Top 5 SEO actions that should never be automated

It’s the silver bullet to SEO: Automation.

Every small business owner would love for SEO to plan, implement, execute, measure and sustain itself automatically.

However, the truth and reality is that it doesn’t. The End.

Okay, there is more to it that just stating the obvious and calling it a day.

This doesn’t mean that certain aspects of SEO cannot be automated.

In fact, there are many aspects of SEO that can be automated.

But the wisdom in automating SEO is knowing what to automate and how to go about automation.

Blinded by future rankings and the expected tsunami of traffic to be receive moments after signing their SEO agreement, business owners fall prey to paying large sums of money for services that either can’t be rendered or are rendered and leave their website severely penalized or de-indexed by search engines.

Too many times, business owners and businesses fall victim to the ole’ foolproof SEO automatic packages that tout overnight page one rankings.

Instead of taking the time to invest in SEO for the long haul, most business owners opt for the silver bullet approach.

Now, I can’t stop you or any other business owner in search of SEO strategies and services from falling prey to automating SEO.

While you can automate some of your SEO actions, there are some SEO actions that you should never automate.

Automated content creation is GIGO

Automating content creation is nothing more that Garbage In, Garbage Out. It sounds good at surface level to automatically have your content created.

But have you seen the final product of automated content or spun content?

It makes no sense. There is no structure of the sentences and the grammar is all over the place.

The entire content looks like a piece of keyword stuffed garble solely written for search engines.

You also run the danger of Google declaring that the content for your website has been copied from somewhere else.

If this happens, then your website’s search rankings are doomed until you remove the spun content and create value-add, unique content that is human readable first, search engines last.

Automatic Link Building

Anytime you put SEO, automation and link building in the same sentence or near one another, you’re asking for a SEO nightmare.

Per Google and their ferocious Panda Update, links should be generated naturally.

If any SEO consultant approaches you with automatic link building packages, then please RUN and RUN FAR without a second thought.

In short, paying for links is against the terms and conditions of search engine policy. Long gone are the days of begging, borrowing, or exchanging links without grave penalties.

To generate search-safe link building strategies, it’s best to write highly engaging and educational content with a focus on solving customer challenges.

When you do this, this increases the chances of customers organically sharing your content with the masses and substantially increasing your website’s backlink profile across a wide range of domain extensions with high page and domain authority.

Yes, I know this approach to link building will be time consuming, yet it’ll be worth it in the end as opposed to taking shortcuts buying automated link building packages.

Automated PPC Campaigns

If there is one good way to waste your hard earned marketing dollars, it is automating PPC campaigns.

The ole’ set it, forget it and hope for the best and profitable results will put you and your business on the path of going belly up.

There are a large number small business owners that launch websites and think the road to riches is flipping the switch on automated PPC campaigns.

Yes, certain aspects of PPC campaigns can be automated, but not the entire process.

In fact, I encourage you as well as my customers to not automate PPC campaigns for the sole sake that search behavior changes without a moment’s notice.

The keywords that are successful today may drain your budget 6 months down the road. Customer habits change and search is forever changing, both paid and non-paid search.

Automatically listing your business

Spending money to get automatically listed in local web directories doesn’t make sense at all.

There are many SEO professionals and agencies that will tell you without a shadow of a doubt that submitting to web directories is a great way to link build.

Let me just forewarn you that not every directory is beneficial for your website.

Matter of fact, there are many directories that have been penalized by Google for their deceptive SEO actions.

Websites that are associated with such directory websites are often said to be associated with negative SEO.

In short, search engines like Bing and Google don’t like directories due to their inorganic link building offers and exchanges.

You are doing more harm than good when your website is listed in local web directories that are not in adherence to search engine policy.

Instead, focus on getting listed on the following sites:

• Google Pages
• Google+
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Foursquare
• Yelp
• Angie’s List
• local Chamber of Commerce and so on

Don’t fall for automated on-page SEO

On-page SEO has become pivotal part of SEO in recent years.

And just like with every other SEO tactic that has come before it, everyone tries to get and stay a step ahead of search engines by automating on-page SEO.

But most that try to automate on-page SEO end up losing their focus and having their website penalized for over optimization.

Small business owners and website operators in general know that on-page SEO is a methodical, time-consuming process that is ongoing.

So to save time in hopes of boosting search rankings, traffic, conversions and sales, many website owners look for the latest and greatest affordable SEO software to automate their entire website’s on-page SEO efforts.

Automated on-page SEO attempts to address the optimization of page titles, page description, keyword density, and internal and external linking to name a few.

Automating on-page SEO sounds good in theory and will leave anyone wanting more traffic and greater search rankings salivating at the opportunity to reduce their time and monetary investment.

Using automated SEO at your own risk

Every business is strapped for time and money in their effort to serve as many customers at the highest level of quality, capturing the lion’s share of their market.

And as the Internet advances from infancy into childhood, gaining market share for businesses will only become more challenging, especially when it comes to SEO and the search industry in general.

SEO is not easy for any business, whether big or small, and especially SEO for small businesses. Although search engines try to keep the playing field of SEO level, SEO is still very much like the wild west.

With SEO and search in general being forever changing, new tools, strategies and tactics are always right around the next bend that try to reduce and eliminate the time it takes for one to SEO their website.

That’s why it’s imperative that you perform your due diligence when it comes to automating certain aspects of SEO.

Every aspect of SEO should not be automated, even if you can do it and get away with it. Automation is a good thing, but only when kept in moderation.

Is automating your SEO strategy and effort worth the short-term gains? Think about it.

You take a lifetime to build your online reputation only to allow automated spammy and black-hat SEO techniques ruin it within moments.