Which SEO techniques should businesses avoid?

Every business is constantly working to rank best in google and enhance their online reputation and visibility. To achieve the same, businesses hire SEO experts or avail Search Engine Optimisation services to craft strategies to boost their search scores. Over the years, several SEO strategies have been used by companies, and given Google’s changing algorithm, most of these techniques have become mere old-school practices. Not all SEO techniques are the best, while some are unethical, meaning they have been used by companies to trick Google and rank higher. Such ineffective and risky approaches, known as black hat SEO, are more likely to get your website penalized or banned by Google. 

Google’s algorithm is getting more sophisticated and intelligent every day, making it difficult for businesses to try any manipulation of their search rankings. It is always better to go by ethical and newest SEO strategies to improve your score, as Google is sure to identify any fraudster on your part. There are several SEO techniques that are no longer valid; the following is a list of a few SEO techniques businesses should avoid as they will devalue your website and increase the chance of your website getting removed.

Keyword Stuffing: It used to be an old-school method wherein high-density keywords were forced into the content, making it look artificial and irrelevant. Though unnatural stuffing of keywords was done before to trick a search engine into boosting a website’s rank, it has become a pivotal factor affecting user experience. This method is now highly discouraged as it lowers your ranking, and you may even be banned by Google.

Cloaking: This outdated SEO technique used to manipulate Google, if used now, could have your website penalized or banned. Cloaking is an SEO tactic wherein different content is provided for the same page: high-quality keyword-rich content for search engines and mediocre content for users. This technique points to the extreme focus on ranking over user experience. Google can easily find out if you are cloaking, and it could considerably lower your search score. Focusing on user experience alone could eventually improve your ranking in search engines.

Spinning Content: One of the effective ways to rank well in search engines is to regularly update your website with fresh content. While blogging has proven to be a powerful SEO technique, some businesses continue to use content-spinning software as a quick solution to increase traffic. Unfortunately, spun content affect your credibility as search engines easily recognize them as duplicate. Spun Contents are not original as they are just phrases replaced by synonyms, and the internet has a lot of similar stuff with the same idea but different phrasing. Such low-quality content is difficult to read and is mostly tagged as spam by search engines which is why you should avoid content spinning.

Hidden Texts: It was one of the common ways used by SEO expert Kuwait and agencies to manipulate SERPs as the search engines then were not sophisticated enough as they are now. Hidden texts were intended to create keyword-rich hidden content for the backend and different content for users. Texts hidden from users employed CSS or the same color for text and background or zero sizes for fonts. However, this method is to be highly avoided in the current landscape as search engines can easily read invisible texts and penalize you for it.

Sole focus on Google: One of the common strategies followed by businesses is investing their time and effort in generating traffic on Google alone. Though Google is the most popular search engine, you could also miss out on considerable traffic by ignoring other search engines like Bing and Yahoo.

Negative SEO: Some businesses adopt unethical strategies to lower the ranking of their competitors. Such strategies include creating fake profiles to tarnish their reputation, hacking websites, and adding spam links. Adopting such unethical methods are more likely to backfire on you, as Google is sure to find it out. 

Paid Links: Backlinks are vital to building your credibility and are effective in improving your search rankings. However, some businesses pay other websites to add links to your site, which is no more a relevant practice. The only way to organically acquire backlinks is to produce high-quality content, which takes time and work. Paid Links, if from a low-quality or suspicious or unrelated website, could question your reputation, and your website could face harsh penalties.

There are no shortcuts to ranking well in your search engines except for generating high-quality content with keywords wherever necessary. Google’s algorithm is complex, and any sort of manipulation is more likely to land you in trouble. It is always better to update your SEO strategies, adopt ethical methods and steer clear of any outdated or irrelevant approaches. Chrysalis Digital is a digital agency based in Kuwait, and their SEO experts and services help you navigate the business landscape with the effectual, newest, and long-term SEO strategies while understanding the working of algorithms. It caters to your online reputation, organic visibility, and branding while generating traffic to your website and increasing its potential for conversions.