SEO for a New Domain: Without These Outdated Practices 

Many visitors and hopefully the associated conversions are what make a website successful. Especially at the beginning, this traffic comes mainly from search engines, since your brand is probably still unknown. For new domains it is therefore important to get the most out of Google and Co. And for this you need a well-thought-out SEO strategy that primarily relies on natural link building. To make this fundamental discussion between natural and unnatural link building a little more practical, we’ve put together four practices that worked well in the past but are now more than out of date – so keep your hands off them.

The on- page optimization of a website is relatively easy to implement, as all measures take place directly on your own page. Off-page optimization, on the other hand, is much more complex, since it is about links – namely links that link to your Internet presence from other websites. Why should other websites do this?

• Present high quality content .
• Create incentives so that linking is worthwhile.
• Offer cooperation.

There are many ways that lead to the goal. And then there are ways that APPEAR to lead to the goal, but ultimately do more harm than you think. This refers to linking tactics that Google either ignores or even punishes rigorously.

What worked then still works today?

As an old hand in the SEO business you are exposed to the risk of thinking that previous measures still bring the hoped-for success today. In fact, many of these tactics are out of date because:

• The Google algorithm “learns”.
• Link building in particular is now subject to strict requirements that are defined in the Google Webmaster Guidelines.
• Punishments or banishment from the index happen much faster than before.

Every SEO professional knows the Google Webmaster Guidelines and also knows that the Google algorithm is constantly being improved through updates. A few of the criteria that lead to a website being ranked better are known. Others, in turn, are guarded by Google like the apple of their eye.

However, the be-all and end-all of search engine optimization is still link building. To be precise: natural link building, because only this form of link building brings good rankings in the long term and helps the new website to be successful. So that you can get started with your new website right away, we will tell you which practices you should not use under any circumstances.

Avoid These SEO Practices!

Placeholder pages

Placeholder pages based on the motto “This is where our website is being built” used to be a popular measure to provide the new domain with an “age bonus”. Because the age of a domain played a major role in its relevance. However, that is no longer the case today. Today, Google recommends the following strategy for new websites:

• Create a new website.
• Work on it in the background.
• Create a placeholder page.
• NEW: Fill this placeholder page with content – that’s the big difference from before. One or two paragraphs with high-quality, topic-relevant content signals to Google that your website is not just a placeholder. As soon as your website goes completely online, your website is priced, so to speak, and thus rises much higher in the search engine results.

Web catalogs

Web catalogs are collections of links to interesting websites – at least that was the actual purpose of the web catalogs. There are now only a few well-maintained web catalogs, which means that Google hardly pays any more attention to these links.

It gets even worse if Google penalizes such a web catalog for link spamming, because then your website is also affected. With luck, the link will only be canceled. With bad luck, the link is poisonous and harms your rankings.

Even so, there are still some high quality web catalogs that are worth listing today , but potential candidates should be carefully selected.

Money keyword anchor texts

Since the Google Penguin Update in particular, it has been clear: “Over-optimizing” certain so-called “ money keywords ” or even link spamming will be punished rigorously. Anyone who can get away with being downgraded by 50 places is still well served.

However, it looks very bad if the website is removed from the Google index (actually never happens through spam links). Then the only thing left to do is to cancel and remove the links in combination with a so-called Reconsideration Request in order to be included in the index again – and that can take time.

Duplicate content

The statement that duplicate content is bad for the ranking is not new. But the meaning is all the more important nowadays, because past updates ( Google Panda ) also play a major role here. Google says it itself: only good content, i.e. content that users like , helps the ranking of a website.

If this content is not unique, the positive user signals will probably not appear either. Adhering to this rule is difficult, especially with product descriptions for an online shop. Nevertheless, try to be at least a little different from other shops. If you need a lot of unique product descriptions, rely on crowdsourcing providers like Clickworker .