SEO has changed dramatically in the last ten months, the techniques that used to work last year, and the year before that, and the year before that, don’t work any more. In fact, many of the most discussed techniques online can actually hurt your rank.
Here’s the problem, SEO has changed but there are still millions of tutorials and eBooks online that haven’t. I have had so many conversations with people about SEO this year and still find that many developers are using techniques that used to be “the bomb” in 1995 and now are actually an SEO bomb.
Below are 3 SEO mistakes you’re probably making:
- Blog Comment Spam – Google got hip to this a while ago, stop posting on blogs and thinking those backlinks will help you, in 99% of the cases they aren’t doing a thing for your rank and in some cases they’re hurting you. Too many no-follow links and Google knows you’re trying to game the system.
- Forum Profile Links – this was one of the hottest SEO techniques of the last decade. SEO books would preach the concept of getting easy PR7 and PR8 backlinks by setting up profiles on forums with links back to your site. This just doesn’t work any more, period, so stop wasting your time.
- Paid Directories – Google has a big ass list of paid directories, bigger than your list that you bought off eBay for $5 and the links will hurt you in many cases.
Have some more SEO mistakes to share? Comment and let your voice be heard!
Great list, Morgan!
We’ve made the mistake of over-optimized anchor text in the past – another big no-no in the post-Penguin/Panda era.
With all of these new algo filters, it does seem to get harder and harder to decide how/where to do any “safe” link-building at all. Matt Cutts and all of the gurus seem to be saying that “no SEO” is the new/best SEO, and not to worry about links, etc – to have content that’s uber-quality/awesome and the links will come. But in my experience, doing so is liking building that big mansion in the woods with no roads to it, as you’ve alluded to in the past – you know?