Hit by the Google spam update? Here's what you might be doing wrong - Search Engine Land

Steer clear of outdated and dubious SEO tactics. Here are tips for doing SEO that benefits real-world users – without tricking anybody.

When Google launched a new spam update at the end of 2022, complaints poured in as webmasters were caught off-guard.

Why are people still using outdated SEO tactics like “keyword stuffing”?

Here’s what else you may have done wrong and how you can practice actual SEO that benefits real-world users.

Seriously? Is keyword stuffing still a thing?!

I’ll be honest with you. I was flabbergasted that some websites affected by Google’s recent spam update were using an antiquated SEO tactic called “keyword stuffing,” according to analysis based on Ubersuggest data.

Keyword stuffing was a thing in the late ’90s of the last century! That was way before I was into SEO myself.

When I started practicing SEO in 2004, Google was already the market-leading search engine, and keyword stuffing was essentially a thing of the past.

Sure, people still tried to achieve the “ideal keyword density” [sic!] (there is no such thing, by the way). Yet, those were the noobs even back then.

In 2001, when Google launched the revolutionary PageRank algorithm for counting and measuring the value of incoming links, the dirty SEO trick referred to as keyword stuffing was officially on the way out.

So why do people still embarrass and shoot themselves in the foot using 25-year-old spam tactics?

It’s probably the same principle as putting your hand on the burning stove to find...

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