SEO Shortcuts Don’t Always Work

SEO is an evolving animal.  There are many techniques that worked very well in the past that no longer are as effective, if effective at all.

Some of these include the older techniques (that are still somehow being used by some people).  These are methods such as using the keywords meta tag heavily, trying to hide keywords behind images or in text the same color as the background, or getting bulk results for some specific SEO methods, such as directory submissions.

Nowadays there are other methods that people try, but do not work ideally for SEO.

1. One of these is the concept that specific SEO techniques can be used once effectively, then copied exactly for additional projects.  This is like a “canned” SEO package, and will not work for different sites.  Each market is different, each site is different.  Proper adjustment for these variances is crucial for good SEO.
2. Another that is used is following a lead, by duplicating exactly what another site has done for SEO.  This will work to an extent, but by setting a standard and being the first for a lot of these techniques/links you stand above anyone who comes in and duplicates.  Link age comes into play here.  It’s recommended you come up with unique linking techniques in addition to duplicating some that your main competitor(s) is/are using.
3. And one you should be very careful about – using black hat SEO methods just because you’ve seen another site get away with them.  You never know when Google will find that a site’s SEO is from black hat methods, so you run a risk every time you use these techniques.  Chances are they’ll catch you eventually, so it’s recommended you keep with white hat techniques and keep clean.

Keep up with how SEO operates, and you can avoid issues like this.  Not staying in tune with the latest SEO methods can cause problems for your site listings and reputation.  If you want to get more details on these particular issues in SEO, check out this article from Eric Enge at Search Engine Watch.