OUTDATED SEO TACTICS AND 5 ALTERNATIVES

In the past it was easier to achieve high search engine rankings by “gaming” the system with questionable SEO tactics. But as search engines have evolved, many suspect SEO practices have been rendered useless. However, if you visit any SEO forum or upstart SEO blog, you will see many of these outdated tactics still endorsed as legitimate techniques.
In an attempt to end the misinformation, below are five popular, yet outdated SEO tactics that no longer work — and some legitimate alternatives. 

KEYWORD 
STUFFING 
In the late 1990s, search engines were unsophisticated. The 
more frequently a keyword appeared in a page’s content, the 
better it ranked. This practice of “keyword stuffing” was an easy 
way to manipulate search rankings. Since then, search engines 
and their algorithms have matured. 
What to do instead: 
Stuffing pages with keywords can have a negative impact; as 
Google actively imposes penalties on gamed content. So if you 
want your keywords to have maximum impact, it’s far better 
(and safer) to employ legitimate SEO practices, such as: 
• Creating content for people, not search engines 
• Making sure keywords are present in prominent regions of 
your Web page; such as headers, subheads, title tags and 
meta description snippets 
• Structuring a website so that important keyword pages are 
high up in the site architecture and easily found by both 
search engines and people.

BLOG COMMENT 
SPAMMING 
Many search marketers and webmasters still aggressively drop 
links in blog comments as their primary link building strate- 
gies. This outdated SEO tactic is better known as blog comment 
spamming. To address the abuse, Google introduced nofollow 
link tags (a signal to search engine spiders to ignore a link) and 
is known to devalue links in blog comments. 
What to do instead: 
Rather than comment spam, try producing something of value. 
Creating well-written, engaging and thought-provoking con- 
tent is one of the best ways to attract quality links, naturally. 
Good content often generates editorial links — naturally oc- 
curring links from other blogs and news sources that search 
engines value far more than comments in blog posts. 

SEARCH ENGINE 
SUBMISSION 
I’m still amazed by how many companies offer search engine 
submission as a service. I’m equally amazed by how many 
professional Web developers and designers still believe that 
submitting to search engines is necessary. It is not. Google’s abil- 
ity to discover and index new content is so advanced that search 
engine submission is obsolete. So, paying a company for a 
search engine submission service is a waste of money. 
What to do instead: 
To ensure that your new website gets discovered quickly, 
get links. This can be as quick and easy as dropping a link to 
your website on a social media platform. For example, if you 
have a Twitter account, tweet a link to your new website or 
add it as your profile link. Twitter is crawled by search engines 
constantly; so a link to your new site will be discovered 
quickly. To increase your chances of getting found, use a site 
like Ping.fm, which offers the ability to post a message and 
link to dozens of social media sites simultaneously.

META TAG 
OPTIMIZATION 
There was a time when meta tags (snippets of information 
embedded in the "HEAD" area of a page’s code) played a large 
role in influencing search engine rankings. This was particu- 
larly true of the “meta keywords” attribute; a common way 
for site owners to reinforce terms important to their websites. 
However, unscrupulous site owners and SEOs abused the 
meta keywords attribute by including misleading terms en- 
tirely unrelated to their content. 
What to do instead: 
These days, Google is on record as saying they pay no atten- 
tion to the meta keywords tag. So, the era of keyword stuffing 
meta tags for impact is officially dead. If your objective is to op- 
timize a website or blog pages to rank for more keywords, try 
using category and tag systems to better label and organize your 
website content. Actively tagging your posts and pages is one of 
the most effective ways to enhance functionality, usability and 
overall “searchability.” 

LINK 
EXCHANGES 
Exchanging links or reciprocal linking is a popular method 
of building links. Website owners exchange inbound links 
with one another in an attempt to improve site rankings and 
traffic. Reciprocal links in moderation are not really an issue; 
as interlinking is glue that binds the Web. The trouble oc- 
curs when website owners actively engage in link exchange 
schemes to intentionally influence rankings — which Google 
deems a violation. 
What to do instead: 
Rather than participating in link exchange schemes, offer testi- 
monials to business vendors you work with. Providing testi- 
monials is an easy way to get a link to your website in return for 
writing something favorable and sincere about a vendor. 
SEO, like any other industry, undergoes changes as it 
evolves. Be sure to avoid the outdated techniques mentioned 
here. Not only will your website suffer in rankings (to the sat- 
isfaction of your competition), but even worse — your site 
might be penalized for banned tactics. 

Ken Lyons is Senior Marketing Manager at WordStream, a key- 
word research tool provider for discovering profitable SEO key- 
words. He is a frequent contributor to the WordStream Internet 
Marketing Blog.

Courtesy of Silver Stream - Vancouver Web Design Company.