It's 2011. Are your SEO tactics stuck in 2003? Google has moved on since then, and so should you. This article will discuss which tactics you should toss out with the trash from last year's holiday parties.
I got most of these ideas from Lindsay, writing for SEOmoz. Taking them off your SEO to-do list will save you a lot of time this year – and we can all use more time, right? You can invest the time you save in building more quality content for your website and improving your visitors' experience.
First, stop playing hide-and-seek with your keywords – or any content, for that matter. You're not fooling anyone. Putting white text on a white background (or black text on a black background) so search engines see it but visitors don't is so 1997. Likewise, don't hide text over an image, or use CSS to hide text. And don't get fancy by putting links or keywords in tiny text, or linking from some tiny character such as a comma, hyphen, ampersand, etc. Google is smarter than this.
Now that you've given up that game, it's time to give up another game: keyword stuffing. Would you hire a plumber who told you 50 times that they can unclog any type of drain, or would you get references? Google's algorithm does something similar. So don't use the Meta Keywords tag, don't put tons of keywords in your Meta Description, and for the love of search, don't track your keyword density.
I'm not saying you can't use keywords, mind you; in fact, one or two judiciously-used keywords in your Title Tag can help. I'm saying you shouldn't go overboard. SEOmoz commenter gfiorelli1 gave the following Title Tag as an example of going overboard: “HOTELS IN MUMBAI, MUMBAI HOTEL RESERVATION AND MUMBAI HOTEL BOOKING, MUMBAI LUXURY HOTELS, DELUXE HOTELS IN MUMBAI.”
In case you're wondering, this SEO managed to fit in “hotel” five times, “Mumbai” five times, and the concepts of “reservations” and “luxury” twice each. That's insane. Remember that Title Tags do get seen by visitors – and this one looks ugly. It's much better to greet your users with “Going to Mumbai? Book your reservation in a deluxe area hotel.”
The third thing you can leave at the curb for 2011 is link schemes. Whether they're called link farms, link wheels, link exchanges, multiple-way linking, it doesn't matter. Just say no. I've seen some would-be SEOs claim that they still get some value from reciprocal linking, though. If the reciprocal link would benefit users of both sites, then it might be worth considering. For instance, if you run a dog obedience school, you might exchange reciprocal links with a dog grooming site.
Search Optimization 
