The Difference Between Good and Bad SEO in 2021 |
Posted: June 22, 2021 |
Search Engine Optimization, which you have likely seen more often as SEO, is one of the most important strategies that your company uses to advertise online. Reaching the top of the search engine rankings can be the difference between a successful business and an unsuccessful one. Unfortunately, this pushes many companies to adopt an “at all costs” approach to SEO where they are willing to do and try anything to raise their ranking. There are good SEO practices and bad SEO practices. Taking the “at all costs” approach often means adopting bad SEO practices, which will, ultimately, stop a company from elevated rankings in search engines. You can avoid this problem and ensure that your company ranks highly by understanding the differences between good and bad search engine optimization. Why These Differences MatterBad SEO techniques arose from the early versions of search engines. Companies could adopt methods that would raise their ranking without adding value to their work, which made things worse for users. For the most part, that isn’t possible anymore because of changes to search engines.
Google regularly updates its systems so that it can automatically detect bad techniques and adjust rankings accordingly. Adopting those bad techniques, whether you meant to or not, will lower your score. The only way to avoid this is to understand both good and poor-quality SEO so that you can make better decisions.
Good SEO Practices in 2021
There are several good SEO practices you should be focusing on in 2021. A Mobile-First Strategy
Historically, web developers have designed websites for desktop browsers first with mobile web design being an afterthought. In 2021, Google's ongoing initiative to rank websites that are mobile friendly means that web developers must prioritize mobile web design first.
This mobile-first initiative makes sense as most internet users today are doing so on their smartphones. A responsive website has the best chance of ranking, because it is accessible and optimized for the different devices that a person might use to find your website.
SEO Optimized Blogs
In 2021, SEO optimized blogs are an excellent way to get your website content in front of people. Still, not all blogs are created equal, and there are some necessary steps that need to be taken to optimize a blog for search engines. So, what are the features of an SEO optimized blog?
Keyword Research
This is the first step in optimizing your blog. There are two types of keywords: fathead and longtail. Fathead keywords are shorter in length and are broader in scope. Longtail keywords are longer in length and are more specific. New bloggers should focus on ranking for longtail keywords, because they generally have lower competition.
Title Tags
From the perspective of SEO, the importance of a title tag in a blog or webpage is significant, because it is what your blog post will show up under in Google search results. A title tag should include your keyword, and it should be kept between 60-70 characters long.
Headings
SEO optimized headings are also important, but they should be kept to a reasonable length. Using H1 and H2 tags with keywords and phrases in them helps search engine indexers determine the significance of your content, which will result in more traffic for you site if done correctly.
Images
Images are also important on blog posts, because they provide another dimension of clarity that is not found in text. Alt tags on images give a search engine more information about your article. By including keywords into your image alt tags you increasing your chances of ranking for those keywords.
Meta Descriptions
The meta description should succinctly summarize what your content entails. It should also entice the reader to click through and read more of your article's contents. It is important to include keywords in your meta description that are related to your article but avoid overstuffing them into either the content or its tags.
Internal and External Linking
Internal links help a user to navigate your website, so they are an integral feature of user interface. However, they also help Google to better understand your website's structure, and in turn can help improve your website's rank. It's also valuable to include external links that are related to your topic. Bad SEO Practices in 2021There are many bad SEO techniques that you can stumble into if you are not careful. Here are some of the most prominent ones to be aware of. Excessive LengthThe length of an article is a factor in its ranking.
Long-form content carries a higher weight in the calculations because it is more likely to provide detail and extensive information about the topic. However, there is a limit to how long articles should be. Otherwise, there is the potential for using other bad techniques, like keyword stuffing, just because there are so many words about the same topic being used.
Limit articles to around 2,000 words at the most. This gives you plenty of space to fully explain a topic without going on too long about it. Most topics only need around 500 words to fully explain, and only go longer if the content is necessary for understanding the topic.
If you need help creating content, consider hiring a company that specializes in SEO content creation. Having targeted and finely tuned search engine-friendly copy on your website that is regularly updated is a great way to boost your rankings in search results. Using the Wrong Heading Structure
Headings, the titles that break up the content in articles and tell you what the next section is about, are more useful than most people realize. They make it much easier for readers and search engines to understand the content. There is a hierarchy of heading styles that needs to be followed since both readers and search engines rely on them to see what is important.
As we mentioned earlier, every web page should only have one H1 heading. If your website has a banner that contains an H1 for every page, then adjust your headers in the content accordingly. H2s are needed for major ideas in the content, and H3s are for breaking sections into smaller bitesize sections. Avoid using anything beyond an H3 although H4, H5, and H6 are available in extreme situations. Using Keywords Incorrectly
Perhaps the most detrimental and common way to be demoted by a search engine is by misusing keywords. This is known as “keyword stuffing”.
Keywords are the words or phrases that a piece is about, and they associate the article with what readers search for. Using the keyword too often is a technique called keyword stuffing. Unfortunately, it is easy to do even when you think you are using the keywords appropriately.
To avoid problems while getting the most out of keywords, try to limit their use to once per paragraph. Also, use variations of the keyword so that it is not a single option used every time. Every time you use the keywords, make sure that it is for the readers’ benefit. That way, keywords are used organically.
Link Schemes
A link scheme is a type of spam used by website owners and bloggers to manipulate search engine rankings and increase the number of inbound links to a website. Common techniques involve using reciprocal link exchanges or posting web pages that include hidden text, which is hyperlinked back to their site.
Sneaky Redirects
A sneaky redirect occurs when you type one URL but another page loads on your browser window instead without any warning message being displayed. These can happen because someone has changed something within an .htaccess file, edited a webpage's meta tags, or added code into its source code so it will automatically redirect people visiting that page to another webpage.
Incentivized Links
Incentivized links are created to get a link or page rank from another site, usually for some type of compensation. This can include anything from an offer of cash to a free product or service. The use of these links is frowned upon because it creates the potential for abuse by people who could take advantage and provide false reviews in exchange for money. Avoid Bad SEO by Writing for Your ReadersThe most important thing to remember is that you can (and likely will) avoid negative rankings by writing for your readers. Search engines are constantly being reconfigured to find the best content for readers. Focus your efforts on creating content that provides value without relying on tricks and methods to raise your score. If your content provides the greatest benefit to readers, your score will go up on its own.
To learn more about content creation and SEO best practices, contact Connectica at 877-816-2259. Let our team of SEO and content experts help you find the right ways to develop SEO-rich content for your online presence.
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