Out With the Old
When it comes to improving your dealership’s SEO, it’s important to understand that there are good SEO techniques and outdated, spammy ones. These SEO techniques have changed within the last few years and if you haven’t updated your current techniques, now’s the perfect time to do so. Take a look at your current automotive SEO techniques and see if you’re using any of the following spammy ones. If you are, then mark those as a reminder to update them pronto. While there are many techniques to avoid, here are the six spammiest ones to keep on your radar.
Keyword Stuffing
You may already know that keywords and SEO for the automotive industry go hand in hand, but did you know that overusing keywords is actually counterproductive? Keyword stuffing means jamming your webpages with all the keywords you can think of that relate to your content, so search engines can take notice and in turn, your SEO ranking will improve. Lately, the landscape has changed when it comes to using keywords. People are crafting keyword phrases as opposed to keywords alone because when people are searching for information they’re using phrases or short sentences versus one or two words in their searches. Your content needs to reflect what people are searching for, so pay more attention to phrases rather than one-word keywords. Do not control c and copy and paste keywords all over your dealership’s website; you’ll only be doing your SEO a disservice.
Meta tags Stuffing
Meta tag stuffing essentially takes keyword stuffing to a hidden level. The concept is very similar to keyword stuffing, the only difference is where the keywords are placed. Meta tags are used by search engines and aren’t visible on webpages. They’re important for coding, but do not directly affect the website appearance-wise. Ditch that old idea of overusing keywords and resist that temptation to hide keywords in your webpages’ meta tags.
Page Redirects
Page redirects are interesting. If your website’s URL has been updated and your links also updated, you may think page redirects are okay, but they’re not recommended. Redirects were used in the past to preserve a link’s SEO ranking. Nowadays, search engines will register an updated URL as a new link, so the page’s ranking will be fresh.
It’s a little more work to rename the URLs, but your website will function better, and your dealership’s SEO rankings will be more authentic and current, which is what you ultimately want.
Invisible Text
Invisible text is what it sounds like, it’s text that doesn’t show up on a webpage, but sits within HTML to try and confuse search engines. It’s similar to meta tag stuffing. Invisible text can be hidden using div and display:none tags, so no one will see the spammy text on the page itself, which may seem harmless, but it’s not a good SEO technique. Along with div tags, invisible text can be hidden by coding the text the same color as the background. Search engines have also improved and adapted to look out for invisible text. The supposed benefit of hidden text is stuffing webpages with keywords to boost SEO rankings.
Tiny Text
Tiny text is similar to hidden text on your dealership’s website. This is another old and spammy SEO technique that you should absolutely avoid. Text that can’t be seen at first glance is still doing more harm than good for your SEO. Take a similar approach to hidden text and just don’t try to stuff keywords in teeny, tiny text.
Link-Based Manipulation
Link-based manipulation is another older SEO trick that creators would use to try and boost their SEO. These include irrelevant links on your website that you placed just to show search engines those webpages were full of links. It didn’t matter if the links related to the webpage content. There are many ways to misuse links, but search engines have filters to see when a webpage is full of links that have been manipulated in some way. When you’re creating content for a webpage, make sure to only include valid, useful links and stay away from the antiquated idea that quantity is better than quality.
Assess & Update
There are patterns when it comes to these spammy SEO techniques. A lot of these techniques combine overusing and hidden tricks to try and fool search engines. Search engines are wiser and more intelligent than they were years ago, so it’s important you stop using any of these spammy SEO techniques and start focusing on smarter ways to improve your SEO. Take some time to evaluate your current SEO situation and find areas where you can make improvements. The sooner you update your SEO techniques, the better off your webpages’ SEO rankings will be.
This post may contain affiliate links. Meaning a commission is given should you decide to make a purchase through these links, at no cost to you. All products shown are researched and tested to give an accurate review for you.