07 Apr 3 Outdated SEO Tips to Avoid
If you are looking for SEO best practices, it can be confusing to determine the real SEO tips from the false information. You will find plenty of SEO “gurus” out there who want to sell you information about search engine optimization, but it is important that you understand that they don’t always share accurate information. The trouble is that it is nearly impossible to standardize the industry, because the algorithms are constantly changing.
Consider this example: If you visit a doctor, then you can check on their credentials and see the schools and training programs that they attended. Even if they have been practicing medicine for 20 years, the information that they learned is still applicable to our current day. Yes, there have been a few changes over the years as new technologies and treatments have become available, but the basic principles have remained consistent.
On the other hand, it is difficult to measure the qualifications of an SEO expert, because there aren’t specific certifications or licenses that are used in the industry. If someone gets a 4-year degree, their training is essentially outdated by the time they start into their career, because the industry changes so fast.
One of the tricky aspects of managing a search engine optimization campaign is the fact that the search engines are constantly changing, which means that you need to keep up with those changes. Here are a few false SEO tips that should be avoided… some people still talk about these strategies, but they no longer work with the current algorithm changes:
1. More Keywords Will Result in Better Rankings
The days of keyword stuffing are long gone, but there are still websites who try to get ranked in the search engines by filling their site with too many keywords. Keywords are important, but user experience is even more important. Your content should focus on the value and information that can be shared with the reader, and the keywords will naturally fall into place if you are focusing on user experience.
Always remember that the experience of the website visitor should always be your first priority, and keywords are the second priority. Shifting your priorities to the user experience will help your site to rank better in the search engines.
2. Link Spamming is Easy and Effective
Several years ago, one of the most effective SEO tips and tricks was to use a large amount of backlinks in order to help your site rank in the search engines. At the time, this strategy worked very well, as long as the keyword phrase was placed strategically in those backlinks. Many people started spamming forums, blog comments, and any other source of backlinks that they could find.
Now, the search engines look more at the quality of backlinks instead of the quantity of backlinks. If you have a large quantity of low quality backlinks, then you can guarantee that your website will be penalized and start dropping in the search engine rankings. Links are still important for SEO, but you need to make sure that they are relevant, super-high quality links that offer value to the person reading the content.
3. Hundreds or Thousands of Website Pages Will Guarantee Good Rankings
If you are studying SEO basics, then you might find some sources that suggest that more content is always better. This content strategy can be taken to the extreme, where websites have posted hundreds or even thousands of low quality articles, resulting in a lot of boring content without substance.
Just like we discussed in the keywords SEO tip… the user experience always trumps everything else. It is not realistic that a website visitor is going to spend time reading through a thousand web pages. They are likely looking for specific information, and the search engines will reward the site that provides the information accurately and effectively. So, focus on helping and solving the problems of your website visitors, and in turn your website will rank higher in the search engines.
Moral of the Story
The moral of the story is: make sure you are focusing on high quality content that offers value to the reader. In the current SEO trends, quality websites will always beat out the low quality websites that are trying to game the system.