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6 Forbidden SEO Techniques You Shouldn’t Use (what to use instead)

You can’t outsmart Google. Google has one of the smartest engineers in the world.

Instead, try to understand how these brilliant developers have developed Google’s search algorithm.

Marketers send the wrong signals through the use of forbidden SEO techniques.

These forbidden SEO techniques may look attractive at first because they are shortcuts. They give you fast results. But these results don’t last long.

Newcomers to SEO are often tempted to use forbidden SEO techniques. Perhaps, that’s because they haven’t tasted the painful defeat of trying to outsmart Google.

Google uses a wide range of indicators to rate sites in its search engines. In fact, Google makes changes to its search algorithm each day.

Google makes changes each day

No wonder Google has dominated the search industry for so long. None of its competitors can provide the quality it gives search users.

Avoid these six forbidden SEO techniques if you want to rank high in the Google search engine.

1. Over-optimized anchor text

Anchor text is the visible and clickable text you see on a link. For example, here’s a link to the home page of Digiboost, a marketing and design agency based in San Antonio, Texas.

The phrase, “here’s a link to the home page of GrowthFunnel” is the anchor text in the above link.

Here’s the code for a link. You can see the anchor text:

understanding the anchor text

Your anchor text should be relevant to the page it links to.

If the page is about yacht charters, the anchor text should say that it’s about yacht charters. For example, a small business like Top Yacht Charters should have anchor texts that have the business name in it.

The anchor text of a link helps both Google and web users know what the content of the destination page is about.

If most sites that link to a particular page use a set of terms in the anchor text, that page may rank higher for those terms in search engines.

Because of this, most marketers try to use the exact keywords they want to rank for in the anchor text of their links.

For example, if I want to rank for the keyword, “SEO Techniques,” I may use that exact phrase in the anchor text each time I link to the page.

When I do this all the time because I want to rank the page for “SEO Techniques,” what I’m doing is over-optimizing the anchor text.

Search engines will notice that I use my target keyword a lot in the anchor text and may decide to punish my site for it.

We have six types of anchor text:

  1. Exact match: When the target keyword is the anchor text. E.g., SEO techniques.
  2. Partial match: When the variation of the target keyword is the anchor text. E.g., Advanced SEO techniques.
  3. Branded: When the name of the company or brand is the anchor text. E.g., GrowthFunnel.
  4. Naked link: When the URL of the page is the anchor text. E.g., https://www.growthfunnel.io/
  5. Generic: When a common phrase is the anchor text. E.g. “Click here,” or “Visit the link.”
  6. Image: When an image links to the page. It means when web users click on the image, they go to the page.

Avoid exact match anchor text making up to 30% of the links to any page on your site. Anything over 40% could make Google penalize your site.

2. Spammy guest blogging

Guest blogging and SEO are a perfect match.

To rank high in search engines, you need backlinks. Guest blogging gives you backlinks.

Guest blogging allows you to add links where it matters most, which is within the content on a page. SEOs call it contextual backlinks.

Contextual links are the most powerful and valuable backlinks.

When you write a guest post for a site, it’s easy to include a link to your own site within the post.

Because of this reason, spammers now use guest blogging to acquire lots of valuable backlinks. Most of their guest posts are low-quality and offer zero value to web readers.

Google warned against guest blogging for link building.

Google warning about links

If your sole reason for guest blogging is to get links, your site may be targeted and kicked out of the Google search engine.

Guest blogging for links means the audience of the site that publishes your post won’t get any value from it. That’s not the right reason to publish a guest post.

Your reason for guest blogging should be to serve the audience of the publishing site. Give them a high-quality content they’ll remember for a long time.

Only link to your site where it’s necessary and relevant. That means you shouldn’t force a link into anywhere within the content.

Also, keep in mind that the site should be relevant to your niche.

For example, if you’re in the dog niche, getting a link from an insurance blog doesn’t make sense. It’s easy for Google to detect the link isn’t real.

3. Prioritizing quantity links over quality

Backlinks are the most important part of the Google search algorithm.

The more backlinks you have, the higher you rank in Google’s search results. But quality also matters.

In link building, quality is more important than quantity.

One contextual link from an authority blog is 5,000% more powerful than thousands of backlinks from blog comments.

Link building isn’t a numbers’ game. It’s a quality game.

Too many spammy links can have a negative impact on your rankings on Google and other search engines.

The worth of a backlink is determined by the level of competition and the type of niche it is.

For some niches, a single high-quality backlink coming from an authority site can be worth up to $1,000. While for some niches, backlinks can have a value of $50 – $100. It depends on the niche.

Don’t do paid links. Google is against it.

I use the above example to show how much a link can be worth if we are to put a dollar value on it depending on the niche.

To get an idea of a high-quality link, look at your competitors and see who link to them.

Use tools like Moz, Majestic and Ahrefs. I prefer Ahrefs because they are bigger than the other two.

Ahrefs will help you rate competitors’ backlinks. Find those links with high domain ratings.

Ahrefs for link building

A site with a domain rating (or DR) above 40 is a great place to get a backlink.

Within the list of links Ahrefs provides you, find sites that publish content. For example, sites like Forbes, Entrepreneur.com, Inc.com, and Fast Company are blogs. They publish content.

Sites like these are authorities. You can get links from them if your competitors can do it.

Build relationships with influencers in your niche and related niches. Influencers publish a lot of content and they have loyal followers.

