Out of Date: Keyword Optimisation

The old technique of keyword optimisation, where you would stuff your websites (plugging targeted words everywhere you could unnaturally to boost rankings), unfortunately is no longer viable to get to the top of search rankings. Search engines nowadays are far smarter!

It is now pretty impossible to cheat the system  so instead you need to be genuinely providing useful and interesting content for your visitors to rank highly in Google. So… what’s now out of date when it comes to keyword optimisation?

What was?

1. Microsites, keyword stuffing and metatags.

Unnatural sentences and reels of meta tags will be penalised in Google algorithms.

2. Exact match keyword

By keyword stuffing with an exact phrase multiple times over in a paragraph, your site soon becomes repetitive, dull and will probably make little sense. This is all bad for UX. Google has recognised this and included this in an algorithm update to be recognised and penalised.

Including your keyword in your URL is also now not a signal to be ranked highly.

3. Keyword density

Another method of keyword stuffing… there is now no longer some ‘magic’ number or ratio for the amount of times a keyword needs to appear on a page to rank highly. Focus on good content and a decent word count, you will soon naturally build up the keywords whilst providing useful, interesting and natural conversation.

4. Words in bold

Nope, this doesn’t work. Avoid putting keywords in bold as this does not help in the rankings and also makes a page look ‘spammy’.

5. Exact match anchors

Using exact match anchor links to get keyword phrases to link to your site is now not an accepted practice and will be penalised by Google’s latest algorithms. The links look unnatural and unrelated.

6. Keyword Pages

Creating pages for all keywords and variations is likely to be a lot of poor content, pages that are being penalised and create competition between your own pages to rank! Look to create high quality landing pages that incorporate related keywords.

7. Meta keyword tags

Once popular, now ignored by Google and Bing algorithms. Smaller search engines may still consider this method to rank you highly. To keep both algorithms happy, you can continue to use meta tags but opt for only a handful of words/phrases and keep them unique on each of your pages.

No more cheating the system, it’s time to get real!

The algorithms for search rankings are continuously being updated and search engine optimisers are continually trying to crack the code to find the mysterious criteria. Keep it simple and optimise your content to be more personable. Your search rankings and your visitors will both thank you for it!

Take a look at the latest methods for keywords and SEO and get on trend in our blog to be posted next week!