Now that we are in a new year and decade, we must look over our SEO techniques to see what needs to stay and what should go. There are some practices that were once labeled as good ones, but now experts are saying it is time to let them go. SEO will begin to tighten up this year, where quality will be a huge factor. Here we will discuss some SEO techniques that you will want to stop as soon as possible in order to stay on top.
In the past, many have thought it was OK to duplicate content on an international site. This means if you have several websites in different countries, you can not simply copy and paste it from one website to another, translating it along the way. Every country you have a website in will have their own behaviors and linguistics. Say you have a website in Canada and one in Russia. Your content on the Canadian site (.co.ca) has been geographically targeted to those in Canada. You then take this content and translate it to Russia, and place it on your Russian website, labeled with a .co.ru It will not be geographically targeted to those in Russia, nor the correct audience. You need to create an experience that will be unique for each geographical location and user.
Next, we have link schemes where one has expired domains that point back to their website. Our advice is to stop doing this practice right now. Many have had luck with these. They do great for a few weeks. Some even longer. But then they get caught. And if you are caught by Google, your website could be penalized. This might even cause you a loss of revenue or business.
Let’s discuss fake reviews. Many have done this SEO strategy in the past in hopes to make their websites and their brands look better than what they are. If they have a new product that they want to explode, fake reviews may be given to boost the product up. Another reason people buy fake reviews is if they have low ratings on a product. While it may seem like a good idea to do this, it is not. You might be thinking what could it hurt? It ruins your credibility and if people know you have fake reviews, they will move on to another site. Instead, work on fixing your mistakes the right way.
Do you have your desktop site different from your mobile site? This SEO technique needs to stop right now. Each site needs to look like one so users are not confused when they go back and forth between sites. All of your images on the sites should be the same, internal links should work on each site, and redirects need to work correctly. Your content should also be the same on each site. Be certain that you can easily navigate each site and that each one has a fast load time.
If you have not been optimizing your images, you need to start right now! This is so easy to do and should never be overlooked. Use a quality description for your image with an alt tag and image file name. Do not stuff your keywords into this. Keep it short, simple, and to the point for the best results.
As you can see, SEO tactics are changing. What once was acceptable is not anymore. If you are uncertain what SEO strategies you should or should not be using, contact a professional company, such as ISEOU.