5 Outdated SEO Tactics to Avoid in 2021

SEO is a good practice with a bad reputation. Just think back to the look on your face every time you get an email or automated LinkedIn message from someone that’s promising to optimize your SEO and boost your business in search results. It’s a grimace, right? That’s because too many people and businesses have been burned by bad SEO practices.

If you’re looking for a new company or consultant to take over your marketing, there are a few important SEO mistakes to avoid in 2021. First, you want to make sure that you’re only doing what’s called “White Hat” SEO practices. If you only do that, you’ll be sure to avoid wasting and time or resources on outdated SEO practices and outdated SEO tactics.

You also want to make sure that you’re not focusing on keyword spamming instead of creating really good content that truly aligns with what your intended audience is searching for online. Next, no matter how tempting it may look, don’t ever do shady practices like buying backlinks off of websites like Fiverr, or spamming the comment sections of blogs with links to your website. Reputable and respected SEO companies will have no problem following these rules and they’ll be able to easily speak to results they’ve had doing good work for their clients.

1. Using “Black Hat” SEO

There’s good SEO and there’s bad SEO. You can define good SEO as “White Hat” SEO, or the kind of SEO that actually follows Google’s guidelines and respects all of the rules. If you’ve never experienced good SEO, then chances are all you’ve been the victim of an unscrupulous consultant or marketing company that relies on bad SEO practices to achieve results that just aren’t sustainable. These outdated SEO practices and outdated SEO tactics are often referred to as “Black Hat” SEO and are characterized by strategies that try to hack or cheat the system.

2. “Stuffing” Your Keywords

Keyword spamming, otherwise known as keyword stuffing, used to work in the sense that it achieved temporary lifts in website visits. But it doesn’t even do that anymore. Think about it like this. Just because your website traffic went up doesn’t mean that those new website visitors were actually looking for your company or your website. You simply ranked high for a random keyword unrelated to your business.

3.Overlooking Content Quality

Creating good content doesn’t have to be hard and is easy to define. Good content is anything that bridges the gap between your company and what your target audience or potential customer is looking for online. Good content gets them closer to you while also bringing them closer to a solution on their end.

4. Trying Unethical, Shady Practices

It might look super tempting, but buying website traffic or backlinks or anything else that achieves any kind of quick boost to a vanity metric isn’t just a bad SEO practice, it’s a waste of time and money. Shady practices are shady for a reason. This is by far the most simple SEO mistake to avoid in 2021.

5. Adopting Spammy Practices

Whether it’s using software to create variations of content with slight adjustments for multiple keyword entries, or relying on a bot to go through and comment with a link to your website on the blog comments of multiple websites every minute of every day. Don’t do it. Don’t spam anything ever. It’s not just one of many bad SEO practices. It negatively affects the way that people perceive your company and the value of your brand.

If you’re looking for a digital marketing company that leads with value and helps you grow your business with good and sustainable SEO practices, RefractROI is the lead generation partner that will help you own your market. You can schedule a free 30-minute strategy session, or contact us directly on our website.