SEO is a field that is continuously growing, and over the last couple of years, has gained a lot of traction among both small and big businesses. With a lot of success regarding improved rankings and organic traffic, it is evident that SEO will continue to gain popularity in the years to come.
However, in the changes experienced in the practice of SEO, most website owners have landed into some SEO techniques that have either negatively affected their business, or pose a threat to it. As 2019 comes close, there are some SEO practices that webmasters need to let go because they are dangerous for the overall good of their site. Here are several of them to consider:
SEO Sin #1: Exact-Match Anchor Text
Anchor texts are the highlighted visible texts in a link form, which help the users and search engines understand what the page entails. When creating anchor texts, many people tend to use the exact wording in their primary keywords. The problem with this approach is that repetition of these keywords will be too much, and that could attract penalties as well.
As important as it is to emphasize on your primarily targeted keywords, for your anchor text, include other words and phrases so that it is not redundant across your page.
SEO Sin #2: Keyword Stuffing
Like a bad anchor text, keyword stuffing can attract you significant penalties. Going through a copy with a couple of repeated terms is not only annoying but valueless. It looks like the author was trying too hard to make the content relevant to the specific words.
Ideally, keyword stuffing takes away the natural flow of your content. Unlike the previous years where keyword density was determined by the number of times a primary keyword or phrase was mentioned in a copy in comparison to other words, keyword stuffing will not cut it in 2019.
The best way to stress on your keywords is to determine long-tail phrases and strategically using them up in your pages.
SEO Sin #3: Poor User Experience
In 2019, there is no running from a great user experience. Search engines are very particular with satisfying the audience, which means any site working against this will be penalized.
Focus on coming up with a well-designed, organized, structured and navigable website. Make it effortless for your audience to match through your web pages and get the information they need. Do not compromise on speed for any reason.
SEO Sin #4: Intrusive Interstitial Ads
Ads are an ideal way to make money on your website, but if you are conscious of your SEO’s success, then you want to be careful with the interstitial ads on your web pages.
For mobile sites especially, the interstitial ads cover the entire screen, limiting the user from opting out of viewing the ad or further accessing the content on your website. While this plays out bad for you so that your content will not be consumed, it works against Google’s plan to optimize the satisfaction of its audience.
In 2018, if you are going to venture into ads, keep them on lowkey in a way they do not interfere with the user’s need to navigate other pages on your site. In fact, you may want to note that interstitial ads are no longer as effective as they were a while back.
SEO Sin #5: Unnatural and Hidden Links
Link building is a very fundamental concept in the practice of SEO, but when you begin to be unnatural in integrating them in your web pages, you might attract penalties from search engines, instead of improving your ranking.
Unnatural links are manipulative schemes that are meant to earn you backlinks in unconventional means. Some people do so by distributing plugins or software with links embedded in them. Hidden links are when you decide to add in backlinks in hidden texts so that the human visitors cannot notice them, but search engines will pick them out as backlinks.
In 2019, you must be as legit as possible in gaining backlinks, and retaining transparency in your link-earning techniques, so you do not attract penalties where your links appear unnatural.
SEO Sin #6: Duplicate Content
For every year, there is an emphasis on high-quality content in the practice of SEO. Rightfully so, great content is valued for its uniqueness, relevance, value offer, and quality. If your website always contains material that can be found elsewhere online, the chances are that your audience will visit more renowned sites to acquire that very information. Worse, search engines will grant all higher position to the original content creator over yours.
If you keep up with duplicate content, not only will you increase your chances of ruining your reputation through copyright issues, but further, you may cripple your ranking on search engines long-term. It is one thing to write about a similar topic and target the same keywords, but it is a whole different thing to produce similar copies.
Be as original as possible in how you approach the popular topics, letting your brand be felt throughout your copy, and voicing the content in your personalized voice.
SEO Sin #7: Blog Comment Spamming
Over the years, website owners have found it a prime spot to dump baseless comments on other people’s blogs and site, sometimes even dropping a link with which to earn backlinks from, but Google has found a way to avoid this manipulation.
Instead of spamming people’s comment sections with unimportant information and links you’re your website, be valuable with comments. Avoid comments like ‘nice posts,’ and instead, say something that reflects your reading and understanding of what the content concerns.
Bonus Tip: Don’t Share the Same Type of Content all Season Long
When talking about great content as a best practice in SEO, website owners overlook the essence of diversifying content.
2018 has been big on visualization, and 2019 is going to be even bigger. People want to have a more personal touch with the content they consume, and this has made multimedia an important aspect of SEO.
Other than incorporating multimedia in your content, you must apply different forms of copy, for instance, long-form content and short-form content. The more approaches your audience can spot in your content, the more likable your site becomes to them and prospect visitors.
There you have it. Any of these techniques will cripple and even kill your SEO efforts in 2019, so, avoid them. Learn more on how to rank better and track your performance with our rank trackers.
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