It’s Time to Retire these SEO Strategies in 2018
July 20, 2018
An internet marketer’s life is exciting, to put it lightly. Every year, Google rolls out updates on its search algorithm — some are announced, some are not. As a result, marketers are left guessing as to why their traffic suddenly spikes or dips even when their marketing and SEO tactics remain the same.
business, education, technology and people concept - close up of female hands with computer keyboard and mouse on table typing
Given the constantly changing playing field, it’s important to always be on your toes. Your client’s ranking and profitability could dip if an update catches you unaware — and, by extension, your business could suffer consequences, too.
Being smart about your approach to search engine optimization is important. Now that 2018 is already half over, enough time and updates have passed that we can now tell which strategies are still worth investing in. Whether you’re an advertiser looking for a digital marketing partner or a business owner seeking SEO services in New Jersey, you need to know what works and what will only waste your time and money.
We have here a list of SEO strategies that are unlikely to add value to your Internet marketing campaign. Some are outdated practices while the rest have been proven to be erroneous assumptions.
1. Link building without content is okay.
Link building and content are both ranking signals. They add value to your website independently. Backlinks are like votes of confidence from peers that your site offers relevant information. Optimized and well-written content, meanwhile, attract readers and give Google bots material to crawl for ranking.
The mistake lies in assuming that you can keep placing links in other websites without bothering with content writing. While old-school link-building methods like blog and forum commenting, don’t require the expertise of content writers, Google places a premium on links integrated organically into high-value, high-quality content.
Besides, if you think sneaking backlinks in Forbes by commenting is smart, think again. Website owners are aware of such practices and probably use the “rel=nofollow” tag. It would all be a wasted effort on your part to do this.
2. Any long-form content will boost your on-page SEO.
Long-form articles have 1,500 words or more. Many marketers think exceeding that word count is the secret to ranking pages. In truth, Google isn’t looking at the length of your article but its content.
SEO and Internet marketing influencer, Neil Patel, cites three things that Google is looking for in your content: meat, comprehensiveness, and relevance. An article that talks in depth about a particular topic is likely to have several LSI mentions of the main keyword. It reads smoothly and is informative, prompting readers to read and stay long on the page. In this example, the article will likely rank because it focuses on a topic, informs Google bots of its subject without stuffing keywords, and boosts user experience.
The length, therefore, is not a ranking signal, but a shared characteristic of many high-ranking web pages. It’s a result of excellent writing and not its basis.
3. SSL encryption is not a ranking signal.
Internet marketers who still believe this are clearly not up to date on industry news. Back in 2014, Google announced that all webmasters should make their websites encrypted to secure user information and activity. Websites with Secure Sockets Layer or SSL technology have “https” in their domain URL, whereas non-encrypted websites have “http.”
Google was serious about its proclamation and announced “https” as a ranking signal. The search engine also updated Chrome on October 2017 to show a safety warning if a user clicks on an “http” website. Not only are non-encrypted websites at a disadvantage in search, but Google also discourages visitors to visit them.
4. There’s no need to write meta descriptions and alt text.
SEO experts agree that meta descriptions are not ranking signals. They do, however, help websites stand out in search results pages, especially when titles are all some iteration of a keyword. Meta descriptions that are comprehensive and inform readers of what they can find in the content can improve a website’s click-through rate by 36 percent.
Google increased its character limit for meta descriptions to give webmasters this chance. They can make the most of it by including their brand, keywords, and LSI mentions in the meta description.
The same goes for alt texts. They’re not ranking signals, but they can help boost SEO and increase a website’s accessibility. Google cannot “see” images, but they can read descriptions of image files. Alt texts give Google context about what an image shows. As a result, optimized images may rank in image search results.
5. Keywords should always be exact-match. They should also be in the title.
Google is all about improving user experience, and forcing exact-match keywords into content is counterintuitive. Exact-match keywords are often oddly arranged and grammatically incorrect. No matter how one puts it, “Oregon business for sale by owner” won’t sound right, either as an article title or part of a sentence. This style of writing results in poor-quality content filled with repetitive terms, incorrect grammar, and spelling, which puts a website at risk of a Panda penalty. If a keyword or phrase must be in the title, it has to sound natural and free of copywriting errors.
6. Creating more pages gives you a higher chance of ranking.
Similar to link building, the number of pages is not what matters. Rather, it’s the pages’ quality. Matt Cutts even made it clear back in 2013 that large websites don’t automatically rank high because they have many internal pages. Their chances of increasing traffic are only higher than smaller sites because their internal pages can each rank for different search queries.
It’s also worth noting that ranking signals apply to each internal page. It has to have well-written, optimized, and give value to readers. If not, it only adds to a site’s heft without improving its ranking.
Strategies to Focus On
It’s better to spend SEO resources on strategies that Google confirms necessary for ranking. Not only can they improve a website’s ranking but it can also maximize investments in optimization.
- Optimize for mobile users. Google recognizes that the popularity of mobile search is increasing and seeks to enhance the experience of mobile users. Furthermore, Tony Palazzo, Google’s VP of Operations, announced last year that search engines would grant higher ranking for websites that load fast on mobile.
- Leverage Local SEO. It’s a must for brick-and-mortar businesses that cater to local customers.
- Clean up the backlink profile. The Penguin update may have been rolled out way back in 2012, but it’s now officially become part of Google’s core algorithm. It also drives the point that quality trumps quantity. Disavow as many low-quality links as possible to avoid a penalty.
- Optimize your web pages to get a featured snippet. Google’s AI has gotten very good at finding articles that answer question-type queries that users no longer have to click on the search results. They can already find the answer by scanning the SERPs. Web pages that are in the featured snippets, however, can steal as much as 8.6 percent of clicks from the first organic search result.
These are but a few of the strategies we implement at Aspire Digital Marketing. Like Google, our goal is to deliver the best service to our clients. If you want to benefit from our expertise or have questions about the old strategies discussed above, feel free to get in touch.
Contact Aspire Digital Marketing and get a free SEO audit.