Search Engine Optimisation hasn't stopped being one of the most important segments of digital marketing. However, as everything else in the digital world, it is ever-changing. The SEO techniques you used 2-3 years ago are no longer applicable and can hurt your website more than they help it. Some of the things we did last year, are no longer relevant either. So, if you want to keep your website on the front positions of the search results, you must keep up to date with the trends and news. Most importantly, don't use SEO techniques that don't work in 2019.
Too Many Keywords
I have written about this wrong tactic before. Even though, it is a very old technique, which has been proven ineffective, and even harmful, for years, some marketers still use it. The last time you could get away with keyword-cramped content was somewhere in 2012 or 2013. Let's not forget that Google has released several bots that monitor the quality of your content and the quality of your links. What is a quality content? This is text that is written in a simple and easy-to-read language. It flows naturally and brings some value to the readers. How do we know if the content is valuable? If a person deems something of value - whether it is educational, inspirational or simply entertaining, they are most likely to share it with their friends. That's why social shares and social media engagement are so important for good SEO. But that's a topic for another day. Let's get back to the things you shouldn't do in 2019.
Link to Poor Quality Websites
Some SEO service providers will try super hard to sell you the idea of backlinks. While this isn't wrong, you must know what sites are linking back to you and what sites you are linking to. The times where any link was a good link for SEO are long gone. Just like with content, Google is determined to rank only sites that can display good and quality link network. You should have a nice mixture of internal and external links, as well as backlinks. If you link to a poor quality website or receive a link from one, your website can be penalised. That, on its own, will set you months back in your search engine optimisation. Many business owners and SEO professionals use spreadsheets to keep account of the links they link to and the backlinks from other sources. This is a lot work and and it is incredibly time consuming. Luckily, there are link checking softwares that save you a lot of time and trouble. Linkokay is the one I use.
Have a Landing Page for Every Keyword Variation
In the past, the more pages you had on your website, the better. They could be used as landing pages for every variation of your keywords. That's no longer relevant. In fact, it is dangerous for your SEO. As our behaviour online changes, and we want all information to flow quickly and freely, the more simplified your website is, the higher your chances to rank within the first page results. That said, it is also important to have separate pages for your services or products, so that you can optimise the meta data for them. It has to be different from the meta data of your home page.
Accept Any Guest Blog Post
Creating good content frequently for your website can be really challenging and time-consuming. So, you might be tempted to accept just any guest blog post if you are offered. Don't do it! As I just said, a couple of paragraphs above, the quality of the content and the links is crucial. You must make sure the text is written well, it is interesting to read and there are no grammar or spelling mistakes. Also, if your guest poster demands a link to their website, which isn't of good quality, don't accept the post. Ultimately, you will be jeopardising your SEO progress.
Post Too Much Content
A couple of years ago, and even last year, most businesses were trying really hard to produce a blog post every other day, if not every day. It used to be a great tactic to push your website up the search results very quickly. We know Google likes timely and relevant content. But that's just the thing. Unless you have a dedicated content marketing team, it is extremely difficult to produce quality content that makes people engage on daily basis. At the same time, not updating your website for more than 2 weeks can also slow down your optimisation. So, the golden blogging pattern continues to be every week or every 2 weeks. Producing 2-4 interesting and well-written blog posts a month and following other SEO techniques (which we will talk about one of the coming weeks) will help you rank on the first pages soon enough.
Before you learn what you must do for your website optimisation, you have to know what mistakes to avoid. It's much easier to progress when you start with a blank canvas than having to fix errors and remove stains before you could start the good work.
Have any questions about your SEO? Ask in the comments below.
