The most important thing for digital marketing companies to remember is that they should be coming up with effective strategies to help improve their SEO game. SEO is what makes your content usable, what generates results and ultimately what the main purpose of digital marketing companies is. However, coming up with a solid strategy isn’t always a walk in the park, and some digital marketing companies, therefore, end up relying on black-hat strategies.
If you don’t know what black-hat strategies are, they’re essentially SEO practices that increase a site ranking on search engines through methods that violate the search engines’ terms of service. The problem with this is that if search engines happen to pick up on digital marketing companies using these black-hat methods, they can blacklist the company, which can quickly lead to your agency’s demise.
Here are some of the most common black-hat strategies that digital marketing companies should aim to avoid.
Keyword Stuffing
This is one of the oldest black-hat SEO strategies to date, going back to the 90’s. SEO focused pieces should include keywords and phrases that draw traffic to a specific business. For example, if one of your clients is a law firm who uses the keyword “auto accident” in their pieces, you’re going to want to make sure that you limit the number of times you use it.
The magic number is anything under two percent; if you use the keyword any more than that, your company could be penalized by Google’s algorithms. Keyword stuffing is dangerous and unnecessary, so always make sure that you’re gaging your keyword usage.
Content Spamming
Backlinking is crucial in SEO. The more backlinks your site earns, the more your website ranks when it comes to search engines. But ultimately, more links does not equal more engagement. In fact, if you use too many links, Google will mark your agency as spam, which will cause your SEO value to plummet.
Recycling Content
This one may seem obvious, but digital marketing companies should avoid recycling their old content, even if you’re using different terminology and synonyms. If digital marketing companies fail to create new content and instead lean toward reusing their old blog posts or videos, they can find themselves being blacklisted on the main search engines.
You’re going to want to make sure that your agency is following a professional, efficient and ethical SEO strategy if you want your company to succeed. Always avoid black-hat SEO strategies, or else you can find yourself struggling to stay afloat in the world of digital advertising.
Sources:
https://www.digitalsurgeons.com/thoughts/strategy/four-dangerous-black-hat-seo-tactics/
https://www.wordstream.com/black-hat-seo
