With all the excitement and planning that comes along with a New Year, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with newfangled ideas. You probably have a long list of SEO tactics in the pipeline for 2011. Finding the resources, whether time or money, is the real trick.
The point of this post is to minimize your to-do list by covering 32 SEO tactics that you shouldn't focus on. If any of these buggers have made it onto your 2011 task list or are still lingering in the queue from years past, go ahead and cross 'em off. They won't help you reach your goals and some of them can even hinder your progress.
32 SEO Tactics to Avoid in 2011
Hiding Stuff On-Page
There are a hundred ways to hide keywords and links from your users' view and still have them reside behind the scenes on a web page for the search engines to crawl. Some of these methods are smarter than others, but the collective mind of Google's web spam team is smarter than all of them. From just plain silly to downright sneaky, numbers 1-5 in this list of SEO tactics to avoid, we cover off some of the most well known methods for hiding copy and links. At best, you could experience a small, temporary boost from some of these tactics. At worst, you'll land yourself a penalty.
Do not...
1. White text on a white background (I know what you're thinking, but black on black won't work either.)
2. Hidden text over an image
3. Hiding text with CSS
4. Linking/keywording in tiny text (font size '0' doesn't work either, smarty pants)
5. Linking from a hyphen, period, comma, or any other little character
Keyword Stuffing
There are a number of ways to overdo your keyword usage beyond the hidden methods mentioned above. Here are a few to give you an idea of the type of things to avoid.
Do not...
6. Use the Meta Keywords tag. This is a giant waste of time.
7. Use your Title Tag as a place to list keywords.
8. Fill up your Meta Description with keywords, forgetting about click-thru rates
9. Name your images with the character limit in keywords
10. List every city and zip code within a 10 hour drive
11. Put 2000 words of keyword rich content below the footer
12. Keep track of your keyword density
Link Network Schemes
If your link building plans involve any of the following, you need to do a little more research on link building. :)
Do not sign up for...
13. Link Schemes
14. Reciprocal Linking
15. Link Farms
16. Link Wheel
17. Link Exchange (unless it is a real and substantial business partnership or relationship)
18. Three Way Linking (or Two-way, Four-way or any other way)
Other Link Types to Avoid
Ah links. It isn't just the networks that are a waste of time. Here are some other link acquisition tactics to avoid.
Do not...
19. Forum/comment spam
20. Submit to thousands of directories for $12.42.
21. Segment your content and launch sub-domains so you can link to yourself
For more info- http://www.seomoz.org/blog/seo-tactics-to-avoid-in-2011
