Stop Wasting Your Time with Outdated SEO Tactics

Many organizations and SEO practitioners are wasting their time, and money, by using outmoded SEO practices, according to experts.

As web strategist John-Henry Scherck informs us: “There are a ton of SEO strategies and tactics that used to work well, but now have little to no value.”

The problem, Scherck explains, is that “SEO changes on a constant basis, and what worked even as little as six months ago might be completely useless today.”

SEO practices that Scherck cites as valueless today include:

• Link Exchanges
• Search Engine Submission
• Meta Keywords
• Alt Tag Stuffing
• Title Attribute in Links
• Keyword Stuffing
• Hidden Text
• Online Press Releases

Scherck says further that Google’s Panda update “shook up the SEO world,” with the result that “the emphasis of SEO changed from creating links to providing value – it was a major shift for the entire industry.”

Three SEO practices that Google’s Panda updates made obsolete, says Scherck, are:

• Blog Commenting (only for the sake of a link)
• Article Marketing Directories
• Publishing Thin Content

In “6 SEO Tactics That Will Waste Your Time” the Reciprocal Consulting blog informs us that, “Many SEOs are still optimizing websites as if they are living in 1997. And they’re teaching their clients to do it too.”

The six common practices Reciprocal Consulting lists says are outmoded include:

• Keyword Stuffing 
• Meta Keywords 
• Search Engine Submission 
• Header Tags 
• Multiple Pages for Similar Keywords 
• Nofollow Attributes 

“No serious SEO will tell you these tactics work,” says Reciprocal Consulting. “If you hear it, run the other way.”

Similar lists of outdated SEO tactics are offered by Charles Sipe in “5 Ways To Waste Your Time On SEO” and Danielle Buffardi in “8 SEO Tactics You No Longer Need.”

“Since your time is money, there’s no need to waste it on SEO practices that really aren’t going to help you out in the long run,” says Buffardi. 

A list of 12 obsolete SEO practices also is provided The Razors Edge in “SEO Tactics That Are a Waste of Your Time.” These tactics are “either outdated, over abused, or never really worked that well to begin with,” says the author.

Finally, web marketing consultant Jon-Mikel Bailey in “Stop Trying to Game the System” advises organizations to quit relying on SEO “tricks” for showing up higher in the search results. Instead, he says, the secret to success is to produce “a quality website that offers quality information, correctly and effectively.”