I was in the middle of writing a blog post about link building techniques that work, but having looked around the internet there are lots of articles that already explain how to build links.

The only problem I see is that a lot of them have ‘bulked up’ their list so it seems like they have more ideas then others, the problem is they mention doing some tactics which you really shouldn’t be doing and could be throwing you into the 70′s themed disco while doing the Google Dance, ugh platforms, flares and whats up with their hair! Or even worse these link building strategies could be throwing your site in completely the wrong direction!

So I bring to you my friends, the list of link building techniques you really shouldn’t be doing!

1. Directory links

   Seriously whats the point? The only directory you should try to get into is DMOZ, when the Yahoo directory was around that was worth the money but now, it is very rare to find a directory that is going to give you any boost in the SERPs.

   The website directory scene has been washed away by ammeter directory owners out for a quick buck and spammers.

   Saying that though, just so I do not annoy all of you ‘good’ directory owners, I am sure there are some decent human edited un-spammed directories out there, but still your time will be much better spent link building in other ways rather then hunting around for a mediocre directory link.

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In 2010 when Google released the Caffeine update people thought that the Google Dance was no more.

However they were wrong the Google Dance still very much exists.

How do you know if you have been hit by the Google Dance?

If your website is constantly bouncing from page one to page 5+ and then back to page one then you have probably been hit by the famous Google Dance.

You should not get this mixed up with the Google Sandbox, the Sandbox is fairly easy to overcome and it doesn’t last long, it is very common to see Google rank a new website highly for the first few weeks but then drop it down the rankings until finally it will place it in its correct position.

The Google Dance however will keep bouncing up and down for months!

What can you do about the Google Dance?

The best way to combat the Google Dance is by not getting it in the first place, this does sound easier said then done but if you play by the rules then this should be quite simple.

From research I have done, it seems you become affected by the Google Dance only when you have a dodgy backlink profile, or if you have major duplicate content issues.

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Using a good keyword density in your web pages and posts is a very important factor when trying to improve your on page SEO. I have seen many of my blog posts rank only on their keyword density and on page SEO.

In this blog post I am going to show you how to properly insert your keywords into your posts and what keyword density to use.

One very important thing you must do is to not use your keyword too much in the post this is ‘keyword stuffing’ and can harm your rankings!

Your keyword density should be around 4% – 5% (less if it is a short post) you may see other people say it should be more or less, but this is what I use and it works very well for me.

To check your keyword density you can use any of these sites:
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Personally I deal mainly in white hat SEO tactics but recently I was outranked by a site which was clearly black hat, I searched his links and a majority of them were spammy blog comments, the on page SEO was also pretty poor with a clear case of keyword stuffing.

However his tactics worked he was number one! Even though he stole my spot I didn’t report him, I wanted to see how long he stayed up there for. I thought he would be gone in a week of so but to my amazement he stayed number one for a good 3 months, he must of made some money!

I thought I would give this black hat world a try, so I started a new site (I won’t name it), I used black hat tactics to get it ranked including spammy blog comments, forum profiles, link exchange networks and Fivver.

I staggered each tactic per month, the first month I created well over 5,000 blog comments the following month 1,000′s forum profiles. By this point I was actually ranking ok on the 2nd page for a keyword that had medium competition.
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There is a lot of talk in the SEO community circling around the benefits or negative affects of hyphenated domain names.

I’d like to shed some light on this matter, and I’ll keep it short and sweet:

The company I work for has many hyphenated domain names and every single one of their sites ranks well in Google.

That doesn’t mean you should get a domain name like:

should-i-use-hyphenated-domain-names.com

When choosing a domain name you want it to be as short as possible and unless your trying to build a brand you should have some keywords in it. Yes hyphens do add extra characters to the domain name thus making it longer but it also means you may be able to obtain a domain name when the original without the hyphens is already registered, having the keywords in a domain name is more important then adding a couple of extra characters.

For me hyphenated domain names work very well I also think it is better for the users because its easier to read.

Google sees the hyphens as ‘spaces’ so in theory this is the correct way of writing the name, you may have read on the internet that hyphenated domain names are bad and will have a negative effect on SEO this is untrue, and honestly it doesn’t make a difference. However if you buy a domain name like should-i-use-hyphenated-domain-names.com it does look spammy to the user but it still wouldn’t affect your Google ranking. In-fact you will actually see yourself ranking for ‘Should I use Hyphenated domain names’ in no time at all. Google puts a lot of weight on exact match domains this is to prevent anyone out ranking a Brand name

I hope I have made things clear with this post.

In most cases you will find local listings are harder to get ranked in then the organic results, this is because there has never been a sure fire way or getting moved up the rankings unlike the organic results where you usually just have to build links.

One of the most important parts of getting ranked in the local listings are: Make sure you listing is completely up to date and accurate. Also make sure you use the correct categories and you target the keywords you want to rank for in your description similar to the organic On-Page SEO.

Reviews and comments also help but sometimes these are hard to obtain, a tactic I use to get more reviews and comments is simply asking my customers to leave a review or comment after I have provided them with a service and most of the time (if the service was good) they will. You should also add in some pictures to your places listing the more content the better.

Try to avoid using keywords in your business title Google and other search engines don’t like this kind of keyword stuffing unless of course its your business name.

If you concentrate on the above steps, build your reviews up and be patient you will soon see your local listing page rise in the rankings.

If you have just signed up for a Google places listing and you cannot see your listing in the results then try waiting a few days then look again, Google can take some time to add your listing to the results. If you are still not seeing your listing anywhere in the rankings take a look at the business listings guidelines. If you are sure you have followed the guide lines then the next best thing is to report the problem to Google.

Remember anything that involves Google can take some time and you wont see results overnight so try not to beat yourself up too much if you don’t see yourself in the rankings after a day or two, just be patient.