Google’s never-ending pursuit of providing the best user experience results in the constant evolution of the SEO processes that lead to the development of new SEO techniques. By and large, the framework of SEO has remained the same since its inception, but the techniques of implementing SEO have changed drastically and keep on changing. The best SEO practices are based on the ways of Google algorithms, and since there are constant algorithm updates, it is natural that you must adjust SEO and Digital Marketing by using new optimization techniques.
According to SEO specialist Vision Smash, it is due to a series of algorithm updates like Panda and Penguin followed by Hummingbird and RankBrain that content has become the focus of attention in search engine optimization. The improvements have become necessary to enhance viewer engagement which goes a long way in improving SEO results. The search engines have gone beyond merely recognizing keywords and are now trying to understand user intent which again means that some new optimization techniques are in the offing. Optimization techniques that worked earlier are no more useful, and you must know which techniques to keep away from.
Do not create content for search engines
While it is good to create content that is interesting and useful for humans and even serves the interest of search engines by making it crawlable and indexable, you should focus more on the human aspect over other technicalities. It is useless to create keyword-intensive content that does not help RankBrain to determine its relevance. Rather, you should pay attention to user-friendly design and user response.
Avoid too many irrelevant anchor text
For a great user experience, you must use anchor text wisely by focusing on highlighted hyperlink text or relevant anchor text that points to a target page. However, you must avoid using these too much so that it directs users to pages that are truly relevant and useful for them. If anchor texts or hyperlinks make users wander across websites, it would frustrate them and diminish the worth of websites that they would like to stay away from.
Do not create pages for individual keywords
Having a separate web page for every keyword variation had worked earlier, but it does not work anymore. Such pages usually carried filler information that was of no use to viewers and only left them more confused. Creating categories or grouping content by topic and then consolidating pages according to it is what works well today. Create a page for men and a separate page for women and then use ‘wedding rings’ as a category.
Overcrowding of mediocre links
There was a time when the number of backlinks ruled supreme, and quality was secondary. However, to create a backlink profile for impressing search engines today, you must pay more attention to the quality of links and avoid overcrowding pages with mediocre and poor-quality links. Having some high-quality links pays back much more than having too many links of inferior quality.
Keep following the developments in SEO best practices that should help to weed out redundant SEO techniques.