SEO Needs to be Genuine

SEO takes bright ideas, not quick tricks.

I have seen so many SEO “tactics” in the past few years, from automated link building, and fake blog comments, to article spinning and guest posts using software. There is always the latest SEO tactic used to take a shortcut.

Many SEO companies use these techniques. You can call them black hat, or grey hat, or whatever – the bottom line is, they may provide immediate results (if at all), but they will not last. Eventually Google will eventually take garbage links down, penalize sites for questionable tactics, and make major changes to the search algorithm that will render these links useless. 

Always catching up

I know an SEO guy who uses a website which automatically creates blog and social media accounts, and then posts content for him on each of these accounts. This type of service is readily available for anyone looking to do this. The issue is, the accounts it creates is on fake or garbage sites, the articles are barely legible, and there is often just one or two posts on these sites! That can’t be a good thing. How much ranking will one gain from this?

Because these links aren’t quality, many get taken down by Google, and due to this, he is always trying to “catch up” and get more links. A site may increase in ranking due to his work, but 3-4 weeks later it’s back down and he has to do it again to make up the lost ground.

What makes sense for SEO?

Forget about what you know about SEO – let’s just sit back and think about what makes sense. The goal is getting people to visit your website, right? If that is the case, then does it make sense to set up fake blogs or social media accounts, and put low quality or illegible content there, with a link to your site? Will Google approve?

Or does it make sense, instead to deliver real quality content, and focusing on quality rather than quantity? Imagine that you added 2-3 blog posts on a regular basis, of genuine interest to your target audience. If you did that consistently, maybe someone would share an article, link to it, post it on social media, right?

If you found a website or blog in your industry, and asked them to if they accept guest posts, and you wrote an interesting article, couldn’t that also get more visitors to your site? What if your consistent activity really created a buzz and you became featured in a news article?

Obviously these actions would create real interest in your website, and any links garnered would last and not be taken down! This in turn would increase your ranking and site visits. It may take some creative thinking and work, but at least you wouldn’t be spinning your wheels and always in fear of a penalty.