Search Engine Optimization was invented more than thirty years ago. Back then, search engines started helping people find services, goods, and information on the internet, and learning the science of SEO became crucial.
Not long after that, Google took it upon itself to promote popular content to the top of search results. Eager to be catapulted to the top of the first page, people armed themselves against Google’s surveillance. In response, the search engine has tirelessly been updating its sophisticated algorithms to outsmart people who tried to outsmart Google. People have variously managed to trick Google into thinking that their websites enjoyed more popularity than they actually did. When Google discovered that people had learned to push up their ranking, it refined its algorithms to put an end to deceits.
To adapt to Google’s changed rules, people had to improve their SEO strategies and give up on those tactics that had stopped bringing desired results. Some people still insist on using obsolete stratagems, but it is the right time to let them go. Out-of-date strategies have lost their effectiveness and would simply waste your time, if you continue employing them. Or they would damage your website and the reputation of your business. Below are several SEO tactics that should be put to rest.
Badly Written Content and Article Directories
The advent of the internet opened the door to bad writing. People with no writing talents or experience decided to put pen to paper and post their compositions on the web. The internet has quickly become inundated with poorly written content. The main purpose of writing in those days was to cram articles with numerous key words, spin each of them million times, and post articles to as many article directories and blogs as was humanly possible. The beauty of writing was an uncalled-for luxury.
When in 2011 Google came up with the Panda update, these shady practices ceased to be followed. The good quality of writing began to return. These days, your writing should be meaningful and persuasive to rank high on Google. Article directories now belong to the past, and websites’ owners have long become choosier when accepting guest posts. If you want to find favor with Google, here is a piece of advice for you: write well. Create original, engaging content that people would want to comment on and share. The popularity of your writing will inspire trendy websites to link to yours, which is always good for your SEO.
Interlinking Various Websites
Another questionable practice encouraged in the past was to build numerous websites and interlink them with one another. By connecting many websites together, people were enhancing the authority of their main one. Google has long cracked down on this strategy. It is now savvy at detecting interconnected websites and at dishing out punishment to everyone involved in the ploy. You will be well advised, therefore, not to create unnecessary interlinked websites lest your SEO runs into a blind alley.
This is not to say that you cannot interconnect your websites, in case you have more than one of them. But remember that your websites should be either complementary or logically and legitimately related. Suppose you are a fitness trainer specializing in health and nutrition, to which your main website is devoted. As a side business, you sell sport apparel and the gym equipment on another website. Because your two websites are complementary and thematically related, you can provide links from your secondary website to your major one without incurring Google’s wrath. Seeing these two websites interlinked, Google will not frown upon your practices.
Poor Link Building
Automated link building services used to be in vogue. Their prime time had been before Google started paying close attention to the connection between a website’s popularity and links leading to it from other domains. In the top days of automated link building services, people were spinning out comments on articles and blogs with the sole purpose of linking to some other websites, even if a connection between them was tenuous or downright nonexistent. In their desire to promote themselves, people were linking car dealers with dating websites, dental surgeons with real estate companies, and cleaning services with mediums. Lest the tendency to lump together unrelated websites got out of control, Google invented a solution to how to weed out the junk. The search engine started ignoring all links with poor quality, often punishing the website to which such links led.
If you want to receive high-quality links, do not resort to automated link building services. Get them through manual outreach link building. To achieve this, you need to contact websites possessing a firm authority in your industry. Talk to their owners or publishers and excite their curiosity in your business. If you elicit a positive response from these authoritative websites, they will review your products or services and will provide links back to your website. But do not spread yourself too thin by reaching out to many websites. Selection is crucial. Try to limit your backlinks to only popular websites generally respected in your industry. Your connection to prominent websites will significantly boost your ranking on Google and will bring you to public notice.
There are other SEO tactics that have outlived their usefulness. Employing them will do you no good. You will only waste your time and will run into trouble with the search engine. When promoting your website, adopt only new and working SEO strategies which will consolidate your place on Google’s first page.