We were able to spam Google or trick Google by using several methods that were very much appealing in SEO world and things are continuously changing now.

Google is improving it’s free service continuously because if anyone comes up better than Google, they will easily be gone just like Orkut’s fate.

Google is known for search and if that isn’t there, we won’t use Google again. So what were or are the methods that were being used previously and what has been changed now?

Search something like – “list of article submission sites” OR “list of classified sites” and you will get enormous list on various websites.

Even popular bloggers have such list posted online but they wouldn’t tell you NOT to use such list as not just it won’t be ineffective but also give negative impact on your Search Engine rankings.

This is very unfortunate situation as people do talk about what to do for SEO but they don’t say what NOT to do to stay protected. Here I am going to write about such things that you must not do in 2017 and next to avoid getting penalty by Google.

Note: I am writing Google all the time because they are major search engine in 2017, as of today.

1. Article submissions

This method was one of the very famous methods used for SEO some 4-6 years back. People were using Squidoo and EzineArticles to get backlinks and those websites were booming as well.

Squidoo was very famous as people could add Amazon affiliate link and sell stuff on Squidoo itself. I liked Squidoo personally, never used much though.

EzineArticles was strict and getting published was a challenge for people. This were going awesome for the and everyone. People used to get ranks on this website until a day when Google changed its algorithm and its several pages were ranked down suddenly.

There are several article sites exist even today like Medium.com and you might wanna ask why Medium or hubpages or wikihow is still doing fine but several others are doomed!

Well, the simple answer to that is following the Google guidelines for content, structure and several other thing. Content written on Medium is curated by people they use canonical tags properly.

If you are writing, go for guest posting. Guest posting will help you but make sure you do right guest posting and not just anything on anywhere.

Why guest posting helps?

Simply because you write for same niche as your website belongs to. If you are writing for a niche different than your blog, you are doing waste work and more over, your work will not be accepted anyway.

2. Directory Submissions

If you are still following the directories and other things, well, you are not just wasting your time but also killing everything including your blog. Most directories to promote themselves, ask for reciprocal link and that is from where spam starts.

Do not chase directory submissions. Even the most popular, Dmoz, has been shut down. What does that mean? It simply means not to waste your time and efforts.

Putting up the same link all over the internet without any content, just the same duplicate information would be nothing but spamming the whole internet and Google is smarter now, much smarter to catch such stuff.

3. Profile links

Have you ever heard of it?

If not, good as you don’t need it anymore. If yes and you have done it, stop doing it now. There are few reputed websites like About Me
might be considered as one of the good websites to create your profile but that would be all. I would not create 100 profiles over the net instead, create couple and share them, use them.

Create 100 online profiles is like create 100 different visiting cards and you eventually aren’t able to promote yourself properly.

Trust me, more links you have that are not relevant, more the chances are you will get penalty.

4. Link exchange or buying

Well known trick!

It was easy to buy or exchange links, buy likes and followers and so on but well, things have changed. You must attract the backlinks.

Backlinks forcefully created by you are not natural and hence are against the Google’s terms.

This practice still is there and many novice people fall for it but I warn you, do not fall for it! You might see temporary higher numbers but that would be it. You won’t get positive result out of it.

Make sure you are not doing the link exchange or buying selling anymore.

5. Trackbacks and redirects

I would put this into blackhat category. Trackbacks are like spamming other bloggers’ comment section with your links which they will most certainly delete immediately.

This method was something being used previously and was popular but it is not as popular today. Not that Google will penalize you, or it might, but your credibility and reputation will surely be hit using this method.

I think once you are popular enough, once your blog is established, the only thing that matters would be how you have created your image. Make sure to create the best one!

6. Social Bookmarking

I am not sure how good you have got the results from Social Bookmarking but except for sites like Reddit, I don’t think there is much use of Social Bookmarking in getting traffic except for creating links.

One thing is for sure –

What everyone is doing, if you do, you won’t get exceptional results.

Everyone is using Social Bookmarking from years and I have tried it myself only to conclude that it is just dead! I am not saying for everyone. People might have gotten results in the past, people might be getting results even today.

It also depends upon the type of content.

I mean, look at the homepage of StumbledUpon – they show awesome content on there. Those videos, interactive pages, games, slides and what not – can you build something awesome like that? If yes, please go ahead.

Every Social Bookmarking site has their own rules and popularity reason – make sure you inline your content with that to make best of it but I guess that would need lot of resources, time and money.

Overall, I haven’t got good results but not saying not to do it, just be careful on this one.

7. RSS Submission

Just like Blog directories submission, RSS is also kind of similar thing. The difference is here you submit RSS feed. Having RSS setup is one thing but spreading the link to everywhere is another thing.

It is very much dead! I would not recommend it at all.

If it won’t give you negative results, it won’t fetch you anything positive either.

I would rather focus on creating awesome content and awesome network than spreading spammy links everywhere in different ways all over the internet.

8. Classifieds

This is another SEO method that will not work today. Not just classified sites have improved themselves but also Google has improved itself in listing anything from classified sites.

We have Craiglist, Gumtree or OLX that are famous sites for classifieds but look for “list of classified sites” and you will find posts with such huge list. I have 5000 list of such sites, most of which wouldn’t work now because they are gone now.

It is not easy to spam Google now and hard work has been removed by smart and genuine work.

If you are working genuinely, Google will award you for that eventually, be patient and keep working.

Conclusion

As per Google Webmaster’s guidelines, any link created intentionally backlinking to your site, it will be considered as spammy link and will result in penalty which means any and everything that we do for backlink is prone to penalty, be it commenting or be it guest blogging with intention of a backlink.

Being said that, even Google knows and understand what could be genuine and what not.

Just one thing – focus on quality content. Quality content is something that will lead you to the success.

Be persistent, keep writing awesome content that people wanna read and you are good to go.

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