3 Stupid SEO Shortcuts You Should Avoid

SEO is a long and labour-intensive task that needs time and effort on a regular basis for it to work well. It requires hours of research and once you’ve got everything prepared and set to go it can still take anything from a couple of months to several years to get where you need to be within the search results, depending on your sector.

Most companies don’t have the time to put in this extra work, regardless of the potential outcome. For this reason, some site owners look to shortcuts they can take that will do the job of getting their links at a fraction of the cost and time if they were to do it themselves.

Here I look at some of the shortcuts I’ve seen people make and that you should really avoid making if your campaign is to work for your business.

Don’t Pay for Bulk Directory Submissions

Paying for bulk directory submission can easily see your site banned or, at the very least, you’ll find your site listed in random, low-authority directories that aren’t going to be of any benefit to you. If there’s anyone thing that companies hate it’s a waste of time and money.

A key part to SEO ranking software is sourcing quality links that are going to benefit you and your site – it’s not a case of ‘any link will do’. Too many poor quality links and your site could be adversely affected. Too many links in a short space of time and you could be facing the same issues.

It’s worth taking your time and sourcing those manually, rather than taking some off-the-shelf package – the chances are they will have nothing to do with your industry or even your location.

Don’t Steal Content from Other Sites

‘Copying and pasting’ content from other sites with the intention of increasing the size of your site and giving your visitors more to read is a thought that often pops into a new webmaster’s head, but when it comes to SEO, original and unique content rules the world.

Coming at this from a usability perspective, if your site delivers unique, up-to-date and relevant content your visitors will soon see that you know what you’re talking about, see you as an authority within the field and can help instil trust in your site, making them more likely to get in touch or place an order/enquiry – something that is invaluable when trust is such an issue online.

From an SEO perspective, the search engines see you continually adding content to your website, giving your users valuable information and that you are actively trying to give more to your visitors and improve not only your site but also the user experience and you’ll be rewarded for that with higher rankings and better visitor statistics if it’s done correctly.

Either way, it’s an all-round bonus to your site and your business, and can help improve the reputation of your brand as well as your status within your industry.

Don’t Take Shortcuts

If a job is worth doing it’s worth doing properly. Shortcuts on the whole won’t get you anywhere fast and any results you do see will be short-lived or you’ll find that you aren’t attracting the visitor you intended.

I’ve already mentioned quality – but with quality also comes relevance. Manually performing the work you can be sure you’re going to be seen in the right places by the right people and that they are looking for what you can offer them.

Think of advertising a brand new games console on an over-50s radio station. Then think of advertising it on prime-time telly between programs that are popular with teenagers a month before Christmas. Quality and relevance – I don’t think I need to emphasise that any further, but you get the idea. Taking shortcuts simply won’t give you this.

If you have any further tips or if you can list any other mistakes that you’ve made or seen made feel free to comment below as I’d love to hear more.