How Not to Write for SEO in 2018

For more than a decade, search engine optimization has been the headline topic for businesses trying to boost their website rankings. But the SEO techniques that worked 15 years ago do not work now, and many of them can actually diminish organic search rankings on major search engines (such as Google). Those window and door websites that still employ outdated SEO practices are really just placing a big anchor around local search rankings.

Let’s take a look at some of the biggest outdated practices and review modern replacements that will power your website’s SEO. 

Outdated practices

1. Stuffing keywords
   In the early days of SEO, website owners and webmasters stuffed in keywords anywhere and everywhere, which essentially made many pages unreadable. Google has long penalized this process.
2. Employing tons of keyword variants
   Along the same lines, Google isn’t tricked by using 25 slight variations on the terms “windows” and “doors.” Varying your vocabulary doesn’t help your ranking and only hurts the actual user experience.
3. Creating different pages for different keywords that mean the same thing
   This worked for a time, but these days, Google understands synonyms. Creating separate pages just makes your navigation confusing, which hurts your SEO.

Modern replacements

Instead of these outdated practices, consider the following ways to power your site’s SEO and boost rankings versus local competitors.

1. Solve the searcher’s query
   The information that best answers the searcher's questions will be rewarded by strong SEO. Strong, relevant content that speaks to prospective customers will pay off.
2. Focus on intent matching, not just keyword matching
   Instead of using many different pages for various keywords, develop a single page that serves the intent of what all the related keywords represent. While it’s still important to weave in important keywords, they should be natural and fit perfectly in context.
3. Two tags matter the most
   In 2018, Google is really only concerned with the title element and body content in terms of keywords. Using “windows” and “doors” in your title doesn’t just help SEO but also makes searchers more inclined to click on the search results.
4. Watch spelling and grammar
   It’s important to ensure content is spelled correctly and does not contain grammatical mistakes in order to earn credibility with potential customers, but also with search engines. Google’s algorithms can differentiate between grammatical and ungrammatical text in 2018, so it’s critical to get this right.

In general, what it all comes back to is keeping the user experience front-of-mind. This is more important than trying to trick Google’s algorithms into ranking your site higher. Develop good, rich content that’s highly relevant to what window and door customers are looking for, and boost your SEO.