3 SEO activities you need to stop TODAY!

So here’s a list of top 3 SEO activities that seriously need to be stopped asap.

1. Forceful Social Bookmarking – Social Bookmarking is, according to me, the most widely exploited off-page SEO technique in the history of online marketing so far. No kidding. There are agencies which build you over a 1000 links every day on poor old stumbleupon.com or tumblr.com or any other “Top 20 Social Bookmarking sites” as they like to popularly call it. Just stop. For the love of God and every soul which once loved Stumble Upon or Tumblr or whatever, but today, finds them irrevocably polluted. Brotha, you’ve gotta stop. These links hardly get you any traffic and as far as “SBM helps crawl pages faster”, I’d say – “Are you living in the 90s?” Okay, 20 years is a big deal in online stratum and you know it.

The Solution: Did you know these social bookmarking sites aren’t just limited to bookmarking your links but creating a community in themselves. Never thought about it? For once, just check out the actual purpose of these websites.
a. Stop submitting your product links, they don’t make sense. No buyer jumps on to a social bookmarking website and decides to buy a product/service.
b. Instead, share links of quality content which may actually talk about the advantages of your product, case studies of people who have used your product/service.
c. Create a following and link them to your active social pages (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, etc.)

2. Bashful Comments Posting – Traditional “SEO Experts” consider this as the easiest way to build links on high PR websites. Just go onto a really informative article page, read 3 lines or maximum three and a half and hunt for the comments section to seed your link with a pathetically useless comment. And shout out loud, “VICTORYYYYY!” Well, shut up. One, 85% of these links are tagged as no-follow. This means, the adorable Google spider wouldn’t really consider your seeded link as a vote to your website to rank your website higher in organic results. Wait, are you okay? Okay, read on. Two, would you really click a comment which just says, “Awesome article, click here: www.i-am-so-needy-i-need-your-visit-please-please-oh-god-please.com/oh-pleaseeeeeeee.html”. Well, I mean, you won’t get any clicks either.

The solution: Add value. And get blessed. Period.
a. Stop adding “Awesome, Good read, Nice, Super, etc.” comments. Look for an article you actually have some clue about, read it through, and add value to it (some insight, thoughts for/against the idea in the article). Ask yourself, “If this were my article, would I want someone to comment just this?”
b. Add links in the comment body. But make sure, your link is relevant enough. And yeah, this is MCAT. (Matt Cutts Approved Technique ;))

3. Impertinent Forum Participations – Well, people love links which involve no dependencies in the building, a lot. They built hundreds, thousands of links in every quote, every reply, every thread possible, in every forum possible. Some went far as to create new irrelevant threads altogether in desperation. The wretched, meagre forums suffered. They were practically massacred until the forum admins had to jump in with strict rules. But the damage was done, (bodies of) destitute forums lay in panic with thousands of irrelevant posts and links (and all blood all over), mercilessly built (to butcher the forums to death), by the “SEO Experts”. Please, for the old lords and the new, stop this (bloodshed).

The solution: This immaterial participation will get you nowhere. Apart from most forums again being no-follow, such mal-practices will just get you banned from forums.
a. Search for forums which actually belong to your niche. Check if they are active (depends on the niche). Look for threads which actually relate to the product/service you sell. Read a few late posts to understand what the discussion is about currently. Add your valuable insight and the link if it “really” helps.

b. Remember to use CTAs (Call To Actions) which will have a high CTR (Click Through Ratio) before the link you add. Eg. If the thread talks about Extinction of Dinosaurs, you could probably add, “I am amazed at the discussion so far, no body mentioned the other probable cause of the extinction. Here is the link to the two hypotheses that scientists believe really lead to their extinction. Read and let me know if you agree here. ” (Oh yeah, you need an article over the two hypotheses on your website).

c. Build authority on the forum, don’t just go onto the forum with the intent of building links. Go with the intent of building relationships. Approve yourself as a discussion leader, opinion maker by receiving ‘thanks’, ‘upvotes’ and other pretty thing forums have to offer, and get clicks on every answer you put because you’ve already proved your worth. Soon, you’ll get clicks even if you have just a few words mentioned in your reply alongside the link.

So, here we are. With a sense of enlightenment, promise today, to not pollute the online haven anymore and build quality links, with some quality well-thought content. Do share your views, about the afore-mentioned tips and awesomely fantastically thought provoking, SEO redefining techniques. Just kiddin’. Speak up!