When an influencer links to you, his/her followers will visit your site and may also link to you.

Connect with influencers. Send them emails. Comment on their blog posts. Engage with them on social media.

As you do that you start to gain their attention and build relationships that may lead to links in the future.

4. Keyword stuffing

In the early years of search engines, all you need to rank for a keyword is to mention it many times in your content.

If you want to rank for a keyword like “buy sneakers for men,” all you have to do is mention it more than your competitors.

For example, Matt Guiver is the owner of Jumpstone International, a business consulting firm based in Texas. If he wants to rank for the keyword “business consultant coach,” he should use the keyword on his website.

Your webpage would start ranking in a top position of search engines results for that keyword.

Some marketers mention their target keywords lots of times and hide it under a white background.

Here’s how they do it:

They repeat the keyword somewhere on their page and make the text color white so that visitors won’t see that they’ve mentioned the keyword 100 times on their page.

When you make the color of a text white on a white background, visitors to the page won’t see it, but search engine’s bots will see it.

The aim was to trick the bots into believing that the page is the most relevant for the keyword “buy men’s sneakers.”

It was a terrible experience for search users to see a page they came across on Google repeat the same phrase 500 times.

Google and other search engines had to do something about it. Today, keyword stuffing is a top forbidden SEO technique you should never use.

Google hates it. Web users hate it. It makes your page unreadable.

Below is an example of keyword stuffing:

“Do you want to buy sneakers for men? Yes, you can buy sneakers for men in our store. We make it easy to buy sneakers for men. There’s no better place to buy sneakers for men. Place your order now, and you’ll buy sneakers for men. We offer you discounts when you buy sneakers for men. Buy sneakers for men now.”

The above paragraph is silly. Isn’t it?

Google penalizes sites that do keyword stuffing.

Keywords are still an important part of SEO.

Google still use keywords to understand what a page is about. You need keywords to rank in Google.

You don’t have to repeat your target keyword many times to help Google understand your content.

Google doesn’t say how many times you should mention your target keyword.

What they care about is a readable content that delivers value to their users. Of course, they are also watching how many times the keyword shows up on the page.

I believe the keyword density shouldn’t be more than 2 – 5%. I recommend staying below 1%.

It doesn’t sound nice to see the same word or phrase again even after five paragraphs.

Replace your keyword with other variants.

If you’ve mentioned a keyword ten times, you can replace five with other variants. That means readers will only see the keyword five times.

For example, my target keyword for this article is “SEO techniques.”

There are other variants I can use like “SEO strategies,” “improve your SEO” “techniques for boosting search engine rankings” etc.

5. Waiting for backlinks

Waiting for sites to link to you isn’t really a forbidden SEO strategy, but it achieves the same result.

You should prepare to wait for a long time if you don’t want to build links.

Google believes that the more websites that link to your site, the more valuable it is. Links are like votes.

Zero links mean zero votes. And zero votes means you’re not going to be the winner in your niche.

Maybe, you won’t even be the loser because you’re not in the game.

Don’t wait for people to link to you. Start building links.

Whether you run an estate planning firm and elder law firm like Elville And Associates, or an e-commerce store, make sure you start building links.

Link building is the hardest part of SEO. It’s boring. It requires a lot of time and energy. That is why few people build links.

That is also why you’ll see the same sites or brands ranking for a lot of keywords in a niche. It’s because they are active link builders.

It’s impossible to build lots of quality links than your competitors and not outrank them.

get a lot of links

If you’re in a niche where very few people build links, I guess you should be able to rank higher than them after building some links.

But if you’re in a competitive niche, you should be ready to build links for a long time before you begin to see worthwhile results.

Waiting for links isn’t forbidden. It’s a choice you have to make.

I’ll advise you not to wait for anyone to link to your site.

Instead, take charge of your link building campaign.

Become active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Quora, and Medium. Build relationships with web users on these platforms.

Reach out to bloggers and influencers in your niche. Leverage your relationships to earn links.

6. Creating low-quality content

The presence of low-quality content on your site can have a negative impact on your site’s performance in search engines.

A site with lots of low-quality pages will find it difficult to get traffic from Google.

If a huge chunk of a site is poor, it affects how Google perceives the whole site.

Some marketers create lots of content in the hope that it will draw Google’s attention to them. It doesn’t.

A site with 50 high-quality pages will perform better than a site with 50,000 low-quality pages if they target the same keywords.

More content isn’t the answer. You need better content to compete in search engines.

Google ranks pages they believe their users can trust.

A site with lots of spelling errors won’t perform well. A site that lacks original content, analysis, information won’t do better than a site with lots of original research and reporting.

Quality is an important aspect of SEO. If something isn’t the best, it doesn’t deserve to rank.

For example, our blog post titled “Best SEO Tools For 2018 Recommended by Industry Experts” is one of the most comprehensive articles on SEO tools. That article receives thousands of visitors per month from search engines.

Best SEO tools

Create content search users will love to bookmark, share on social media and send to their friends via email.

That is the SEO technique that always works.

Conclusion

Google, the largest search engine in the world still processes more than 3.5 billion searches per day.

Get your own share of these traffic by ditching bad SEO techniques and use strategies that work.

Keep in mind that you don’t just need traffic from search engines, you also have to turn those traffic into customers.

And how do you do that?

By collecting emails and getting your visitors to follow you on social media.

That’s possible with a powerful tool like GrowthFunnel.

It’s free to start using GrowthFunnel. Click here to sign up.

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