Search engines evolve constantly, and some SEO practices haven’t kept up. These outdated strategies can backfire, reducing your visibility and rankings. Here are six common SEO practices that need to be rethought, along with suggestions for better approaches.

1. Redundant SEO Practices

Certain practices that once worked are now ineffective—merely remnants of the past.

A. Expired Domains

The idea of buying expired domains to leverage their “authority” is more than 20 years old. Google nullified this strategy back in 2003 by resetting the PageRank of expired domains, a change later reinforced when Google became a domain registrar in 2005. Today, attempting to revive expired domains for SEO gains is a futile effort and a waste of resources.

B. Paid Links

While paid links might give a short-term ranking boost, they often result in stagnation or ranking drops. Google’salgorithms, from Penguin in 2012 to more recent updates, are adept at detecting and neutralizing the impact of unnatural links. Building genuine, high-quality backlinks remains a better long-term strategy.

C. Meta Robots “Index, Follow” Tags

Including <meta name=”robots” content=“index, follow” /> in your HTML is redundant. Google’s default behavior is to index pages and follow links unless instructed otherwise. Adding these tags shows a misunderstanding of SEO basics and may even harm credibility.

2. Overusing Google’s Search Features

Scraping content directly from features like “People Also Ask” or “People Also Search For” and duplicating them across your site can harm rankings. While these features are excellent for inspiration, mimicking them verbatim can signal to Google that your content is made for search engines rather than users. Focus on creating original, valuable content instead.

3. Keyword Overload

The “keyword stuffing” approach of the past—overloading titles, headings, and content with exact-match keywords—is outdated. Modern search engines prioritize natural language understanding, thanks to advances like Google’s BERT algorithm. Instead of over-focusing on keywords, prioritize clarity, context, and relevance.

4. Copying Competitors’ Content

The “copy but improve” strategy might seem logical but often leads to mediocrity. If everyone mimics the same top-ranked content, it creates a glut of repetitive information. Stand out by offering unique perspectives, deeper insights, or niche expertise. Originality often beats imitation in building authority.

5. Adding Content Just for Google

Publishing excessive, loosely-related content under the belief that “more is better” is misguided. Misinterpretations of concepts like Google’s Information Gain patent have led many to overproduce irrelevant content. Instead, focus on quality over quantity—publish content that genuinely helps users and aligns with your expertise.

6. Relying on SEO Studies Based on Millions of Search Results

SEO studies analyzing massive datasets often oversimplify complex ranking systems. These studies focus on isolated factors like word count or backlinks, ignoring the interplay of ranking signals such as natural language processing and intent-matching algorithms. Trusting these studies can lead to misguided strategies.

SEO Is Not One-Size-Fits-All

SEO is subjective and constantly evolving. What works for one site might not work for another. Instead of clinging to outdated practices or generalized studies, focus on strategies tailored to your audience, goals, and expertise. Remember, meaningful, user-focused content always wins in the long run.