Knowledge Power : Are Your SEO Techniques Outdated?

You should often ask yourself this, especially when optimising your website.

With the constant advancement of the Web, top search engines (particularly Google) also keep on evolving. From time to time, they introduce algorithm updates that directly affect the current practices of many Web masters.

As an SEO marketer, I have been privy to such struggles, causing me to overhaul my methods to make way for new ones. While it is not easy peasy, I do my best to keep up with any development, especially with Google’s Panda and Penguin updates.

If you not so familiar with the advanced mediums, strategies, and platforms online, you may have little idea about our topic today.

This is why we are going to talk about outdated optimisation techniques and their respective alternatives. Check out the following ideas to see if these might be useful to you.

Keyword Stuffing

Do you randomly add search terms to your articles in the hopes of quicker indexing and higher ranking in search engines?

Is this a good idea?

The answer is no.

It used to be an effective strategy several years ago, but it can lead to a penalty from search engines these days. What is more, it can cause a high bounce rate, which happens when the visitors leave the landing page immediately because they do not find the content relevant.

The Alternative

Use keywords sparingly. Instead of spending too much time integrating your targeted terms, focus on the following aspects:

1) a highly informative topic;

2) a unique and interesting approach;

3) a connection to your niche.

As a rule of thumb, write sensible posts and avoid repetition or redundancy.

Low-Quality Link Building

You probably know that links are crucial for gaining visibility and ranking in SERPs. But are you aware that some Web masters are opting for a short cut by linking with spammy websites?

Although this tactic is quick and easy, it may have your site penalised.

The Alternative

Do not hasten the process. Instead, allow the links to come naturally. Maybe you can follow established and trusted sites in your niche. You can join their network and comment on their content. When they see that you are worth mentioning, they might just link to your website.

Furthermore, do not randomly place links on your articles, especially if you want to place references. What you should do is integrate these properly to the right webpages.

Finally, do not fill your pages with internal links. According to Google’s design and content guidelines, you have to keep the amount reasonable. Additionally, “every page should be reachable from at least one static text link”.

Submitting to Link Farms

Also called free for all (FFA) pages, submitting your URLs to these portals provides you with instant inbound links. However, search engines are strongly against this method.

Now why is this bad?

First, these websites hold no authority at all.

Second, there is no limit to the number of links, which you can submit.

Third, there is no emphasis on the URLs’ importance or relevance to the readers.

Finally, they are crammed with keywords and ads that do not even relate to the content.

The Alternative

You can submit to Web directories. But note that you need to practise care when taking on this strategy.

To be safe, you must choose a portal that is specific to your niche. Additionally, it must already have gained the trust of Google and other major search engines. Remember these things may just provide you with additional links needed to boost your site in SERPs.

Overdoing Blog and Forum Commenting

Another short cut to gaining backlinks is adding your feedback or remarks with links. I am not saying that this is entirely bad. In fact, it can lead quality traffic to your site.

The main problem is in overdoing it through posting comments on unrelated blogs or placing your links outright instead of starting a casual conversation.

Since search engines check and analyse your links, they will find out that you are spamming and may remove you from results pages.

The Alternative

Find blogs, forums, and/or discussion boards that tackle the same topics as your site. This way, you can give relevant comments. And, if you are able pique the other users’ interests, they might just ask for your link.

Cloaking

Even the name itself sounds ominous, does it not? This method involves showing search engines different content from the one you provide to the visitors. Several website owners do this by means of JavaScript redirect or “doorway pages”.

The Alternative

Show the same content to search engines and readers. It is as simple as that.