As 2014 is coming to a close, it’s time for search marketers to scrutinize the strategies they have been using to determine if they are still viable. With a year’s worth of Google algorithm changes and widely-publicized manual penalties as your guide, here are three SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategies you need to leave behind in 2014, plus good alternatives for the upcoming year.
1. Guest blogging for links.
Google never said that guest blogging as a whole was a bad thing. They did, however, say that guest blogging using low-quality content and terrible pitches [https://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-blogging] should not be relied upon as a viable link building strategy.
Guest blogging as a link building strategy includes, at best, posting mediocre content across as many blogs as you can get to accept the post. As a result of the abuse, many major publications are no longer accepting one-off or unsolicited content.
What they are accepting, on the other hand, is requests for regular contributors who submit high-quality content. For example, Search Engine Watch [http://searchenginewatch.com/page/write-for-sew] is looking for:
“Occasionally, we have openings for regular columnists who can commit to a monthly or bi-monthly schedule (sorry, but we don’t publish “one-off” contributions). If you have a unique perspective, we encourage you to submit a sample column so we may evaluate whether you’d be a good fit for such a position when it opens up.”
In their guidelines, they eliminate one-off guest bloggers and let contributors know that their submissions will be evaluated for quality.
The alternative is to strive to become a regular contributor for a few great sites in your industry.In the process, you’ll build up your authority and still gain backlinks.
3 SEO Strategies to Leave Behind in 2014 & Alternatives for 2015
