Search engine optimization has been a cornerstone of proper website maintenance and promotion for over two decades. During that time, many of the rules and strategies that brands use have evolved with the changes search engines have made. Unfortunately, all too many tips and tricks that are promoted as being “effective” no longer provide true benefit – some, in fact, can even damage your SEO rankings. Whether they do damage or simply just don’t work, you don’t want to waste your time when improving and promoting your brand. In order to avoid doing damage to your website’s SEO potential, we’ve put together a few SEO tips that you should absolutely avoid.

Keywords = Rankings

While SEO still revolves around the use of keywords in content as one way of determining the meaning of said content, it is not the end-all be-all it once was. Those of us who remember using search engines in decades past can recall finding pure garbage in search results merely because of keyword stuffing. This tactic, however, no longer works. By pinging search engines with an excessive amount of keywords, you run the risk of actually getting penalized in rankings. It is still good practice to focus on repetitive use of a few selected keywords and phrases, but do not overdo it. By forcing keywords and phrases where they don’t fit and using them to the point of excess, you are engaging in a form of SEO that has long since been dead.

Social Media Doesn’t Work

While the jury is still out on just how much social media can influence SEO, there are plenty of opportunities – especially in smaller niches – for social media to provide effective SEO benefits. For starters, search engines do tend to prefer ranking relevant results from social media outlets fairly highly in SERPs. This means that your latest status update or post could very well make it to the first page in a given search if it is relevant enough to the query. While this won’t necessarily boost your overall SEO rankings, it accomplishes the same thing in specific results as it can help your brand feature prominently in specific results and drive traffic to your website.

All Links Are Good Links

Building backlinks is a natural part of successful SEO cultivation. In years past, the number of links you had directly correlated with your rankings in search. However, things are much more sophisticated and nuanced today, and not all links earned are good links. Some websites may think it a good idea to start pinging search engines with links back to your website, hoping that an association will be generated that can benefit themselves. Unfortunately, websites that engage in poor SEO or that have been penalized can have a negative effect on your SEO as a result. This is why it’s important to analyze all links pointing to your website on a regular basis, using tools such as Google Disavow if harmful sites are pointing in your direction.

By avoiding the very worst of bad SEO advice, you’ll be able to focus more effectively on the tactics that do actually work. Disavowing bad links, utilizing social media and using keywords responsibly are all sound tactics that must be part of any comprehensive SEO endeavor. What other major SEO tactics are you using right now? Tell us below about what your strategy entails.