Search engine optimization (SEO) may seem daunting. That is why the temptation to take short cuts can be great. However, as Google’s analytic capabilities increase, it can spot short cuts much more easily. This will result in a loss of trust between the search engine and your site. In the same way that regaining trust between people takes much longer than losing it, building your trust with Google can take time. Google algorithms are becoming more and more adept at reading sites. This means that they can quickly determine whether the content on your site is legitimate or if it has been designed specifically to manipulate the search engine.

Google recently acquired an artificial intelligence company which will only enhance its ability to fully understand your website. This means that proper SEO techniques will be more important then ever. With that in mind, you should avoid doing these time saving SEO tactics that DO NOT work to ensure that your website stays on the right side of Google. We elaborate on these tactics below.

5 Time Saving SEO Tactics That DO NOT Work

Avoid Duplicate Content

Because so much emphasis is placed on content when it comes to SEO, there is additional pressure on site owners to produce as much content as possible. What happens is that someone decides to copy and paste large portions of text from one page of their site onto multiple other pagesin an effort to increase their size and web presence. Some webmasters attempt to rearrange the order of their paragraphs or sentences in order to make it appear less obvious that content has been copied. At this point, Google’s algorithms are intelligent enough to spot this tactic. When content is duplicated, it creates what Google regards as low quality or “thin” content, which may have size, but little useful information. Google avoids promoting sites like this.

Meta tags are another area where duplication can be tempting but ultimately harmful. These tags are found in the backend of a website and allow Google to view a brief description of the site’s content. Repeating the same description across multiple tags will appear suspicious to the algorithm and result in lowered search engine results.

Occasionally sites have a need for duplicate content. For example, if you have an online shoe store, there is no need to write a new product description for each size of the same shoe. However, it is important to understand how Google may view these duplicated descriptions.

Footer Links

Because footer links appear on each page of your website, it can be tempting to change the names of these links to the keywords associated with your industry. However, Google is well aware of this tactic and will rescind your trusted status if it is discovered.

Buying Links or Using Link Farms

One way to increase traffic to your site is by securing backlinks on other websites. This will increase your site’s importance in the “eyes” of Google. The fastest way to increase the amount of links to your site is by purchasing them. This tactic actually used to work well, but after a high profile case of link-fraud with JC Penny, Google has enhanced the ability of its performance metrics to spot this kind of link traffic. The same goes for link farms. If Google finds that you are participating in a link farm site, the penalties can be severe.

Now that you know the common time-saving SEO tactics to avoid, you can focus on delivering quality content. It may take longer, but the results will be well worth your effort and you will not have to worry about trying to bounce back from a negative marking.