Bad SEO practice – 7 examples you should never follow!

There are many SEO specialists. You can find lousy SEO practices 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 bring you seven lousy SEO practices to avoid, even if a client explicitly asks for them!

Keyword stuffing 

If you want Google to love you, stop stuffing keywords like a Thanksgiving turkey. Stuffing is the excess of keywords. 

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.

Buying cheap backlinks 

If you think buying 10,000 backlinks for $5 will get you to the top, you probably also believe in fairy tales. This is an awful SEO practice. Google isn’t stupid, and your site will end up buried in penalty land.

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

Duplicate content 

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 tell 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. Repeating and copying it has a penalty.

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 the old days, many content creators and SEOs would publish an article using a particular keyword and end up talking about anything. It used to work. Today, the story is different. 

Not optimizing for mobile 

A common bad SEO practice. It is estimated that mobile searches are exponentially more common today. For some websites, about 64% of searches occur on mobile. 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.

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!

Internal linking helps Google spiders to organize and track your content. It also allows users to be interested in other posts on your websites. And of course, it will increase the health of your site.

Slow-loading pages 

One indicator that degrades a website’s quality is a page that loads slowly. This also degrades 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. Embedded 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.