Unfortunately, that wasn’t always the case.
In the past, algorithms were not as advanced as they are today. The quantity of content mattered more than quality. Most website designers wrote variations of the keywords on different pages to improve the site’s rankings.
3. Irrelevant Use of Anchor Text on Internal Links
Back when the internet was still gaining popularity, websites took advantage of the exact-match feature. If an organization won a bid on a specific keyword, customers that typed those exact words on the search engine saw that firm’s ads first.
Organizations capitalized on this by creating as many alternatives as possible to the exact-match so that they would always get the attention of the customer. It was common practice for organizations to use the exact-match word as the anchor text. But search engines have updated the algorithms, and there are multiple variations of the exact match. Today, it’s difficult to include all variations of the exact-match word on your website.
4. Article Catalogue
Since organizations knew that fresh content was important for rankings, they borrowed articles from content syndication sites. It was common practice for multiple websites to publish the same article after making minor keyword adjustments.
Digital marketing has changed and content directories are no longer useful or recommended. Your site can be temporarily closed due to plagiarism claims.
5. Keyword Variations
Back then, websites used keyword variations on all their pages. As mentioned earlier, keywords were everything back then. To improve their rankings, websites used a keyword on every page. They didn’t care about the context.
But things have changed. Search engine algorithms have become smarter. If you use keyword variation in all your pages, your website will rank the lowest because your content is redundant and repetitive.
6. Purchasing Links
Buying links to your website is a shady technique that doesn’t pay off anymore. This was a technique that would help many sneaky website owners acquire backlinks. Back then, the more backlinks you had, the higher your rankings.
But things have changed, the website that links back to yours should be highly ranked. You should also earn your backlinks organically. Google can flag your website if it notices that you’re receiving a high number of backlinks from one website.
We live in an era where you can create a WordPress website in just a few hours and publish it. You don’t need coding skills because things have been simplified. SEO marketing has also been made easier and more efficient. Search engines have inbuilt analytical tools to help you track performance and boost rankings. The old ways no longer work because they were unfair.