10 Outdated SEO Methods You Need To Put Behind

Posted on August 12th, 2012. Written by Suhail.

What is good SEO? Is it employing the tried and tested methods that have been in use since the dawn of SEO? Well, this is what most web marketers believe. On the contrary, however, every time a site gets banished from search engines, some way or the other it comes down to poor or outdated SEO practices. When this happens, webmasters usually do not have a clue as to what actually happened and what needs to be done to fix it.

Now this is where ‘effective SEO’ comes into play. With all the updates and changes regularly taking place in Google’s algorithm, ‘good marketing’ is the only thing that can save the day. And the bottom line is that old and outdated SEO methods do not equate to good marketing. Here we will have a look at 10 obsolete SEO methods that you need to put behind, and some of the alternatives that you can revert to for better results:

1.      Submission of Articles

If an Ezine article is what comes to your mind when talking about effective SEO, then you are wrong. Ezine articles will not help much, except in getting you a few backlinks (and low quality ones!) here and there.

When it comes to SEO, you should not aim for easy and low-quality links; instead, go for the ones that you attain through building relationships with bloggers or writing guest posts. This is what will actually help you in getting authoritative links that can add value to your site and increase its traffic.

2.     Using Reciprocal Links

Thinking you can easily get away unnoticed by exchanging links with other sites? Think again! For there is no easier way your site will be disregarded as using low quality links, than if you use reciprocal links.

Links are a way of validating and endorsing your site; thus, link building should be done in a manner that actually helps visitors find useful and relevant content; and this is only possible when you link to sites with good content.  

3.      Using Press Releases Just For The Sake of Publicity

Press releases are no doubt an effective tool to build PR and establish credibility for your website. Remember, that you are not the only one out there doing business, and gaining publicity requires a lot more than mere existence.

If you do not have anything newsworthy, then press releases are not your thing, for they would not help in any way except for getting you backlinks that aren’t of much use. If you want links, do something that is worth sharing as news to get high-quality ones that are actually beneficial to your site.

4.      Poor Content

Creating quality content is one SEO technique that is here to stay for as long as SEO exists. Regarding content creation, you need to keep in mind your target audience and the purpose of writing: are you creating content just for search engines, or are you actually trying to help users? There should not be a disparity between what you create for search engines and for your target audience. Provide something to users that they would want to share and link to, and high rankings would automatically follow. 

5.      Letting Automation Take Over

Automating your site would seem an easy way out; however, it does not reap the desired benefits in the long run. Social media is there for you to build relationships with your customers, but with automation, you actually damage relationships rather than build them. After all, tools are just tools, and cannot compensate for the real thing.

6.      Not Paying Attention to Social Signals

Social networks are the future of the internet; therefore, if you want to survive in the competition, you must enable social sharing on your site. Social sharing can have huge benefits in terms of building relationships with customers. So, don’t forget to add that button on your site!

7.      Proceeding Without Strategizing

Jumping into SEO without a plan is the root cause of major marketing failures. Having a strategy, testing and updating it regularly can save you from using outdated SEO techniques that are nothing but a waste of time.

8.      Focus too much on Rankings

Rankings are very important in SEO, but not too important that all you do is focus on them and ignore the rest. In pursuit of rankings, you might be ignoring other important aspects such as building quality relationships with your customers, and thus would fail to benefit in the long run.

9.      Concentrating on Google Only

Although Google is the authority towards which most web marketers target their SEO efforts, a close look at the facts could reveal something else. You’d be surprised to learn how much of your organic traffic comes not only from Google, but from other search engines as well. SEO is an investment and the same rules as that of investing in stocks and bonds apply here as well. It is always wise to diversify your portfolio and not risk everything on just one thing, which, in this case is Google.

10.  Overlooking Website Design

Last but not the least; your website design represents your brand. Therefore, it must not be taken lightly. Hire a designer who knows his job and can create wonders for you when it comes to the website look and appeal to the customers. A search-engine friendly site coupled with great SEO is guaranteed to skyrocket your rankings, as well as boost website traffic.

Suhail

Professional content writer having experience in writing all types of contents like articles, blogs, ebooks, squidoo lenses, hubpages, reviews, web content, news, press releases, link wheel creation and much more.Check out my Gigs here: http://www.seoclerks.com/user/Suhail