Many people believe that once we are set in our ways, it is unlikely that we can break our old habits. Fortunately this assumption is wrong and human progress is not impossible to achieve. We would like you to keep this philosophy statement in mind as you read this article.
When it comes to SEO, many of us still practice outdated tactics (e.g., comment spamming). We believe that such tactics can bring positive results to our online marketing initiatives. If you are serious about being successful with search engine optimization (SEO), it is important that you let go of the outdated tactics and embrace techniques that work today in 2018.
In this week’s SEO blog, our digital marketing team, specializing in organic search, sets the record straight. We share with you 3 marketing tactics that are still being used by marketers today, but should be retired immediately.
3 Old-School SEO Tactics to Retire Immediately
1. Comment Spamming
You would be surprised by how many online marketers are still engaged in the tactic of spamming blogs and forums with comments in hopes of building quality backlinks and authority. On a daily basis, our onsite WordPress comment spam plugin detects and removes approximately 200 irrelevant comments with links that have nothing to do with digital marketing.
Comment spamming is dead and the tactic no longer works. Google and other major search engines have sophisticated algorithm systems that detect spam content and reprimand brands that engage in such black hat practices. More and more forums and blogs are also designing their comments section as no-follows, which mean that the comments will not be read by search engine and used as ranking juice.
We are not saying that blog or forum commenting is a bad idea. Instead we are cautioning marketers to approach the practice differently to reflect current trends. That means ensuring that your comments contribute nicely to the pages you are leaving them on. Strive to add value with well-written, relevant, and insightful comments. And build relationships with the blog publishers and readers.
2. Writing Non-Contextual Content
Contextual Marketing is the ability to create content that takes into account users’ needs, habits, and goals and gives them a personalized web experience. Unfortunately many businesses are still engaged in non-contextual marketing where they write content meant to be read by bots. They keyword stuff their blogs and landing pages and, in the process, dilute their message and make it unreadable and irrelevant to their users (e.g., customers).
Google’s RankBrain algorithim is designed to best rank content based on user intent. If your content is not written to answer your users’ questions, you will not be ranked high in organic search. RankBrain is very smart when it comes to measuring the amount of time users spend on your page (dwell-time), click-through rates, bounce rates, etc.
One trick is to use Quora, Reddit, Answer the Public, and Twitter chats to gather questions consumers in your industry are asking and to try to ANSWER as many of them as you can within your blog posts.
3. Guest Blogging
Having an article you have written by another website is such a monumental event. But what started as a perfectly legitimate trend was soon being abused, creating far too many low-quality content. This is why Google now punishes and dissuades marketers from guest blogging for link building purposes. Rather, they encourage marketers to write Guest blogs only if they have a good relationship with someone, if that someone’s site is actually a valuable resource and has a high SEO ranking already, or on reputable websites with strict editorial processes.
Outdated SEO Tactics in 2018 |Conclusion
It is important to stop wasting precious time on outdated SEO tactics and to start focusing your energy on strategies that will boost your traffic. The rules for SEO are constantly changing under Google’s scrutiny. To stay informed of the best practices, we encourage you to subscribe to authoritative blogs (e.g., SearchEngineWatch.com, Search EngineLand.com, SearchEngineJournal.com), to participate in the numerous SEO (e.g., #semrush) chats that are taking place weekly on your social media channels, and to review the Google Webmasters Blog on a weekly basis.
This article provides some much-needed warnings. It’s time to put an end to the gimmicks that you thought would work. SEO is not dead, but it has changed. You need to adapt your strategy accordingly.
iRISEmedia | Internet Marketing Agency Toronto
iRISEmedia is a digital marketing agency that focuses on helping those in Canada and the United States with social media management, paid advertising, online reputation management and online branding. Our team helps clients manage and grow their online presence and branding to increase qualified web traffic and online leads. For your business needs or inquiries, please contact us today at 1-855-493-3622 or visit us on our website.
