Search engine optimization is an ever-evolving field as search engines update their algorithm to provide users with relevant search results. Due to this many practices that once yielded great results are now irrelevant or even harmful for your ranking. It’s important to stay updated with the latest practices. And when choosing an SEO reseller in India, agencies need to check how up-to-date they are.
Irrelevant Keyword Usage
Beginners tend to struggle with how to target their keywords. They tend to fit the content and metadata to irrelevant keywords without understanding the user intent. Their main concern is ranking higher on high-volume keywords.
This approach causes readers to lose interest in the content even before the brand can deliver the core message. It doesn’t matter how good your content is, the keywords used in it should align with it. Else, it won’t rank well on Google. So don’t misdirect readers with high-volume keyphrases.
Focusing On Keyword Density
Keyword density used to be an important factor in how your webpage would rank. While keywords are still important, their ratio compared to your overall word count isn’t as important. Google checks how effective your webpage is in solving user queries. So, the quality of content and message being conveyed are the important factors.
Keyword Stuffing
Stuffing the content with target key phrases is a well-known black hat practice. But one that any modern SEO expert would steer clear of. Search engines have already smartened up against such tactics. They can identify unnatural stuffing and demote the content on search results for it. It’s important to avoid stuffing and integrate keywords naturally.
Writing For Bots
Ironically, the best way to rank on search engine result pages is to not write for the search engines. Search bots have become advanced enough to identify keyword repetitions and variations. Things optimizers do when writing with search results in mind. The best approach is to write for humans. After all, SEO’s ultimate purpose is to reach potential customers.
Article Spinning
This black hat practice involves paraphrasing an article with the help of a software or manually to make it seem new and original. While it may help prevent duplicate page penalties, the absolute mess of an article created is not worth it. The new article adds nothing of value and is often not easy to read through.
Artificial intelligence has come far when it comes to article spinning. But it still can’t match the quality you’d expect from a human expert. Especially when it comes to creating something new and original.
Buying Links
If the buying part in the name sounds shady, then you aren’t wrong. In the past, it was common practice to buy as many backlinks as possible. But today’s standard is to earn backlinks, not pay someone to create them for you manually.
The quality of the backlinks is also important for the website’s health. A high volume of low-quality links from low-quality domains can be bad. So it’s important to maintain and optimize your backlink profile.
Comment Spamming
This involves commenting on several relevant blogs with links to your site. Some bloggers and SEO specialists would even use bots to post spun content in large numbers. It’s not a good way of creating backlinks because search engines see this as spam. On the flip side, having too many spam comments on your site can ruin the user experience and affect your SERP ranking.
Neglecting Mobile-Friendliness
With Google’s introduction of mobile-first indexing, ignoring mobile optimization is no longer an option. It’s also important from the UX perspective because about fifty percent of the searches come from mobile. Your website must load quickly and properly on mobile devices.
Exact Match Domains
Exact match domains used to be the surest way of ranking for target keywords. Simply creating a domain name out of your keyphrases used to help you rank on top within days. But search engines have since adjusted their algorithm to provide better search results.
That isn’t to say that exact match domains can’t rank. It’s just that they may seem spammy to bots and users. You’re better off going for a branded domain.
