Common but pointless SEO tactics

2. Although I agree many of the techniques described above do not have any direct impact on organic rankings, there is an indirect effect to all of these tactics.

Also, you cannot underestimate the importance of getting eyeballs onto your site, especially for a company with a fledgling online presence. If these eyeballs come from reputable sources, such as relevant forums then even better.

In fact many of the techniques that can be used to gain traction in the natural rankings for a new site have little direct SEO benefit. This may include:

- starting a paid search campaign,
- display advertising,
- sending emails to customers,
- brand building,

The most simple example would be my comment on this post. It may pass no direct linkjuice to my site but if enough people click to my own blog, there is a small chance that some people may link to it.

4. Patrick,

Nicely done - for those not in the business though the critical word here is *might*

All the best and keep up the good posts!

6. I think you're missing the point about comments and forum signatures, any SEO benefit is just in addition to the real benefit, which is actively participating in the conversation with real people. The links are intended for human beings, not simple machines.

8. If you can't get traffic interested in your site from related blogs, related forums, etc. just where do you think it'll ever come from? If you go write meaningful comments on a forum then you'll have traffic for sure because everyone trucks over to see who the new guy is. Assuming people will be impressed with what they see, no doubt you'll get a link or two out of it. It isn't the forum link or the blog link or the articles themselves that are the point of the exercise, it's their consequences.
You didn't know that?

BB

10. I think that directory submission is ok but *mass* directory submission looks like spam to Google, so avoid automated / batch tools.

While "pull this lever and submit to 10,000 directories for $199" is tempting, very few credible websites would amass 10,000 links in an hour / day / week.

Try taking a manual, drip feed approach, which looks a lot more natural to Google. It takes more time, sure, but should be better in the long run.

c.

12. Link spamming is not pointless; it is the only way to get on google.