In “The Dumbest SEO Content Strategies – Part 1,” we discussed a few of the most common ways that online businesses can ruin their rankings, traffic, and conversion rates. In this installment, we’re going to talk about three more of the worst SEO content strategies. We’ll also touch on a somewhat newer concern called over-optimization – a potentially serious issue that any entrepreneur would be a fool to ignore.
4. Using Only One Type of Content
Optimizing the text within your website is important, but today’s internet is a rich medium full of instantly-accessible audio and video. Google knows that searchers want a dynamic and stimulating experience, and its ranking system rewards websites that contain different types of content. In fact, a 2010 study showed that sales pages with videos were 53 times as likely to appear on first-page results as those without.
Plus, search engines are already developing algorithms that can decode bits of audio and video. That means that Google’s search robots might actually “watch” your media and reward its relevancy. In the end, if you’re still not including audio files and video clips in your pages, you are simply behind the times.
5. Repetitive Link-Building
A singular focus might help you get the heavy lifting done in your business, but it’ll kill your SEO efforts. Even if you manage to get thousands of backlinks from a high-PR site, what happens if that company goes under? Furthermore, what do you think will happen to your rankings when Google stops giving so much love to your favorite authority sites – for whatever reason? Rankings losses don't have to be justified or fair to occur.
Search algorithms are changing all the time, and the links you rely on today could be useless tomorrow. The recent “slap” Google laid on the Build My Rank network is a perfect example. No link-building strategy is fail-proof, so you’ll need to diversify to ensure consistent rankings and quick recoveries when Google switches things up.
6. Ignoring Tags and Titles
You may only see a user-friendly headline image at the top of your site, but each page has a specific title within the index. The search engines look at these titles to make decisions about the pages’ relevancies, and you’re leaving rankings on the table if you fail to optimize them. Using your keywords is important, but you’ve also got to diversify. Titling a hundred different pages as “mykeyword1, mykeyword2, etc.” is potential spam in the eyes of the search robots. Don’t use this dumb tactic as an excuse to avoid variety and creativity.
You’ll also need to optimize your meta-tags – the page descriptions that most visitors will never see. Up to around 200 characters in length, these tags are embedded within your site’s HTML code and can give the search engines valuable information about your pages’ topics. While it’s true that Google ignores these and generates its own descriptions, you can bet that there are still people using Yahoo, Bing, and other search providers.
8. Over-Optimization: A Real Concern?
Just a couple of weeks ago, Google spam guru Matt Cutts made an official announcement that the company will be stepping up its efforts to punish “over-optimization.” The impetus for change is that in some cases, websites with stellar SEO but lackluster content will beat truly great pages in the rankings.
What does this mean for your day-to-day SEO? Nobody knows for sure, but it’s a safe bet that repetitive content strategies are going to land you in even bigger trouble than before. Not only will you need diverse meta-tags and page titles – you’ll need a wide variety of content sources, backlinks and anchor text. Constantly linking to your site with the same cheesy pitch just isn’t going to cut it anymore.
True professionals know that these dumb SEO content strategies won’t work. If you really want to boost your rankings and provide lasting value to visitors, call the number at the top of your screen now to speak with an expert from one of the industry’s leading content providers.