The optimization techniques that worked a few years ago are not necessarily going to pay dividends for site owners in 2017. It is very important to understand that the things you have been doing in the past may be harming your site in the present. Here is a look at seven old school optimization techniques that may have worked in the past, but should be avoided in 2017. Instead of using these techniques, it is much better to understand the value of anchor texts (https://seojet.net/blog/anchor-text/) and other off-page SEO techniques.
- Rented Link Building
In the past, SEO strategy included renting links, stuffing the site with these links and using that to get a higher place in search engine results. Whether they were bookmark links or link spam, they were rented often and effectively. But, if you are caught renting links from a webmaster or link farm, your site will be severely penalized.
- Paid Permanent Links
These are like the rented links, but they are permanent links that you buy once and can use as many times as you want. However, they are forbidden by Google and can get you a severe penalty if you are caught utilizing them.
- Automatic Link Generation
Services like Rookie and SEO Hammer would offer paid link generation, which took the place of needing to create authentic content or optimizing a website. However, Google has a massive penalty for using these links, which means they are no longer a viable option.
- Bookmark Services
By using tools such as Digg or StumbleUpon, site owners could create a bunch of backlinks that had the same value as organic links in terms of search engine rankings. These links came into popularity well before social buttons were commonplace on websites, as they were useful for sharing articles and content across the internet. But, they are not relevant to SEO now, as Google has methods in place to deter such spam, including penalties if you are caught spamming such links.
- Microsites
By using microsites and private blog networks, or PBNs, sites could create an entire network of backlinks that would get them to a higher position than other sites on search engine rankings. However, Google has now banned the use of PBNs, which means if you are caught, you could get a significant penalty on your site. Some sites will still take the risk, but it is not advisable.
- Link Spamming in Directories
Before we had Google, directories and listings such as Yahoo were very popular. These directories and listings still exist, but they are no longer a source of quality backlinks. While it is useful to have your site listed in the appropriate category in these directories, using software such as XRumer to post spammy descriptions and links in various directories is not going to generate any useful backlinks for your site.
- Automatic Links in Blogs and Forums
If you have been to various online forums, you may notice how there are a ton of “spam” posts, where a bunch of gibberish is followed by a link. This type of link spamming is done using bots or users, and it did help in the past. But Google no longer uses links from blogs or forums when they are putting together their rankings for various search results, which means the practice is not going to help you in any way.
