Year after year, search engines have done their part in keep the search engines optimized to serve the right content to the right audience.
Search engines like Google are constantly updating their search engines for the purpose of not ranking those who are using SEO tactics that are deemed as black hat SEO.
As a beginner to online marketing, it’s not uncommon that you get overwhelmed with information. Some are good, some are bad, and some are just completely outdated.
In this article, I would like to share with you, some SEO tactics you really should avoid.
List Of SEO Tactics You Really Should Avoid
Bad SEO Tactic #1. Paying For Spam Comments: Comments on your website is a great way to promote interaction and often times it contributes to your blogs.
Today, words in your comments bear very little weight in terms of getting your website ranked on search engines.
However, spam (not the food) comments can be annoying and contribute absolutely nothing.
Quality over quantity not only applies to physical items, but it also applies to comments.
The above photo is an example of spam comments you don’t want on your website.
I remember coming across a website with over 1000 comments and my immediate reaction was admiring this person’s website.
He or she must have very good content and very engaging with his or her readers.
I decided to leave one myself, but to my surprise, most of the comments left for this website were spam and totally irrelevant.
Even though the website had a ton of comments, none of them was actually helpful nor engaging.
The long and the short is, don’t pay for spam comments. Get them legitimately by writing amazing articles that are actually helpful.
Due Diligence and Stop Spam Comments on your website
You need to access your WordPress Dashboard like the picture below: (You will also see the option to enable manual approval for comments! This way, you can check each comment before approving).
Bad SEO Tactic #2. Abusing Anchor Text: This is the text that you use to describe what a link is. Example, https://smartaffiliatehub.com/ can look a little messy, so instead, you can type something like Learn how to make money online.
It’s absolutely harmless for the most part, and it allows search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing to understand what the linked page is about.
However, there are bloggers who abuse this feature by adding links to irrelevant anchor texts. For example, the barn was destroyed along with the field.
I didn’t include an actual link for the word “the”, but let’s pretend that it has a link. That would be considered abusing anchor text.
Ideally, you want your anchor text to inform your readers what to expect when they click on your link. Don’t click-bait your visitors or you will never see them again.
Bad SEO Tactic #3. Keyword Stuffing: When we start our online business, the word keyword is constantly being brought up.
We use keywords to inform search engines what our articles are about. We use keywords as a way to get ranked on search engines.
Does that mean, the more the better?
Well, as a beginner, it’s an honest mistake to believe that the more keywords you use in your article, the more likely you will get ranked on one.
It’s partially true. You’re not likely to rank for a keyword if you don’t have it in your content.
However…
Keyword stuffing is essentially adding keywords to an article as frequently as possible. This can appear spammy and difficult to read.
Let me give you an example, and you tell me what you think.
I almost wanted to exit out of my own website after reading that.
Remember, you want to deliver content that provides a good experience for your visitors.
Even though you want to target keywords for search engine rankings, but by stuffing keywords, it makes your article look like complete trash.
Even if you somehow manage to make it to the top pages of the search engine with that garbage, do you think your organic visitors will stick around?
Bad SEO Tactic #4. Duplicate Content: This is pretty much self-explanatory. It is considered duplicate content when you copy content from your own website or another website.
It might be effortless to add content through copy and paste, but it is also effortless to destroy your website’s ranking.
There used to be a software that you can input an article from someone else and the program rephrases the entire article to make it your own.
It was known as “An Article Spinner” and it was mainly used to publish on multiple websites that link back to your main website with no effort at all.
Even though you are getting backlinks, but the websites with these articles will usually have low authority and wouldn’t do you any good.
Some website owners would also use this software to generate content for themselves. You see, I don’t believe in 100% unique content because we all get information from someone else.
This is why I think it’s okay to research information on the internet and putting it in your own words. But don’t deliberately copy someones article and call it your own.
Bad SEO Tactic #5. Using Hidden Links: Hidden links are nearly or completely invisible to your visitors. This was a very deceptive method to hide keywords to increase the ranking.
Unfortunately for these poor souls, Google Bots can identify these links and they can punish you by removing your website from their index.
I don’t know who thought they could get away with this tactic since Google uses bots to read your websites.
What you want to do is to ensure that every text or link on your website is clearly visible and in no way shape or form hiding from your visitors.
My Final Thoughts
If you use the All In One SEO Plugin on WordPress, you can focus more on writing quality content instead. After all, what good is search engine optimization without a website with quality content?
The tactics on my list are not necessarily bad, for example, anchor text is okay if you let your visitors know exactly what to expect if they were to click the link.
My recommendation is that you ask yourself each time if you are being honest with your visitors. If you are hiding something or deceiving your visitors, you should expect a negative impact on your website overall.
If you are serious about creating and building a brand for yourself, you should have no problem avoiding tactics that can negatively impact your website rankings on the search engine.
I hope this was helpful! If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask by leaving a comment down below.
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