Search engine optimization aims to improve a website’s ranking in search results. Following SEO best practices is the best way to achieve that goal. You could hinder your efforts if you’re still using these old-school methods.
It’s Time to Stop These Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Strategies
Have you wondered why you aren’t getting more business from your website? Your website could get many visitors, but they might not be the right audience for your business and, therefore, aren’t contacting you. Or it could be because your business isn’t ranking well in search engine results.
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Outdated SEO strategies could be part of the problem.
Here are three old-school search engine optimization strategies that I see still used. If you’re doing any of the following, it’s time to make changes that will help your website’s quality and help you get more business.
Keyword Stuffing
There was a time when Google used strings of keywords for rankings. Using this SEO strategy, a website page with many keywords and phrases could rank well for those keywords. Here’s an example of this:
We bake delicious chocolate chip cookies. Our chocolate chip cookies are made from scratch. If you’re considering buying chocolate chip cookies, please get in touch with our chocolate chip cookie specialists at chocolate.chip.cookies@example.com.
If you’re not sure if you’ve used a keyword or phrase too often on a page of your website, read the text out loud to yourself. You’re keyword stuffing if it sounds unnatural or like you’re a stereotypical used car salesman.
Instead, focus on creating helpful content for your visitors and ideal customers. In the example of chocolate chip cookies, you could tell the story of your cookie recipe and what makes it unique. Not only will that page be full of information-rich content, but your visitors will also be clicking to order them with their mouths watering.
Hidden Text
Hidden text is often used to include lots of keywords on pages to help with search engine optimization. However, using this old SEO practice now will, at best, not boost your rankings and, at worst, will get your site penalized.
An example of hidden text is to have white text on a white background at the bottom of the page. People use this method to include keywords on the page. Since this text is not visible to the human visitors to your website, it’s a deceptive tactic as it’s there only for search engines.
Doorway Pages
Doorway pages are pages created just for SEO, for the purpose of ranking well for a specific search.
Let’s say you want to be found when someone searches for a chocolate chip cookie bakery in Ventura, even though your bakery is in Ojai. So you add a page to your site named “Ventura chocolate chip cookie bakery.” The content of the page is the same as on your main chocolate chip cookie page, with the addition of a sentence or two about Ventura.
Google discourages this because this page is not helpful to visitors who want to find a bakery in Ventura. And since the content of this page is mostly the same as the main chocolate chip cookie page, Google will also see this as duplicate content.
The better approach for enticing folks in Ventura to try your cookies is to include stories and reviews from customers in the Ventura area. That way, they’ll stop into your bakery when they are in Ojai. Heck, they might even make a special trip just for your cookies!
For more SEO tips and how to have high-quality content on your website, check out this post on Google’s Search Quality Guidelines after you’ve grabbed a cookie to go with your coffee.
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Ready for help with search engine optimization and support for your website? Webb Weavers Consulting, based in Ventura, CA, can help! Contact Debbie to schedule a call.