Eight Reasons to Kill Your Old Web Development Styles

Over the years, web development has changed dramatically due to the introduction of new techniques, advanced technology and new ways that Google ranks sites. This means that sites that use older web development strategies may find themselves out of date and actually being penalized as a result.

If your website is not performing the way it should and you have not updated it in a while, you will need to look at the web development to see if there are areas that need changing. Here are eight reasons why you should ditch the old style and embrace new trends that will push up your site ranking.

Stop Swapping Links

What was once an innocent practice of marketing may be seen as excessive and abusive by Google as a way to manipulate your site ranking. Avoid being punished by minimizing the number of swaps you make until your rankings start to go up again.

Pulled Content

This is where you pull contents from other sites and make them your own. This particular tactic may have good intentions, but Google does not see it that way. Instead, use all original content on your website.

Overusing H1 Tags

The H1 tag is an important one since it described to Google the content of the page itself. However, too many H1 tags may be seen as the equivalent of keyword stuffing and get punished as a result. So, keep your H1 tags simple, direct and limited.

No Footer Links

This is another old tactic that Google punishes websites as it is seen as a way to manipulate site ranking. Instead, put all links at the top of the page or in the content itself. Do not use the footer space for links if at all possible.

Duplicating Content

This is an oldie, but one that still crops up every now and again as you will need to check your content to ensure that it is not duplicated. Duplicated content counts against you on Google and can be very detrimental to your site rankings.

Overusing Anchor Text

Not long ago, anchor text helped reinforce site rankings, but since 2012, the Penguin update now punishes websites that overuse anchor text so use real English instead of unnatural keyword links.

Keyword Stuffing

Another old tactic that has long since been discredited, but it is one that is still committed by those who may be unaware that they are stuffing too many keywords into their content. Running all of your content through a keyword checker is a simple, fast and safe way to ensure that there is no stuffing that otherwise would affect your rankings.

Hidden Links

All links on your site need to be seen and available to all users. A hidden link is considered suspicious and untrustworthy by Google even if you intention was for users to access it. This means that you should not make your links difficult to see or have the color match that of the background. This is an old trick that you will need to dispense with in your web development.

In Conclusion

By avoiding these old web development styles, you can update your website and improve its ranking considerably.