Since we can never follow all existing ranking signals at once, there is no way to create an SEO strategy that will work 100%. All we can do is stick with what we know and operate on an already explored playing field. Moreover, whenever something becomes a valid ranking signal and people start to spam it and overuse it, Google will stop acknowledging it as one. SEO practices are constantly changing, and not because people love to be innovative and try something new.
Also, some of the practices tend to do more harm than good nowadays. Therefore, it would be wise to steer clear from those methods. The following article will tell you which SEO practices are no longer reliable for link building, and how to replace them with something efficient.
Keywords Before Clicks
Now we all know how important keywords are, and how we need to include them in our content in order to rank higher. However, if you include as many keywords as possible in your title, you’ll get nowhere. Let’s say you want to rank for the keywords phrase “coloring books”; you create a title that goes like: “Coloring Books, Coloring Pages and Coloring Games”.
Anyone who reads this will immediately think that it’s spam and the person won’t read it at all. However, if you opt for a title like “Creative Ways to cope with Stress – Coloring Books to the Rescue” then you might incite some clicks.
You see, clicks are more important in this case, since the title is what inspires them, and with a title that reeks of spam, there is no traffic. With a good click through rate and a low bounce rate, Google is more likely to rank you higher, and keyword filled titles and no clicks lead to almost no benefits.
Individual Page for Each Keyword Variant
This used to be very effective for a very long time, which is why a lot of people still implement this method even today. However, Google has created various updates like Hummingbird and RankBrain in order to combat this phenomenon.
So, it would be better for you to focus on topic relevance and the overall rank-worthiness of your content, rather than going through all the trouble of creating an individual page for each keyword variant.
Press Releases
If you think you will generate significant authority by creating thousands of press releases with your brand name mentioned in them, you are wrong. Since anyone can write a press release and publish it, it can’t be considered a reliable source. Besides, if this was the case, anyone could get high rankings.
Therefore, it is ridiculous to assume such an approach could still yield positive results. The only thing that can come out of spamming press releases is a Google penalty, so just avoid them; it’s for the best.
Heavy Use of Anchor Texts on Internal Links
It used to have a positive impact, but again, once people started to overuse it, Google moved away from it. Some people even used anchor texts in smaller fonts, so that readers wouldn’t notice them; they were just there for the crawlers.
Now, overusing this approach will get you penalized. You can use it if the link is completely natural and relevant for the text, sure, but if you have an important link that you want to be visible, go for the header, or the sidebar of the page; don’t spam it all over your website.
Link Bait
Lastly, if you think that bringing a lot of people to your site or page, without any content to feed their curiosity would go well, think again. No one can stop you from creating enticing titles, but without good content to back it up, it will only result in a high bounce rate, and a bad user experience, which only leads to a bad reputation. So, don’t be the boy who cried wolf; always have quality content to justify your title.
There you have it, five practices you should never implement as part of your SEO campaign. Do some research on the latest Google updates, see what is considered black hat SEO nowadays, and try to create content that has the same quality and traits as the one on high domain sites.
The author is highly qualified and writes blog posts weekly.
