3 Dead SEO Trends

Lindsey Smith — Fri, 13 Oct 2017 00:51:07 +0000

If you’re still using an outdated SEO strategy book that the library threw out in 1999, it may be time to rethink things. The internet is constantly evolving, and search engines are always finding ways to defeat ineffective and unfair attempts to circumvent organic searches. Are you guilty of using one of these ancient SEO techniques?

Keyword Density

In the far, far past — think a decade or two ago — folks believed that including a keyword over and over would boost search rankings for people that searched for that word. Websites would even artificially inflate their search rankings by sneaking in keywords (a few hundred times) at the bottom of their page, using a font color that matched the background color. It didn’t take search engines long to figure that one out.

Pages to Match Every Keyword Variation

Once upon a time, sites would include dozens of subpages, all with the same content. The only difference between them was the page names. It makes sense to try and incorporate text that includes keyword variations (like cell phone accessories, protective cell phone cases, and mobile phone cases) to cover all the bases, but naming individual pages in such a manner is a modern SEO no-no.

Link Baiting

We all want traffic to and from our site, but you need to be sensible about adding link bait — lest the Googlemonster sees through your ruse. If you’re selling office supplies, don’t link to a Huffington Post article called “7 Top Celeb Clothing Fails (NSFW),” regardless of how many hits the article has. Although Wikipedia gets zillions of hits per second, you should resist the urge to link there 85 times on your site.

Using outdated SEO tactics like these are not just ineffective — search engines can actually punish you for them. Reach out to the pros at Exults. They constantly monitor SEO trends and can help you choose the smartest path.

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Link-Building Fail: Hyperspecificity

Lindsey Smith — Fri, 06 Oct 2017 20:31:54 +0000

Link building is one of the most important components of your internet marketing strategy. Choosing the wrong words or phrases to link can lead to disastrous results. You can wind up investing lots of time and money, only to scratch your head and wonder why there’s no traffic to your site. How specific your links are can make a huge difference in your success — or lack thereof.

Stiff Competition

If you’re attempting to market custom-engraved wine glasses, it seems sensible to use SEO keywords such as wine glass, plus variants like wineglass, wine stem, and stemware. You’re bound to have plenty of folks searching for these terms on search engines. The problem with vague keywords such as these is that there are tons of sites out there using the exact same terms. You’d be lucky if your site appeared on the first 10 pages of search results.

Hyperspecificity — Too Extreme

Let’s say you instead build links with keyword phrases such as “custom-engraved wine glasses for weddings, birthdays, and other special occasions.” Sure, if someone happens to search for a very similar term, you’re likely to get front-page exposure. The problem? It’s extremely unlikely that anyone will perform a search using words that specific. People tend to search for much shorter strings of words, and the likelihood they’ll type in something that matches several of your keywords is pretty slim.

Happy Medium

The secret is to walk the middle ground. “Engraved wine glasses for weddings” is specific enough to beat out the large drinkware manufacturers, yet it’s still realistic that someone would search all of those words. There are exceptions, of course. If you’re marketing a service that only caters to locals, using keywords as laser-focused as “mobile dog grooming in Palo Alto” makes perfect sense.

Every business is different, and there’s no one size fits all solution when it comes to SEO optimization. Market with confidence! Speak with one of our experts at Exults to create the best possible SEO strategy for your company.

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SEO Tactics – Exults Digital Marketing Agency