Amine is a tech entrepreneur and writer. he is currently legal assets and CEO of IronMonk Solutions.
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Google’s PageRank algorithm is forever a work in progress. As a result, the SEO industry is also constantly changing, and some tactics that were once standard practice are now deadly sins. At best, outdated tactics are a waste of time. However, at worst, Google can actually penalize your website and lose its ability to rank.
As the founder of two digital marketing companies, I have seen firsthand how quickly SEO techniques evolve. In this article, I’ll share some of his outdated SEO techniques that are considered unsuitable for modern digital marketing strategies and should be avoided at all costs.
1. Insert links in social comments
Backlinks are the lifeblood of any off-page SEO campaign. But not all backlinks are created equal. Spam or self-serving links can backfire.
A typical culprit is the infamous “backlinking social media comments” trick. In the early days of Facebook, YouTube, Quora, and Reddit, SEO experts used links to your website for user-generated queries to not only drive traffic, but also earn cheap backlinks. I was creating a generic response containing
There was a time when backlinks in comments like this seemed to work like magic. however, search engine journal To explain, this is no longer the case. Backlinks in comments on Web 2.0 platforms are almost always disavowed, so you’d be better off spending your time elsewhere.
2. Too many keywords
Google’s mission is to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and usable”. One of the consequences of this mission is to penalize her website for defying its purpose. Therefore, we recommend that you do not publish keyword-heavy content, such as spam.
Unfortunately, in the early days of the Internet, it was all too common for the same few words to appear over and over on the same page, such as “best cat litter” or “cheap flights to New York”. was. There is nothing user-friendly in this contrived, lofty prose.
In my book, I want to avoid keyword densities above 5% in my content. Instead, aim for a density of 1%-2% (that is, up to 2% of your total content consists of your target keyword).
3. Create a private blog network
In the past, it was common for well-funded publishers to maintain a wide variety of websites that linked to each other or to just one “primary” website. This practice is not only very costly from an economic point of view, but also carries a significant risk of penalties from Google. If Google detects it, it can disrupt the entire network.
Generate genuine link placement instead of using a private blog network (or “PBN”). By creating quality content, you can earn links in top publications without resorting to black hat SEO tactics such as PBNs.
4. Over-optimize your anchor text
This tip is a little more technical, but still important. While keyword-rich anchor text is still a good idea in most cases, a balanced SEO strategy includes a variety of natural, non-optimized, keyword-dense, and long-tail anchor texts. must be included.
For example, if I’m building a backlink strategy for a recent article on American small caps, I’d like to link to the article in the following ways:
• Not Optimized: “My readers may find this article helpful in picking small cap stocks.”
• Keyword rich: “For more information, see our article on the best US small caps.”
• Long Tail: “If you’re looking for a new stock for your investment portfolio, consider this article detailing some of the best options on the market.”
5. Writing for robots (not humans)
No one wants to read an article like R2-D2 wrote. Keep it real, authentic, and write naturally — in a way that reflects how you speak. His PageRank system at Google is a lot smarter than us in some ways and may detect when you try to manipulate the algorithm through keyword stuffing.
My advice is to avoid repeating the same keywords or nouns over and over again. Instead, use prepositions and pronouns liberally to avoid sounding like a robot (or someone trying to manipulate a robot).
Building a modern SEO strategy
In the world of SEO, many well-intentioned techniques can do more harm than good to your website. By avoiding the above mistakes, you can employ modern, forward-looking marketing campaigns that avoid some of the most common SEO pitfalls.
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