Posted on December 25, 2014, by Jennifer Mattern in SEO

xmas2015-medIt’s Christmastime, and Santa wants to know — was your SEO naughty or nice this year? Will it pay off with the gift of better rankings in the New Year, or are you expecting a lump of coal in your stocking?

If you’re not sure where you are on the naughty-or-nice spectrum, see where your SEO tactics fall on these lists of naughty and nice SEO efforts in 2014:

 

Your SEO Efforts Might be Naughty if…

  • You mass-submitted your websites to hundreds (or even thousands) of low quality web directories. There is no “quick fix” for building a strong link profile.
  • You spent the year publishing low quality guest posts just for the backlinks. Google’s Matt Cutts made it very clear this year that this is a problem.
  • You “create” SEO content by rewriting material that belongs to someone else. This is worthless to real visitors. And unless you own the copyright to the original, you probably can’t authorize a derivative work (note: copyright laws can vary depending on where you live). If you outsource your writing, make sure you know what you’re getting (tip: you generally get what you pay for). Don’t assume “unique” according to plagiarism checkers means you’re safe. They won’t protect you from this kind of infringement.

Your SEO Efforts Might be Nice if…

  • You or your company did something newsworthy or attention-worthy to build earned editorial links on sites in your niche or industry.
  • You spent time auditing your site and backlinks, improving existing content, and cleaning up any broken links to your site.
  • You’ve built a targeted and legitimate social media following, and you spent time “giving” by sharing content from others. Linking to other quality resources is a great way to get others to link to you.
  • You submitted your websites to high quality web directories. Those include web directories with strict editorial standards and those that can send well-targeted traffic to your site.

Now tell us — was your SEO work naughty or nice in 2014? What’s your SEO strategy for the New Year, and what changes are you making, if any? Tell us in the comments.

Ho! Ho! Ho! Here’s Our Christmas Gift to You!

Starting today and going through January 31, 2015, you can save 20% on all directory submissions at our sister-site, AliveDirectory.com. Just use coupon code BENICEIN2015.

Deals like this don’t come around every day. So what are you waiting for? Get a jump on the New Year, and start your 2015 SEO efforts off on the “nice list.” Remember, Santa’s watching!