Are you a business owner that is still trying to utilize SEO techniques that were popular years ago? Do you realize that many approaches that were used back in the day are now highly frowned upon?
Building up a business online now is more than just mass directory submissions. It is a combination of efforts that builds a brand online and not just search rankings. I still see people looking for services that where once used a long time ago thinking they are still good solid methods.
Let me first say that I consider myself a squeaky clean white hat SEO guy, so not that being a black or grey hat SEO is a bad thing, it’s just not the way I personally prefer to approach it.
So here is my SEO no-no list:
Link Exchange: Google has come out and said how this is a much frowned upon approach. It was a technique used years ago that was used and abused and is no longer a worthy technique to apply to your business model. If it happens naturally that is one thing but if you are forcing the link exchange process it could back fire on you.
Buying Links: This is a big no no! Either way you slice it buying links is not used so I am not sure why people are still excited to do it. Is it difficult for the search engines to realize which links had a monetary exchange and which didn’t? Possibly. Do you really want to risk the safety of your website over a gamble? Buying links goes against Google webmaster guidelines and your website can get pulled from the search results or penalized if you are found still using this technique. The ONLY time I might consider buying a link is if it is a paid advertisement that might bring visitors and sales to your business. That ‘s it!
Mass Directory Submissions: Some directory submissions are still good to include in your link building campaign efforts but dropping your information into thousands of directories is not a good idea. Picking the cream of the crop will have just as much of an impact on your SEO efforts than if you placed your company information into a massive amount of directories.
It is important to keep yourself up to date with the SEO industry if you aggressively market your business online. People tend to forget this is a quickly evolving industry and techniques evolve and change quite often. Some get outdated and banned techniques tend to slip through the cracks for many website owners leading them to much larger problems.
