In our last installment , we told you about 2 big SEO no-no’s that can stop even the best SEO efforts and intentions in their tracks.

‘Guest blogging’ has generally been considered a best practice, but took a quick turn into the not-so category when Matt Cutts of Google dropped the hammer earlier this year, saying “If you’re using guest blogging as a way to gain links in 2014, you should probably stop.” Yikes. Wasn’t guest blogging supposed to be a good thing? It doesn’t take long for a good thing to become a no-no when it’s mistreated.

Another good thing gone bad – inbound and outbound linking. Racking up a large number of link backs in a short period of time, or linking to poor quality sites will hurt you. Don’t do it. If you did do it… undo it.

Here are two other examples of SEO no-no’s that marketing specialists should be leery of:

Nonsensical Anchor Tagging

Anchor Tagging used to be a good thing. It still can be a good thing, when done in a judicious way. It gives your readers an idea of where they could be headed if they click your link, and adds depth to your content. And like your readers, Search Engines also use this tool to determine the subject matter on the linked-to page.

As Moz.com points out, after the Penguin update, Google began to look more closely at keywords in anchor text. If too many outbound links were the same – same text, same destination – it was a bad sign. Here’s more of what Google had to say about anchor tagging. Two specific anchor tagging practices to steer clear of:

–Using the same phrase, same link repeatedly throughout your site. Take some time to research your site’s keywords and use those terms as your anchor text. Diversify where you’re sending your readers when they click.

–Simultaneously, don’t limit your anchor tagging to your site’s keywords. That could send up a red flag. Mix it up with a variety of anchored keywords, longer phrases, and naked or branded URLs. For example:

1.When training for a marathon, it’s important to stay healthy and injury free.

2.MarathonRookie.com is a great place to start your training.

3.REI offers great training tips.

It’s also important to know that Moz.com experiments show that when there are multiple anchor tags on the same page pointing users to the same link, Google only counts the first one

[with a few exceptions, of course]. So make the first one count – no “Click Here”s or “Learn More”s. Instead tell Google where you’re taking the reader.

Playing the SEO Short Game

There are many quick fixes you can apply to your website, and see instant results. Google Webmaster is a great place to start, to diagnose your site and make sure you’re not ignoring any potential issues.

SEO is not a quick fix. It’s a long game. Things get confusing with the plentitude of seemingly good ideas and automated tools to make your site’s SEO hum. There are no effective tricks in SEO. In the spirit of telling you what NOT to do… we emphatically put these no-brainers in that category:

1. Keyword stuffing. We know you know not to do that, but we have to say it, right?

2. Don’t hide keywords.

3. Don’t ignore broken links.

4. Don’t ignore slow load times.

5. Don’t ignore your analytics. Use your SEO Monitoring Dashboard to see which keywords are bringing new readers to your site, how long these folks are staying around based on keywords, and how many pages they’re seeing.

Here at GalileoTechMedia.com, our advice to you is to ask yourself before implementing any SEO tactic: “Does this feel like cheating?” and “Will this improve my readers’ experience?” Make sure you feel good about your answers, which IS a SEO Best Practice.