SEO is ever-changing and evolving with the growth of technology and computer algorithms. However, some practices should stay in the past. If you’re like most business owners, you’re always looking for ways to increase your website’s search engine ranking and boost your online visibility. But before you start implementing SEO tactics, it’s important to know which ones are low-value and won’t provide any real benefits. In this blog post, we’ll discuss three of the most common low-value SEO techniques that you should avoid at all costs. Keep reading to learn more!
8 Low-Value SEO Tactics to Avoid in 2022:
1. Insistence on Short Keywords
One of the outdated SEO practices you need to look out for is using short keywords, especially since SEO checker tools have so far discouraged their use. This practice has become ingrained in anyone seriously managing a blog or website. However, this is rapidly changing due to the overwhelming growth in the popularity of Google Voice Search.
With this happening, longer and more organic-sounding keywords are quickly becoming more popular, especially those that can be construed as answers to a question. This is because most voice searches are done in either the form of a question, for example, ‘What are some good SEO practices to follow?’, or demands such as ‘Google best SEO practices for a blog.’ We can reasonably assume that this tendency will only grow in the future.
2. Overusing Keywords
One of the SEO practices nearly everyone seemed eager to jump on was throwing as many keywords as possible into every bit of content featured on their site. However, as the algorithms become more discerning and Google Rankings more sophisticated, this practice has died out.
It is a mark of a website that panders more to robots crawling it than actual flesh and blood humans looking for quality content, goods, or services. Those sites have seen a rapid plummeting in their SEO rankings.
3. Focusing Only on Content
One of the outdated SEO practices still trying to cling to life is the insistence on content and keywords in SEO. However, SEO has always been much more than just this! And this issue is starting to reflect itself on SEO rankings as their sophistication grows.
The website speed, its coding and design quality, and even concerns such as the landing page best practices are all attracting more attention. This is not to say content is no longer a good thing to focus on. However, emphasizing it to the detriment of everything else needs to stop.
4. Bite-Sized Content
Speaking of content, the approach to it has changed drastically as well. In the past, short forms of content were much more popular. People were eager to read up on a subject briefly and move on. This thirst for more content all the time has not subsided. However, audiences have grown much more interested in having a worthwhile read.
This growing discernment can be considered an oversaturation of their previous desires. Now, short and scrappy blog posts and articles can no longer keep their attention without some substance to them. Those who have always put reasonable effort into developing their website are getting the recognition they deserve.
See Also: How Can I Get More Traffic to My Website for Free?
5. Treating Backlinks Lightly
“The more, the merrier” is a pretty good summary of what the approach to backlinks used to be. Once they had achieved success, some sites did grow a bit pickier about what backlinks they allowed into their content. However, selling backlink slots was still a pretty frequent occurrence. Which isn’t to say this is not happening still.
However, the general approach to backlinks now is that they need to be earned rather than just bought. This is because it has come to light just how significant the impact of a follow backlink can be on a website’s SEO. Now, improving link equity and making sure to check all of your links has grown essential. And no backlink makes its way onto a site without careful vetting.
6. Ignoring Keyword Cannibalization
Nowadays, as people put more effort into learning how running a website works and what keywords are, it has become apparent that having lots of near-identical keywords on your site is wrong. This causes ‘keyword cannibalization,’ which implies that your keywords are competing and hurting each other’s rank.
After putting effort into crafting quality content, this is not something you want to see. So, it’s better to double-check for overlap before including any particular keyword on your site.
7. Constantly Pushing for More Guest Bloggers
We’ve mentioned the length of posts preferred in the past and their rapid posting rate. It led to another one of the outdated SEO practices – the attempt to get as many guest bloggers for your site as possible. It was a badge of honor to have many guest bloggers trying to work with your site.
In a way, it still is. But this led to the growing tendency to overlook low-quality content in favor of simply accruing more of it. Which naturally made it difficult to improve organic click-through rates and made it necessary to work on this aspect separately. With the growing awareness of the content’s quality for SEO, fewer but better guest bloggers are the way to go.
8. Disregarding Site Compatibility
The final of the outdated SEO practices we are to cover has cost a lot of people plenty of potential outreach – disregarding the importance of working on a website’s compatibility with different devices and search engines. As long as a site made it onto Google, it was a job well done. However, this led to massive issues if someone attempted to open a site intended for PC on a mobile phone and vice versa.
Moreover, practices such as embedding Google reviews on your website caused even more glitches and incompatibility issues despite their inherent usefulness. Now, people know better and devote a lot of time and energy to making sure their sites work flawlessly no matter what visitors open them on.
See Also: How to Optimize Landing Pages for Conversion
Conclusion
Knowing the current outdated SEO practices you should avoid is not enough. You should constantly research the subject of SEO and do your best to always be on top of the new developments. That is the only way to ensure your website gets and maintains the best possible Google ranking.
