Oh, SEO. We never know if we should love or hate you. And because it is always changing, it seems like a full time job to keep up with it. Fortunately, there are people out there who have SEO as a full time job, and they can keep the rest of us up to date on what we need to change or start doing to help our search rankings.
Here are a few of the things that have become obsolete, and that we can stop doing right away:
-
Inserting keywords into every metatag. The emphasis for search engines now is very much content-driven. The crawlers aren’t searching your HTML for keywords, they are looking at the text on your pages. So spend your time on good, unique content, instead of slaving over perfecting the order and content of your metatag keywords.
-
Duplicating content and creating pages for every keyword. These fall into the same category because they are similar offenses—you don’t need a page for Detroit accountant and accountant in Detroit. And if you do that, you’re also probably going to copy and paste the content from one page onto another. Each page should have keyword-rich, informative, and unique content. It should exist for a purpose, and not just for keywords. (See above.)
-
Copying your competition. Another waste of time! You aren’t them, you’ll never know exactly what they’re doing, and even if you do exactly that, you’ll probably still come in second to them. Focus on building your own online presence and leave them to their business.
-
Not having a responsive website. Having a website that looks and works great on every device isn’t an optional “perk” anymore. It’s imperative for search and for making your site effective in its jobs. Spend the time (and money) to build a responsive site—it will only pay off in the end.
If you have any other questions about SEO, please let us know! This should help you right away spend your time most effectively in building your online and search presence.
Josh is owner and lead developer at Clicks & Mortar Websites. He's an expert in designing and developing websites and loves helping other entreprenuers create a great first impression online. Learn more about working with Josh and his team here.