If your website hasn’t been gaining visitors or has seen a sudden dip, it could be because you are using outdated SEO practices and received a penalty from one of the major search engines. An organic SEO company can help you to spot and prevent these penalties, but there are some steps you can take yourself to help them out:
- Use Keywords Wisely
Keywords do still work, but Your Story says that keyword density has become more important, as search engines will penalize websites which stuff their content with poor keywords or shove them in without thinking. They suggest instead repeating shorter, highly relevant keywords but only a few times per article, and within high quality content.
- Stop Abusing Links
Inbound and outbound links have traditionally been an integral part of driving relevant traffic to a website, but it is also easy to abuse the amount of links you use. A high amount of links may seem like a good idea, and perhaps it was once, but now search engines will pick them up as spam, or even as paid links which have been banned. A good organic SEO company will therefore generate relevant links within the search engine parameters, rather than filling up the entire internet with irrelevant links. It is also best to check that any outbound links on your site aren’t directing to spam, adult content, or suspicious sites. Some people will try to post these links in your comments or on your forum. It is important to include at least some outbound links, perhaps to the websites of guest bloggers, to avoid suspicion.
- Keep Up to Date
Even if you leave some content archived, it is best to perform a regular audit to check that everything is still working and hasn’t become outdated. Kissmetrics says, for example, that broken links or now banned paid links aren’t favored by search engines and could result in penalties.
Keeping yourself informed on new SEO strategies and avoiding outdated ones will help you to bring in a constant stream of relevant website visitors and avoid penalties. A trusted local SEO firm will help you with this and eliminate any problems that you may already have been experiencing.
