The search engine optimization technique has continued to evolve along with time. So, what was considered a sure way of increased rankings in Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) in the past, are the penalizing conditions of today. The “black” and “grey hat” practices by the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) professionals are found out easily nowadays by the increasingly smarter search engine algorithms.
From the website user’s point of view, they tend to adhere to the optimization techniques that had worked for him in the past. But with the evolution of Google as the premier Internet search engine in the world, some these practices are considered taboo and invite penalty from the engine algorithms. So, it is high time to have a re-look at the website’s current optimization techniques and weed out the bad ones. Some of these techniques are listed below for your reference.
Building Links with ‘Rented’ Links
In the past, this method was the “bread and butter” of the “black hat” SEO practitioners. You purchased links from “link farms” which are loosely related to your site for a specific period. Then you stuff your website with these links and see your SERP ranking increase. This was an illegal practice in the past too, but amoral SEO professionals used this method as a permanent source of income, as the clients have to pay every time to re-rent the links that were the cause of the ranking increase. This practice was ultimately forbidden rightly by Google.
Building Links with ‘Permanent’ Links
Another optimization technique similar in principle to the ‘rented’ links, only this time the links you paid for stayed with you permanently. ‘Permalinks’ were used widely for increasing website rankings in the early 200os. Again, due to its capacity to be abused by “black hat” SEO professionals, its use is also liable to be penalized by Google nowadays.
Automatic Link Generation through Purchase
This practice was another sure-shot way of increasing your websites’ SERP rankings. More numbers of links in your web pages meant higher rankings. So, the SEO professionals just flooded the website with links gradually without focusing on any other aspect’s improvement. Today, Google imposes a heavy penalty on websites and SEO professionals that still practice this “black hat” optimization technique.
Bookmarking as Link Spamming Medium
In the past, when social media links were not a common feature on the websites, the “copy and paste” method was used for sharing contents liked by users on the social media platforms. Amoral SEO professionals soon seized this opportunity to spam social media with ‘bookmarked’ links using available tools for mass sharing content. Genuine social links are good organic links; they can generate multiple backlinks in a short period. So, Google stopped this optimization technique by penalizing spamming sites that used this method to generate backlinks to their site. Nowadays, social backlinks are not of importance in SERP rankings; so focusing on quality content generation and posting them online for appreciation and sharing by users or following is a much better idea.
‘Spammy’ Link Posting on Site Forums
Previously, links posted on the website forums, comment section, and blog posts were considered as organic links. So, SEO professionals employed dedicated people to post links on websites to earn ranking points. Also, automatic posting on such platforms was possible through plugins – you just need to type the comment and it will search and post in related websites all over the Internet. This website optimization technique for link-building was popular enough to be included in the daily activity of website owners. Nowadays, due to Google’s policy, such links have lost importance in website’s ranking determination, but remain a valid source for new user generation. So, while promoting your site using this optimization technique is okay, but remember that Google punishes websites that ‘spam’ such promotional content.
To conclude, most of the optimization techniques of yesteryears should be used with caution; it is best to avoid such practices altogether and focus on the creation of good content and using the latest and validated optimization techniques.0..
