As with all marketing techniques, SEO is a constantly changing method of digital marketing. Of course, there are some long-standing methods which have proven to be effective, but it’s also important to stay up to date with which techniques are no longer worthwhile. Here are 8 outdated methods that are not helping your overall organic search ranking:
#1 – Excessive internal linking
Internal links have now been almost disregarded by Google for SEO, compared to previously where heavy internal linking was favoured by the search engine. In fact, Google now penalises large volumes of internal linking. You may have a couple of key phrases within your text which relate to different pages, but it is preferable to only use around 2 links and instead utilise a strong and clear website menu and navigation strategy.
#2 – Irrelevant and unfocused link bait
Link bait is when you use something to grab the attention of readers to encourage them to click through to the link due to curiosity. This in itself is fine if the link bait is relevant to the content it brings the user to, since they can actually find more information, however many companies were choosing to use it simply to encourage a greater number of clicks to their site, even if users find it unrelated. However, SEO now favours topical link bait that links through to highly targeted and relevant content, and in fact penalises websites with a high bounce rate where visitors have immediately clicked back off of the site.
#3 – Keyword-heavy titles
Yes, it is still important to incorporate keywords into your meta-content and titles, but search engines are now favouring content which makes more sense. For example, your previous title could have been a series of keywords like “Digital Marketing | SEO | Search Engine Optimisation” with a description that has a similar layout and format, but Google now favours a succinct but relevant title and meta-description for example “The Art of SEO | Get your website ranking through Digital Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation” followed by a brief sentence to elaborate. This encourages more clicks as it appears genuine and helpful to your audience, rather than spammy.
#4 – Domain names that include your keywords
Whilst it might seem logical to include keywords within your website domain, for example “marketingexperts.com” , this can actually deter visitors. This is because it doesn’t sound like an actual brand, and can be more difficult to remember. It will actually decrease the likelihood of people clicking through to your site, where as it’s more useful to build a strong branded site using your company name as your domain where possible, which gives you greater credibility. Because Google has recognised this, if you get this right, you are more likely to increase your SEO rankings.
#5 – Individual keyword pages
This is a long-standing technique that has only become void in the last few years. The idea is that every keyword that you want to target has its own page of unique, keyword-rich content. The problem is that often there would be multiple keywords being used that were extremely similar, for example “Digital Marketing Specialists” and “Digital Marketing Company” so as you can imagine, the page content was also similar. However, changes in Google’s algorithms now prefer more carefully crafted content using keywords in context, within one single, targeted page. This increases usability and helps searchers to find what they are looking for more easily.
SEO is constantly changing
SEO is a specialist field that is constantly changing and evolving to keep up with ongoing Google algorithm updates. These updates aim to give users the best possible experience and deliver the most relevant results to them, so it’s important to review your SEO on a regular basis.
Get in touch for more specific advice today.
