SEO being dead is one of the most common misconceptions that people like to talk about. SEO is not dead and as long as search engines are still being used SEO will always be relevant. As the years go by, SEO will continue to transform along with technologies to something relatively new.
Here are some SEO Tactics That No Longer Work
1) Spammy Guest Blogging
SEO specialists had been posting comments on several relevant blogs. It was possible to use mass posting using software and spun text. Such comments are now considered spammy by Google and many other search engines. Instead, you should try publishing genuine high-quality blogs within your niche. You’ll be able to build relationships with the blog owners and other community members also.
2) Quantity of links over quality
When the Internet was still new, search engines would rank results based solely on the content of the webpage. It wasn’t until Google’s PageRank Algorithm was introduced that search engines began to look at and value the number of people linking to that page. With Google’s current algorithm update, Google Penguin, we see that search engines are now focused on link quality — not just quantity.
3) Keyword Stuffing
Don’t worry about making your ‘Yoast plugin Green’. Keyword stuffing doesn’t work. Try to write naturally when you are writing an article. Writing your keyword a thousand times in an article will not help you rank for that term.
4) Press Release
PR releases result in 100s of no-follow links which might help a little in keeping your link profile clean and diversified. However, they don’t help you with rankings.
5) RS feed and Forum Backlinking
Those 2 strategies might no longer work as they are not conceptual or editorial links. Only conceptual, editorial links will be working for the upcoming period. Guest posting and PBN will somewhere between them and will depend on expertise of link builder.
6) Duplicated content
The content is still the king. Your website needs original and high-quality content. Using duplicate content will affect negatively your SEO ranking. Your site should pass Copyscape Plagiarism Check. If you use copied content from other sources, you may have to pay a Google penalty.
There are many other factors that are no longer working for SEO, however I felt important to mention just those.
The main factor of SEO is nowadays Local SEO. It is becoming fundamental for small businesses and it`s importance will only continue to rise in near future.