SEO, or search engine optimization, is its own animal. Not only is it ever changing, but it’s complex and difficult to master. Good SEO practices are important because they’re how you can make your website rank on the first page of Google. For those of you who’ve been with me for awhile, you know that I always say that if you’re not on the first page of Google – you’re essentially dead.

So, if I’ve been successful in convincing you that SEO is important, let’s get right into it. Today we’re going to talk about the SEO practices that are NOT happening anymore, courtesy of Moz. Together, let’s learn how to master the art of SEO to promote our businesses and get ourselves out there.

SEO Practices That Just Aren’t Happening Anymore

#1 – Linkbait And Clickbait

Have you ever Googled something, only to click on seemingly-helpful link and it has NOTHING to do with what you searched for? Annoying, right? As far as SEO practices go, this is an old-school tactic used to draw clicks, even if the content was completely irrelevant to the search.

There’s many, many reason why this is a bad business practice. It makes you unreliable. Untrustworthy. People will remember you – but in a BAD way. The next time you come up on Google they are going to steer clear of you at all costs. Whatever click you may have drawn initially, you can be sure that you will never gain a second, third, fourth etc. from that person.

You want to be honest. Your titles need to match the content you discuss. Doing otherwise is only doing a disservice to yourself and to your business.

#2 – Keyword Stuffing

If you use the Yoast plug-in for your blog (like we do!), then you know that one of the SEO practices Yoast looks for is keyword density. This means that you have to include your keyword a certain number of times throughout your blog post. Sounds easy, but the trick is blending the keyword in seamlessly to your writing, as to make it not obvious that you’re using the same term repeatedly.

Check out this example by Moz:

For those of you who don’t know, “T” stands for Title and “MD” stands for Meta Description, which is the little preview of the article you see below the title on Google.

Notice how in the first example the title and description looks sketchy and spammy because it’s just a bunch of keywords. It’s not a sentence, it has no flow, and it is something that most people would likely never click on.

Now look at example number two. The title and description are coherent and give the viewer a little taste or preview about what they’re about to click on. That’s what you want to aim for – a well-worded preview of what you’re about to click on. That is what people skim when going through Google.

#3 – Sketchy Website Domains

First thing’s first – what the heck is a website domain? A domain is what gives website their “.com” or “.net” portion of their URL. Again, think of the last time you were doing online shopping. Did you ever come across a website with a domain other than “.com?”

Something like a “.shop” or “.me” or “.buy”? This is another one of those SEO practices that is archaic, but is still used by those unaware of the problems with it. The problem with these domains are that, again, they seem sketchy or spammy. People are not going to be as likely to click as they would with a “.com”

The other part of this is that even if you have the “.com” part, your actual website name has to sound legitimate. For example, think about “petsitting.com” vs. “bellaspetsitting.com” The first one doesn’t seem real and it’s unmemorable. You want to include your brand in your website name, and not just have it be a string of nouns.

You want people to remember you, but in a good way – for being a legitimate, useful company that can solve their problems.

Looking For More?

SEO is tough. Trust me I know. But if you’re a pet sitting company with a blog (or even if you’re not), you really do need SEO to make sure you show up on the first page of Google. Doing some research and gaining a basic knowledge of SEO will immensely help your business in the long run. Be sure to check out Moz for more on the subject of SEO.