With each passing year, new tactics and strategies emerge on the web for bloggers, content creators, marketers and brands alike to use to their advantage. Not all tactics are created equally; some will produce more benefit than others. What is generally true across the broad, however, is that the tips and tricks of one era will not always remain valid. Some basic concepts – such as producing quality content – will inevitably remain good strategies, but more nuanced and technical elements are subject to change. Below, we’ll talk about three once-successful SEO tactics that now not only do not work well, but could actually do damage to your overall SEO efforts.

Efforts Primarily Focused on Keywords

There is no denying that keywords do still play an important role in a broad and diverse SEO strategy today. However, times have changed and the nature of keyword-only SEO efforts no longer provides benefit like it once did. In years past, mere keyword stuffing was often enough to propel a given page or website into the top page of search results, but this practice no longer functions. In fact, excessive keyword stuffing in the pursuit of pinging for SEO can damage overall performance. Search engines have determined how to analyse content that is high-quality (based on searches, clicks and engagements of millions of users), which makes keyword-focused efforts an obvious and two-dimensional effort in a now three-dimensional world of SEO.

Efforts Designed to Purchase Links

Link buying strategies were once a huge business due to the immediate benefit that they provided webmasters and brands. When Google and other brands could not determine the difference between quality links and counterfeit links, those who had the most links found themselves driving the most traffic from search. Today, however, Google, Bing and other search engines can definitively tell the difference between backlinks from high-quality and relevant sites, and backlinks from sites that have low authority or that likely sell links. Buying links today can result in a very quick demotion in search results, blacklisting your pages in search engine algorithms. Do not attempt to drive traffic or earn SEO through these strategies anymore!

Efforts With Minimal Content

Last but most definitely not least, the habit of creating very little content in the past was a no-brainer for websites that employed the two previously-mentioned tactics. With a little bit of link buying and a keyword dense approach, websites could quickly climb the ranks of search without having to provide users with any real content value. Today’s search engines, however, know exactly how to determine whether content is value, thorough and meaningful. Search engine algorithms have allowed companies to analyse user behaviour and determine which forms of content are best suited to appear in specific search results. Content that is excessively thin or minimal cannot and will not work in a modern strategy where pinging for SEO is a primary concern. Above all else, fleshing out content fully is the most important element of modern search engine optimization and brand management! Without it, a website is destined to never be seen by a meaningful number of people.