The world of SEO is ever changing. After all, Google and other search engines constantly update and change their search algorithm. This will mean that certain SEO tactics that are effective in the past will no longer work in the present. And these outdated SEO tactics can just be ineffective or could actually harm your SEO rank if you implemented them in the present. Here are some of those outdated SEO tactics that you may want to steer clear of.
Keyword Stuffing
One really outdated SEO tactic is stuffing your content with all sorts of relevant keywords. But if a search engine checks your content and sees that it has got a lot of stuffed keywords, then that is actually going to hurt your SEO ranking rather than help it. You should focus on naturally inserting the relevant keywords to your articles.
Matching Anchor Text
The actual words of your site's anchor text no longer need to match anymore. So you will no longer need to use the same kind of anchor text to link to the page or site that you want to rank.
Keyword Variation Pages
Search engine algorithms are more sophisticated nowadays. So you can no longer fool them with keyword phrase variation pages. You no longer need to create another page for just another variation of a phrase of your keywords.
Paying for links
It is never wise to pay for a page ranking link anymore. The value that you will get in return for paying for a link will not be equal. So if you want to spend your money elsewhere, there are other options that are way more effective for your SEO.
Spun or low-quality content
Low-quality content that was spun by software used to be abundant. But nowadays, you cannot get away with posting low-quality content on your site. You need to post content that is relevant, on-topic, interesting and also reads well. This is because search engines will actively check your site's content and then will rank your site based on the quality of the content that it finds. So if you want your site to rank higher, you need to focus on improving its content quality first.
Writing for a bot audience
In the past, you used to be able to get away with writing content for your site that was meant to be checked by bots for keywords and other kinds of content. But that is no longer an effective SEO tactic. You need to create content that has got a human readership as the target audience.
Interlinked sites
It is no longer effective to build a network of interlinked websites to boost the SEO rank of one particular site. This is because search engines will thoroughly check the domains of each linked site to ensure that it is unique.
Automatically building links
Automated link building used to be a very widespread SEO practice. Links are still important for SEO, but using the automated software in order to build those links is no longer viable. Your site is going to be penalized if it resorts to using software to build automated links.