In the past, the most common SEO practices were keyword stuffing and link farming which to many people seemed unethical and were termed as spamming. However, it’s good to note that during this time, these were the most effective SEO practices, although today more effective SEO practices have emerged, we ought to know that these earlier practices laid the foundation upon which search algorithms have been improved.

Today, we can take pride in the effectiveness of social media and email marketing but it all began with these practices that we now term extinct. In 2010 for example, content spinning and link building were the main SEO practice that brought results even though they were still considered unethical.
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These practices were later termed redundant right after Google updated its search algorithms. To those who didn’t embrace the new, SEO became dead but those who evolved with it saw great results.

While Panda dealt with keyword stuffing, several institutions still thrived on unnatural link building. SEOs would farm links for their sites as many as they could to get the much needed traffic. However, Google’s hammer fell across their faces with the release of Penguin, an update that dealt with these unnaturally inflated links. This seemed like the death of SEO. Again, those who adapted lived as the rest wept.

When Google released hummingbird, the surfing experience became better for those who were seeking information online. The update worked like magic in sieving light content from quality content. Those who never invested in producing rich website content again lost big as thin pages went dead over the dominance of rich content.
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The update incorporated synonyms and word contexts in their algorithms enriching search results for surfers. This was when the idea of ‘Content is King’ first surfaced. The SEO industry now had to change their marketing techniques and prioritize on creating rich content.