Bad SEO practice – 7 examples you should never follow!

Keyword cannibalization? Content duplication? Lack of indexing on Google? Content based exclusively on trends? SEO without copywriting? Without a doubt, these and many others are bad SEO practices.

Many SEO specialists can offer you ineffective SEO strategies that yield no results. They are common and can be found almost everywhere. We understand that a bad SEO practice is a strategy for optimizing a website that, instead of improving its performance, can generate more problems than solutions.

In this article, I outline seven standard SEO practices to avoid, even if a client explicitly requests them. Here is a list of widespread problems in poorly implemented SEO campaigns.

1. Keyword stuffing 

Will repeating the keywords you want to use dozens or hundreds of times help you rank? It will get you penalized. If you want Google to love you, stop repeating keywords like a Thanksgiving turkey. 

Stuffing is the excess of keywords. Search engines detect this based on the volume and quality of content, causing you to disappear from a user’s potential search and drop impressions to drop. The use of these indicators is that they function as a content guide. But their abuse can diminish the quality. Quality is also a key indicator for search engines.

2. Buying cheap backlinks 

Backlinks (i.e., other pages that cite or mention you) are one of the primary indicators of authority on Google. Many people purchase them in strategic commercial transactions (which is a good practice). However, abusing this and purchasing cheap links without authority can be counterproductive.

If you think buying thousands of backlinks for a few bucks will get you to the top, you are wrong. This is an awful SEO practice. Google isn’t stupid, and your site will end up buried in penalty land. 

The backlink is another leading indicator of a website’s quality. The more quality backlinks you have, the better. But not just any link will do. There has to be a balance. The idea is that these backlinks come from reputable websites.

3. Duplicate content 

Repeating and copying are one of the most punishable actions on Google. Copy-pasting content from other sites (or even your pages) tells Google, “Hey, I’m not original. Please ignore me!” Spoiler: It will. I personally say to my clients that this is one of the worst SEO practices.

Duplicate content can be understood in many ways, from repeated keywords to plagiarized content. Even if content works correctly on another website (or specific keywords), it doesn’t mean it will work for you. Not only that. There are evaluators in Google’s algorithms that assess publication date, words used, and authorship. If you violate them, you will not appear in any searches.

4. Ignoring search intent 

The “search intent” refers to how clear and direct your message is in response to a search. If your message is clear and addresses what the user is looking for, the search engine will score it positively. Otherwise, you will be affected by Google. In fact, this pattern is even more pronounced in AI prompts.

In the past, many content creators and SEO specialists would publish an article using a specific keyword, only to end up discussing unrelated topics. Why? It used to work. In the past, keyword volume and article length were factors that influenced the algorithms section. This has changed. Today, the story is different. 

5. Not optimizing for mobile 

It is true that sectors more closely linked to B2B or B2C still have a strong connection to the desktop format. However, internet searches are becoming increasingly aligned with mobile devices every year. It is now imperative to optimize for mobile formats.

Clearly, a typical bad SEO practice is to ignore this. It is estimated that mobile searches are exponentially more common today. For some websites (in tech, entertainment, gaming, traveling, housing, and services), approximately 64% of searches occur on mobile devices. So, optimize for mobile! What are you waiting for?

If you only cater to one type of audience in a specific format, regardless of whether they make up the majority of your traffic, Google will de-target your content.

6. Forgetting internal linking 

Backlinking helps you rank outside your website, but aren’t you forgetting something? If your website is a maze with no clear paths, visitors (and Google) will bounce faster than a rubber ball. Guide them where you want them to go! Create links for your content!

Returning to links (this time within your website), you need to have a clear hierarchy and structure for positioning them effectively. Internal linking helps Google spiders to organize and track your content. It also allows users to be interested in other posts on your website. And of course, it will increase the health of your site.

7. Slow-loading pages 

It is estimated that users will wait no more than 3-5 seconds for the first page of a website to load. If you neglect this area, you will lose visitors.

One indicator that degrades a website’s quality is a page that loads slowly. This also affects the quality of the user experience (two key indicators in an SEO analysis). Google hates slow sites—fix them! 

Use high-quality images but with little weight. Do not add unnecessary animations. Embed your content when it is too heavy. Optimize your links and block boxes. Incorporate friendly and easy-to-load designs.

Beyond the fact that a website can look amazing with many elements, abusing these elements is a bad SEO practice. Your SEO requires media planning, video creation, technical SEO implementations, and constant data monitoring. This helps improve your visibility and the effectiveness of your campaigns.