Yesterday whilst browsing, I came across a post and found that a company named Cavalier Ford increased 119% of organic traffic and D&I Body Shop increased 26% conversion rate by simply discarding their outdated local SEO practices.

SEO is frequently lashing the ‘old out’ and ‘new in’ affecting millions of SEO strategies, which is no more a surprise with Google's algorithm updates happening for over the past few years. For instance, Google’s Panda Update helped in unleashing the content farms because of which a poor content can no more dominate the top result pages of Google. This update affected 12% searches in the U.S.

The impulsiveness of Google’s algorithm entails webmasters to be alert and stop using the SEO Tactics that do not acclimate to the up-to-the-minute search engines guidelines. So, let’s take a dive into the SEO Tactics Your Business Should Say Goodbye:

          Ø Undue Use of Optimized Anchor Texts

It is rightly said that too much of a good thing is bad. Things start going downhill the time you make overuse of optimized anchor texts. Reports tell more than 58% of direct entries in a group of website suffered due to the Penguin update, and you could be penalized as per Penguin for making undue use of optimized anchor texts.

In 2009, you could build hundreds of optimized anchor links back to your website, but it’s all over now! Rather you should acquire organic or natural backlinks to your websites by incorporating other techniques.

Why say Goodbye:

•  To avoid getting penalized as per the Penguin Update. 
• To abide by the cautioned practice of Google in its “Link Scheme” document.
• To not to be ignored by the magnificent system of page ranking by search engines.

          Ø Accepting Every Guest Blog Opportunity To Build SEO Authority

It is important for all of us to focus more on quality than on quantity. There is no need of accepting every guest blog opportunity without even considering the quality of the posting site. And, when we focus more on quantity of links, we are simply following a spammy practice. It is advised to opt for standard sites (relevant niche) to acquire links back to your site avoiding spammy links or links from the irrelevant niche. For instance, Wpmu.org a niche site for WordPress got penalized as many of their links were arriving from spam sites and non-relevant niche.

Moreover, the Google Spam Team put forth their decision that the same is not producing quality search engine results. With the Penguin 2.0 Update, Google has finally dumped blogging on irrelevant niches, spam blogging and blogging on low-quality websites. Standards say that you can look for PageRank of 4 and/or a Domain Authority of at least 30 to reach to quality sites.

Why say Goodbye:

• To avoid getting hit by the penalty, which Penguin 2.0 Update might levy. 
•  In order to expand your online business reaching to the intellects that mostly convert. 
• To build a better domain and search engine authority.

         Ø Focusing Too Much on Meta Keywords Tag

Since the dawn of internet until the latter half of the 2000s, Meta Keywords Tag (an element of Meta Tags) was a go-to way to acquire better web ranking. This was a very good way to insert text into the HTML page, which is actually not visible to the viewers. But now the search engines are making use of these keywords to exhale all the spam as they are not bringing out any results in web ranking. While ranking a page on keyword search, Google is 100% ignoring Meta Keywords Tag.

Matt Cutts (former head of the web spam team at Google) posted a statement on the Google Webmaster Blog, "Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking." The reason Google overlooks Meta Keywords Tag is because of the misuse of keywords on websites. Webmasters started using the keywords excessively and if you take this into practice, you might get hit by Google’s Panda Update. It’s better to use it wisely!

Why say Goodbye:

• To not get ignored by search engines while on keyword search rankings.
• This will influence your company’s position in search engine results.

        Ø Building Thousands of Links To Rank Higher

As per Search Metrics, the number of backlinks you are having is the 3rd most determining factor in your rankings. Once it meant to rank higher but it is not the case anymore! Presently, it is one of the most common myths to rank higher. With Google’s Penguin algorithm update, what matters is ‘how relevant’ are your backlinks.

For instance in 2014, new sites like Nerd Wallet had 176 backlinks from 136 referring domains (as per Ahrefs), outranked old authoritative sites like Chase and American Express with 293 backlinks from 69 referring domains and 90,000 backlinks from 343 referring domains respectively. This is because Nerd Wallet was having relevant backlinks as compared to them.

Why say Goodbye:

• To not to get fined by Google’s Penguin algorithm update. 
•  This practice does nothing good rather it will drop down your site in the SERPS.
• Many links are not topical to your websites’ content.

                     Ø More of Short-Tail Keywords

For a long time pages that used to match just a few words were doing well. But, with Hummingbird Update, it’s the reverse. The focus shifted entirely on the language rich keywords to reach out to the educated and creamy layer of traffic that usually converts. What is now reigning is the use of phrases or one can say long-tail keywords in the SEO world as they are more meaningful. Long-Tail Keywords are an easy way to target and probably, the profitable one.

Recently, Neil Patel (cofounder of the analytics companies namely, KISSmetrics, Crazy Egg, and Quick Sprout) wrote, “I’ve generated 173,336 qualified visitors from long-tail keyword phrases in the past year – a 91% increase.” Also, stats say that with the usage of Long-Tail Keywords, amazon makes 57% of sales. Centering on meaningful phrases and applying meaning technology to billions of pages is bringing better results and this was the intention of designing Google Hummingbird.

Why say Goodbye:

• To make more blog traffic and leads. 
• To be more specific to the visitors who are nearer to the point-of-purchase.
• To inaugurate a better line of communication with your active customers.

Final Take!

Not only Google but Microsoft Bing, a tough competitor of Google’s search engine is also implementing the same updates in their search engines. It’s very important for all, whether a newbie or a seasoned veteran, to make a note of all the misconceptions that are involved with your practice, which are eventually hurting your business. Aforementioned are some of the ineffective SEO tactics that no more work for your industry and are even hurting your SEO efforts. It’s high time we must say Goodbye!