Google is continually changing its PageRank algorithm, and these changes result in the search engine optimization (SEO) industry constantly changing. The result is that today many of the traditional standard practices are now deadly sins, and you don’t dare commit them without being penalized by Google, who may even kill your ability to rank. Therefore you need to know what they are so you won’t be guilty.
SEO Mistakes to Avoid
Some techniques shouldn’t be part of your digital marketing strategy today. It’s important to know what these out-of-date techniques are so that you can avoid them.
Placing Links in Social Comments
The infamous “backlink in a social media comment” trick is a classic culprit. Early, professionals would write a generic response to a user-generated query then link it to their website to get a cheap backlink. While these used to work, this is no longer the case. Now, these types of links are disavowed.
Using Keywords Excessively
Google wants to organize the world’s information, so it’s universally accessible and helpful. However, this means that any website that it doesn’t find easily accessible and helpful is penalized. Therefore you need to avoid anything that could be considered spam.
Initially, it was acceptable to use the same keyword repeatedly. Unfortunately, this isn’t natural or user-friendly. Now it’s advisable to maintain a keyword density of under 5%. A 1 – 2% density is what you should target.
Creating Private Blog Networks
In the early days of SEO, website owners would buy a variety of websites and link them all together to form one primary website. This connection of websites is what’s known as a private blog network (PBN). Today Google frowns upon PBNs and will penalize you significantly for using one. Not only will they ding one of your sites, but they’ll ding your entire network. They want to see authentic link placements instead. The best way to get these is to create high-quality content. When top publications find this content, they’ll give you a backlink.
Over-Optimizing Anchor Text
Although a bit more technical, this is a very important tip to remember. Typically, it’s a good idea to use keyword-rich anchor text, but you also want to use a variety of natural, non-optimized links as part of your SEO strategy.
To understand what this means, imagine you’re building a backlink strategy in your article about stocks. Some of the ways you can link to this article would include:
- A non-optimized version: “You may find this article useful.”
- A keyword-rich version: “Click on this article about stocks for more information.”
- A long-tail version: “To find new stocks for your investment portfolio you may want to read this article.”
Writing Content for Robots
Nobody wants to read something that was designed for robots. People want to read real, authentic content that’s written naturally. This is why Google has created a brilliant PageRank system to detect the difference. The system knows when you’re manipulating algorithms by tricks like keyword stuffing.
Today you should never use the same keywords repeatedly throughout an article. Instead, use a variety of prepositions and pronouns, so you don’t sound like a robot.
Build Your SEO Strategy
As you can see, there are a lot of well-intentioned techniques that will cause more damage to your site than good. Some of these mistakes have been outlined for you here, but things in the search engine world are constantly changing. That’s why you need help from us at Local SEO Tampa Company in Tampa, FL.
Over the years, we’ve helped our customers stay on top of all these changes and avoid doing things the search engines don’t like. In doing so, we’ve enabled them to create a modern, forward-looking marketing campaign. Contact us today to get started with yours.