Search engines have changed the way they rank websites. Use it as a reference to see if you’re still using outdated SEO tactics and possibly hurting your SEO game. Low-quality sites won’t be ranked high just because their domains are exact matches to the targeted keywords. Now, having a link directory on your site can get you penalized if you have low-quality links. Automated link building Links clearly play an important role in SEO. The problem with such keywording is it’s unnatural because it was only being done to improve the search relevance of the page. Keyword variation pages Do not create a separate page for each variation of a keyword you’re trying to rank for. Having too many pages on your site will make your site navigation more difficult than it needs to be. This strategy will make your content more relevant and improve your site navigation. The only way to do this is by publishing relevant content.
Just like most aspects of marketing and technology, search engine optimization has evolved over time.
Marketing strategies that were effective for your company five or ten years ago may not be as effective today. The same applies to SEO.
Search engines have changed the way they rank websites.
If your company hasn’t been staying up to date with the latest trends, your SEO strategy is outdated.
I see this problem all too often in my consulting work. Many companies still employ old strategies that no longer work.
That’s what inspired me to write this guide.
The outdated tactics on this list vary in terms of how they will affect your business.
Some of these are ineffective but harmless, while others could potentially hurt your SEO ranking.
Every business with a website needs to read this guide. Use it as a reference to see if you’re still using outdated SEO tactics and possibly hurting your SEO game.
1. Exact match domain names
Exact match domains were popular for a while.
With this strategy, websites were able to move up their search rankings very quickly. In some instances, rankings climbed in just weeks or even a few days.
As the name implies, the whole idea behind an exact match domain is that your website matches the keywords you’re targeting. For example:
- detroitplumber
- garagedoorpartsmiami
- bestpizzanewyork
But Google adjusted its algorithm to make exact match domains obsolete. When it made this update back in 2012, the influence of exact match domains dropped nearly immediately:
Now, an exact match domain has the same chances of ranking as high or as low as any other domain name.
In fact, some of these exact match domains have a greater chance of being flagged by algorithms or manual reviews. Low-quality sites won’t be ranked high just because their domains are exact matches to the targeted keywords.
Furthermore, it’s difficult to brand a company with an exact match domain.
For example, think about Amazon. Imagine if it started with a domain like
“buyandsellbooksonline.”
That’s just not brandable. This strategy is less trustworthy, and it will make it increasingly difficult for you to build links.
Instead, you want to make it as easy as possible to increase your brand exposure by having a domain that’s brandable.
Don’t use exact match domains.
2. Link directories
For the most part, link directories are useless. There are some exceptions for niche-specific high quality directories.
This strategy worked before search engines become powerful.
People could find what they were looking for by using sites with directories.
These were easy for site owners to install and manage, and they increased in popularity. However, a link directory doesn’t provide actual value to website visitors.
That’s when search algorithms got adjusted to ignore link directories.
Now, having a link directory on your site can get you penalized if you have low-quality links. The same goes for article directories.
Marketers started to use software to submit articles to thousands of directories. But this low-quality content didn’t provide any value to people. It was a quick and simple way to build links.
Today, link and article directories are usually perceived as poor content, and they won’t help increase your search ranking.
3. Flat URL architecture
By default, WordPress will set up your pages with URLs like this:
http://yourdomain.com/page1
It may look simple and clean for your visitors, but it’s not helping your SEO.
If you don’t change these defaults, it will be challenging for search engines to understand the hierarchy of your website. SEO crawlers and bots will rate all your pages with the same level of importance, but that’s not what you want.
You need search engines to recognize the importance of each page compared to its relationship within other pages.
You can manually change your defaults to something like this instead:
http://yourdomain.com/category1/page1
Then, the hierarchy of your site architecture will make more sense.
Search engines will be able to learn the value of each page within your site.
I recommend making these adjustments sooner rather than later. If you change your architecture, you’ll also have to change all of the redirects which can potentially hurt your ranking.
4. Automated link building
Links clearly play an important role in SEO.
Once this was discovered, many marketers tried to take advantage of link-building software to maximize their domain exposure on as many other sites as possible. They did this so their sites would be recognized by search engine algorithms.
As a result, their links got randomly posted on forums, blog comments, link directories, and guestbooks.
While I’m an advocate of using automation to improve your operational efficiency, this isn’t where you should be using that strategy.
Link building is only effective if it’s high quality. You can’t automate this process.
You have to build strong relationships and create valuable content.
For alternative methods that work, check out my post on the process of consistently building backlinks every week.
5. Keyword stuffing
When search engines weren’t as complex as they…
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