8 Outdated SEO Techniques to Avoid in 2020

Many people today use SEO techniques that are no longer valid. Not only are they out of date and obsolete, but Google may also even look at them as being black hat tactics. When you use them in your own optimization, you will go nowhere. It may end up costing money in the long run and even waste your efforts to boost the ranking.

Old SEO Techniques That No Longer Works

Google can differentiate between the different types of activity that websites are using for SEO. Here are a few of those old SEO techniques that should no longer be part of your tactic.

Bad SEO Technique 1: Link Exchanges

This is considered to be a black hat strategy for SEO, and it has been outdated for some years.

It works similarly to its name. Let’s assume that you and another webmaster have a website and you request a link, with them and they request one in return. You then see that it worked out well so you continue to exchange links with other webmasters in hopes that your rankings will improve.

Not only is this technique outdated, but it is also one that is easily recognized by Google. Before you know it, you will see a change in your rankings, but it is not the change you want. Google will restrict your website.

What Can Be Done?

There are many different ways to get links, and this is still a vital part of search engine optimization. One of the ways that you can get links is by distributing content to some sources and making connections with others. Also, you can look for ways to get links from within your industry by requesting a link to your website, but not in the form of a link exchange.

Bad SEO Technique 2: Submitting to Search Engines Manually

It wasn’t all that long ago that search engines wanted you to update your website and submit them to the search engines manually. It achieved a worthy purpose at that time. Those days have passed, however, and the web crawlers are now quite capable of discovering your website without being pulled in that direction. You can still let them know about your website, but do it through the Google search console.

This is a real problem because many so-called SEO experts are still charging to submit websites to the search engines. Not only is it a waste of your money to pay those “experts”, but it is also a practice that should be avoided.

What Can Be Done?

Don’t pay anyone to submit your website to the search engines manually. It doesn’t work any longer.

Bad SEO Technique 3: Spam Blog Commenting

This is also a technique that is outdated and considered to be a bad practice at the very least. It involves commenting on various blogs and forums and including your website URL. This practice even uses automated scripts that automatically post to a variety of online blogs.

This type of discussion is not communication but rather, it is just a spam technique that was often used for gathering backlinks. There is nothing wrong with commenting on blogs if you have something to say, but for SEO purposes, it is better avoided.

More than likely, you will be blocked from posting to those blogs, if your comment even shows up in the first place.

What Can Be Done?

There is nothing wrong with posting a well thought out comment to blogs, but it needs to be done properly. If you add some value and thoughtfulness to your comments, it can result in a significant amount of traffic.

Bad SEO Technique 4: Having a Different Web page for Every Keyword

At one time, webmasters would make a single webpage for every keyword, and the page was fully dedicated to that phrase. Even though this technique may be somewhat outdated, it is still necessary to focus on keywords and ensure that they are appropriately placed on the page.

As an example of how this could be done inappropriately, let’s think about somebody who has a plumbing business. They may want to design a webpage that is focused on each keyword that could be associated with plumbing. They may make one page on “five different types of plumbing” that includes content specific to that phrase. They do this to rank for very specific terms with thin content, but it ends up causing more problems than what it is worth. Strong content that is of high quality and engaging tends to be favoured by the search engines.

Bad SEO Technique 5: Linking Wheel

This is an outdated method that was used at one time for building links to trick the search engines into ranking web pages higher. It is an obsolete technique that uses arbitrary websites for linking purpose. Your website was the primary focus, but the other websites in the link wheel would have been free options, such as blogger or WordPress.org. The goal was to interconnect all of those free websites and eventually, send the main benefit of the linking to the primary website. Web crawlers can identify this type of bad linking practice, and it just doesn’t work any longer.

Bad SEO Technique 6: Anchor Text

The practice of using anchor text in SEO is still worth considering, but it has really been overdone by many SEO companies that are still using outdated practices. They will often link to the primary website from a secondary site using that specific anchor text every time. It was effective at one time because it shows the importance of the keyword being targeted. Today, it is an out of date practice that typically results in lower rankings.

Bad SEO Practice 7: Link Farm

Every business wants to rank on the first page of Google but using a link Farm is a black hat tactic that is best avoided. It used a wide variety of free websites, such as WordPress.org and Blogger to post thin content articles and link back to the primary website.

Not only was link farming done regularly, but it was also done to an extreme. It is something that is easily identified by the search engines today and could result in a penalty.

Bad SEO Technique 8: Exact Match Domain

Exact match domains were very popular in the SEO field, and people were buying them up and putting up thin websites quickly. The domain names would be specific to the keyword being targeted, such as carrepair.com or websitedesignservice.com. They were popular, but an algorithm update in 2012 shut down the effectiveness of this outdated SEO technique.

Those who use the Internet today realize that exact match domains do not carry a lot of weight and they do not point to the actual brand. There is nothing positive about these domains, and they are only set up to pull you away from the competition. In most cases, your website will lose rankings as a result of this bad SEO technique.

It is not necessary to use an exact match domain any longer. The proper SEO techniques can now be used to increase your position in the search engines. It involves providing quality content, perhaps through a video, blog or infographic. LSI variables can also be used to rank for additional keywords on the same page.

The Bottom Line

Rather than focusing on these outdated SEO techniques, you need to familiarize yourself with the new techniques. These techniques are not only aboveboard; they will work for years as the primary way to rank websites. It may cost you some time and cash at first, but the rewards are going to continue to come in for a very long time. As long as you stay on the cutting edge of SEO, your business will profit.

8 Outdated SEO Techniques to Avoid in 2020 1
Editorial Teamhttps://techgyo.com
Editorial team of TechGYO.com

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