Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last 10 years, you know that general and local search optimization remain the most important methods of garnering brand recognition in the online world. After all, 93% of all online experiences still begin when a web user types a query into their favorite search engine.
As any search marketing company worth its salt can tell you, however, just because general and local SEO have remained so important to online success, that doesn’t mean general and local SEO strategies haven’t had to evolve to meet Google’s ever more exacting standards. If that’s news to you, here are just a few of the outdated SEO strategies your company should probably stop using — unless, of course, you like the idea of being banned from search engines altogether.
Three Outdated Search Engine Optimization Strategies That Are Killing Your Business
- Writing Guest Blogs Willy-Nilly
- Publishing Press Releases That Are as Newsworthy as a Sunrise
- Cloaking Your Content
In the past, it wasn’t uncommon for your SEO company to encourage you to write guest blogs for other sites. These days, guest blogging can still be a great way to earn a quality backlink and bump up your online presence, but if you’re not careful, it can also earn you a hefty penalty from our overlords at Google. As a rule of thumb, you should only write guest blogs for reputable sites that are related to your industry. Posting useless content wherever is great way to risk Google’s ire.
If you work with an SEO company, chances are they offer a monthly press release as part of your content package. As Search Engine Watch suggests, your SEO company might not tell you that it’s better not to put out a PR if you don’t have anything newsworthy to report. For example, if the only thing you have to talk about is a service you’ve been offering forever, just save your breath. Remember, your content, whether it’s a press release or a YouTube video, needs to be useful. What utility are you offering anybody by publishing a bit of chaff?
Cloaking content is the method of making it appear differently, depending on whether it’s Google’s searching robots cataloging it or real people reading it. This method is frequently used by companies who know they’re putting out sub-par content in order to avoid being smacked down many page ranks. Here’s the thing: when Google finds out — and they will — chances are you’ll be permanently banned from the service, as Search Engine Journal suggests. Putting out great content is a lot easier than consistently trying to trick the search engine behemoth, and a lot safer. Be smart here.
Do you run a modern SEO company? What are some of the worst techniques you still see your clients trying to use? Let us know by leaving a comment down below!