Various search engines are constantly updating their algorithms. Result?
- Popular websites get thrown away.
- Traffic falls down rapidly.
- Revenue gets strong hit.
- Many businesses are even thrown out of question.
- SEO technique that did wonders before, works no longer.
While the intention of these updates is good – to provide best user experience. But these updates always have adverse effect on many sites. And if you have been in website business for long, even you would have got shock waves some time or the other due to those updates.
In every possibility, you need to be prepared with your website and the search engine changes. SEO techniques that once worked great for you, might have failed with the recent updates. So, here we will give you some popular techniques which you should definitely avoid now. They have become obsolete, hence are totally useless in current times. And every SEO Expert will tell you the same thing.
Linkbaits or Clickbaits
You might have come across posts like “Check what this guy did to that guy” on various social media platforms. These are known as click baits, that they force you to open the link by such non focused titles.
These tricks were once very popular and almost every other site used to do this. But now, this is highly condemnable. In fact, Google now punishes the websites that use this method to attract visitors. Search engines totally discard such kind of links, so better refrain yourself if you were planning to do the same.
Keyword Stuffing
Earlier, according to the algorithm of search engines, if the article contained maximum number of exact keywords that the user searched, they would get higher priority. This led to the rise of Keyword Stuffing, where websites used to write rubbish and spammy content with lots of stuffing, and hence got ranked well.
But now the search engines totally ignore this practice. Keyword stuffing is no longer given priority, rather meaningful content is preferred. So, try to keep your keyword usage appropriate, and write genuine nice content for viewers, so that your bounce rate is very less. This is what would prioritize you on search engine results.
Internal Links
Earlier, internal links were given high preference. This led to people heavily using anchor texts on their internal links. They used to stuff the article with unnecessary links just to rank well.
These now appear as spammy and are highly discarded. As long as the internal links flow smoothly in your article, it is safe. But if you overdo it, you might attract penalty. You can add the internal links in your sidebar or footer, but not much in your article.