Every organization wants their website to be at the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs).
To achieve that, one must implement great SEO strategies, provide good content, and use appropriate digital marketing strategies to engage with the target audience.
However, many business owners or marketers end up using the wrong strategies to rank higher. They think that no one can decode such practices.
Little do they know that search engines keep updating their algorithms to prevent all such activities from happening. Those who are unintentionally or intentionally using such techniques might get penalized by Google.
So, what exactly are these tactics? Scroll down, and you’ll learn.
Keyword Stuffing
One of the most used tactics is using keyword stuffing to manipulate the search engine and rank higher on the search results. Keyword stuffing includes using lots of SEO keywords in the content (in the title, header, meta description, page tagging) without focusing on the user experience.
However, Google opposes such practices and uses ‘google panda update’ to understand if the web page’s content is helpful for the end-users or is it just a tactic to make a keyword-rich website.
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Using Keywords to Gain Traffic
Unlike the practice of keyword stuffing, some internet marketers use fewer yet popular keywords to generate website traffic. These keywords may or may not be relevant to the business website or the service they provide.
Now the question is- what if the keywords are not relevant? In such a scenario, the user experience gets affected and can also lead to Google’s penalties.
In simple terms, let’s suppose that a user wants to know a marketing agency in Chicago and visits your websites, hoping that it will give him/her the required solution.
However, all you did was using relevant keywords such as ‘best digital marketing agency in Chicago.’ Or ‘SEO Design Chicago has the best internet marketing,’ or ‘Chicago’s best internet marketing available here,’ etc., that had nothing to do with the services you were providing, such as PPC marketing.
But when Google finds that users are leaving your website as soon as they are entering, their bots will lower your rankings. Why? Because you have not used keywords related to your website and the services you provide. If you don’t offer user-intended content but use keywords of a trending topic regularly, it can later harm your website in the form of penalties.
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Forced Internal Linking
Using internal linking is an effective SEO strategy to generate website traffic organically. It helps the users to find the in-depth information they are looking for.
However, some digital marketers use links with keyword-rich anchor text repeatedly. This repetition of the same link and anchor text doesn’t look natural and hence gets flagged by Google.
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Rather than using forced and unnatural internal linking, it is better to provide quality content to the users and use links that will help the users.
Conclusion:
It is always better to use the right SEO practices to generate organic traffic and enhance brand awareness. These on-page tactics may be an easy way to get on the top of search results, but it will ultimately cause a wrong impression about your website for the search engines. Can you afford to do that?