There is no doubt that SEO is a crucial tool to improve the visibility of a website in search engines, always aiming to reach the first page, or even better, the first results through practices associated with it.
However, there are unwise practices that, instead of being beneficial, can seriously damage a site’s standing and reputation.
Especially if you are a novice, or have been in this world for some time, but without achieving your goals, it is relevant to look at what are those bad actions that you should not even try.
Cloaking, fortunately, does not work
In the early days of SEO, cloaking was a strategy used to show different content to search engines than to users. However, search engine detection technologies have become much more sophisticated.
Currently, this practice is not only ineffective, but can also result in severe penalties from search engines. It is crucial to understand that modern algorithms prioritize relevance and transparency, so trying to fool them can have negative consequences that are difficult to reverse.
Over-optimizing is not the best way to go
Although optimization is essential, there is a limit to how much you can saturate a page with keywords or follow obsessive optimization practices that can be counterproductive. Search engines value the naturalness and quality of the content.
Over-optimization can make content difficult for users to read and can also be seen as a manipulation of algorithms.
The error of keyword stuffing
Similar to over-optimization, keyword stuffing involves overwhelming content with keywords in an attempt to improve search engine rankings. Not only does this make for terrible content readability, but it also causes search engines to leave you behind.
Instead of focusing on the number of keywords, it is crucial to use them strategically and in a natural way to provide real value to users, because in the end it makes the content useful.
Unnatural backlinks
While backlinks are important to a site’s authority, quality is critical. Obtaining backlinks in an unethical way or through unnatural practices, such as link farms, will result in the burial of your website, because it will be on pages far from the first one probably.
It is preferable to focus on legitimate link building strategies, such as creating quality content that other sites want to link to naturally, and if you don’t know how to do it, then count on the services of professional link building agencies , which take care of cleaning the job.
Poor quality traffic purchased
Buying traffic may seem like a quick fix to increase visitor statistics, but not all visitors are the same.
Purchased traffic usually consists of uninterested users or even bots, which can increase your bounce rate and decrease your site’s relevance in search engines like Google or Bing, and you don’t really want that.
Publish the web to spam
Repeatedly sharing a link on social networks in the hope of increasing visits can be considered spam, in fact, the platforms themselves may block your link after being labeled as spam.
Search engines value authenticity and relevance, and saturating social networks with links often results in a decrease in visibility rather than an increase.
Spinning texts or IA without review
Content is king, and that’s well known, but that’s why not just any content counts. The use of techniques such as text spinning or content generation by artificial intelligence without human review can result in confusing, irrelevant or even incomprehensible text. The quality of content is crucial to attract users and retain their interest, and search engines are increasingly oriented to value quality over quantity.
At this point you understand which ‘strategies’ you should not follow, and avoiding these bad practices not only protects the integrity of your website from possible penalties, but also builds a solid and sustainable online presence. Instead of looking for shortcuts, it is essential to focus on valuable content creation, organic link building and user-focused optimization.
