SEO Practices You Need to Stop Right Now: A Guide for Big Organizations

In the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an indispensable part of any major organization’s strategy. However, SEO tactics that once yielded positive results may now do more harm than good, especially given recent algorithm updates from Google and other search engines. Today’s SEO is more about providing quality and relevance to users, and outdated or manipulative practices are a liability. Here, we explore the SEO strategies big organizations need to leave behind—and what they should adopt instead.

1. Keyword Stuffing

Outdated Practice: The idea behind keyword stuffing is simple: include as many instances of the target keyword as possible in your content to rank higher. This once-effective tactic is now seen as spammy and hurts user experience.

Example: Imagine a health services page that looks like this:

“Our health services are top-notch health services designed to provide health services you can trust. Choose our health services today for all your health needs!”

This repetitive use of “health services” not only makes the content unpleasant to read but is a red flag to search engines.

Why It’s a Problem: Keyword stuffing doesn’t contribute to meaningful or valuable content. Instead, it prioritizes keyword density over readability, often resulting in penalties from search engines.

What to Do Instead: Focus on creating content that naturally incorporates keywords while emphasizing readability and relevance. Use variations and related terms, and ensure keywords flow naturally within the context.

2. Using Irrelevant Keywords for Traffic

Outdated Practice: Some companies try to draw traffic by targeting keywords that don’t align with their business just because they’re popular. This tactic might briefly increase your traffic, but the bounce rate will be high since users won’t find what they’re looking for.

Example: A financial services company that targets keywords related to “latest movie releases” or “celebrity news” just because those keywords are trending. While it may drive a temporary spike in traffic, it’s not beneficial for a brand’s credibility.

Why It’s a Problem: Misleading users not only increases bounce rates but can harm the company’s brand image. Search engines recognize when users quickly leave a page and will eventually rank it lower.

What to Do Instead: Focus on creating topic clusters and thematic content that aligns with your industry and provides value. If you’re a financial services company, for example, write about “financial trends in 2024” or “investment strategies for beginners.”

3. Relying on Exact Match Anchor Text Links

Outdated Practice: Many websites once used exact match anchor text excessively to try and rank for specific keywords. For instance, if the target keyword is “SEO services,” every link would have that exact phrase as the anchor text.

Example: A blog post with repeated phrases like:

“Our SEO services can help you boost traffic. Learn more about our SEO services for your business today.”

This repetitive linking creates an unnatural pattern that search engines easily detect.

Why It’s a Problem: Google’s algorithms are sophisticated enough to detect patterns that indicate manipulation. Exact match anchor texts are now considered an old SEO tactic that might trigger penalties if overused.

What to Do Instead: Use a mix of anchor texts that include partial matches, branded terms, and even generic phrases. This diversity signals a more natural linking profile. Example: “Learn more about how our services can boost your traffic.”

4. Focusing on Quantity Over Quality in Backlinks

Outdated Practice: Many big organizations once prioritized gaining as many backlinks as possible, often using low-quality directories, irrelevant forums, or spammy blog comments to achieve high numbers.

Example: A global tech company spams blog comments with links back to their site, regardless of the topic’s relevance.

Why It’s a Problem: Not all backlinks are created equal. Low-quality backlinks can harm a site’s authority, and Google has refined its algorithms to recognize—and penalize—unnatural or manipulative link profiles.

What to Do Instead: Build backlinks strategically by creating high-quality content that attracts links from reputable sites. Focus on earning links from credible sources that are relevant to your industry. For instance, a tech company could publish insightful articles on industry trends to attract links from respected tech publications.

5. Ignoring Mobile Optimization

Outdated Practice: Some organizations overlook mobile optimization, assuming that desktop traffic is sufficient. This leads to poor user experience for the growing mobile audience.

Example: A retail brand’s website that doesn’t load correctly on mobile, with text that’s hard to read and buttons that are difficult to click.

Why It’s a Problem: Google uses mobile-first indexing, meaning it primarily evaluates a site’s mobile version for ranking purposes. A poor mobile experience can therefore lead to a significant drop in rankings, especially in competitive industries.

What to Do Instead: Ensure your site is mobile-friendly with responsive design, quick load times, and easy navigation. Use tools like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to check for optimization issues.

6. Overlooking Technical SEO Issues

Outdated Practice: Some companies focus solely on content and keywords, overlooking the technical side of SEO. Issues like slow load times, broken links, and unoptimized URLs are common.

Example: A B2B company’s blog takes more than five seconds to load, leading to a high bounce rate.

Why It’s a Problem: Technical SEO plays a crucial role in user experience and rankings. Search engines prioritize fast, functional sites, and neglecting this can undermine even the best content strategy.

What to Do Instead: Conduct regular SEO audits to identify and fix issues like page speed, broken links, and duplicate content. A fast, functional website improves both SEO and user satisfaction.

7. Writing for Algorithms Instead of People

Outdated Practice: Creating content solely to meet SEO requirements without considering user experience and intent.

Example: A tech company writes a blog post full of jargon and redundant sentences simply to increase word count and keyword mentions.

Why It’s a Problem: Search engines now prioritize user intent, rewarding content that meets actual user needs. If content fails to engage readers, it won’t perform well, no matter how optimized it is.

What to Do Instead: Prioritize readability, engagement, and value in your content. Understand your audience’s needs and write in a way that resonates with them. Content that provides real insights or solutions is more likely to rank well and retain visitors.

8. Over-Optimizing with Hidden Text or Links

Outdated Practice: Some sites hide text or links to boost SEO, placing keywords in text the same color as the background or using tiny font sizes.

Example: A company website that places dozens of hidden keywords in the footer section to avoid detection while still gaining SEO points.

Why It’s a Problem: Hidden text and links are considered deceptive, and search engines actively penalize this manipulation.

What to Do Instead: Make sure all your content is visible, readable, and beneficial to users. Instead of hiding keywords, work them naturally into the content where they provide value to the reader.

9. Buying Links or Engaging in Link Exchanges

Outdated Practice: Link-buying schemes and excessive link exchanges are both manipulative practices aimed at artificially boosting a site’s authority.

Example: A large e-commerce site paying for backlinks on unrelated blogs to boost its ranking.

Why It’s a Problem: Purchased and exchanged links are seen as manipulative and are against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. Such practices can result in penalties and a damaged reputation.

What to Do Instead: Focus on building relationships with industry leaders, journalists, and influencers to organically gain quality backlinks. When content is useful and authoritative, high-quality links will naturally follow.

10. Using Spun Content

Outdated Practice: Content spinning involves taking an existing article and rephrasing it to create “new” content. The intention is to rank for more keywords with minimal effort.

Example: A SaaS company generates multiple versions of a product description by using synonyms and slight alterations.

Why It’s a Problem: Spun content lacks originality and value. Search engines can detect similarity in phrasing and penalize sites for low-quality content.

What to Do Instead: Create unique, high-quality content that offers fresh perspectives or deeper insights. Invest in quality over quantity, even if it requires more resources.