As a business owner, you’re used to taking risks. After all, you wouldn’t have gotten to where you are without doing things that make you uncomfortable.

Of course, you don’t take foolish.

Risks. You learn as much as you can about the viable paths forward and then remove as much risk as possible from the options available to maximize your chance for success.

Well, it’s no different with SEO. Take a second to learn some intelligent SEO risks to take and silly ones to avoid in 2022 and beyond:

1. To Take: High-Quality Backlinks

If your website boasts hundreds of links pointing to you but just a handful going back out, Google rewards you less than if you maintain a balance. Why? The search engine behemoth believes reputable websites happily link to other websites with equally strong (or more robust) reputations.

No optimal ratio exists, so make sure you add links to quality websites in your niche that also help your visitors in some way.

2. To Avoid: Using Your Keywords in Your Links’ Anchor Text

It used to be that adding your keywords to your blue anchor link text would drive up your search rankings quite nicely. This also fits logic: you want your website to rank for specific search terms, which you highlight so Google knows what to organize you for.

Alas, some no-good SEOs found methods to spam thousands of links with their exact anchor text across the web—artificially boosting these websites to the top of search results, which Google (and searchers) didn’t want.

So now, Google penalizes this practice. No one knows a precise ratio for how to avoid this, but the consensus holds no more than 1-3% of links pointing to your site should include your exact keywords in the text.

3. To Take: Redesigning Your Website

Yes—this one carries significant risk if you don’t know what you’re doing. That’s why it’s essential to go with a designer with lots of experience who can prove they protect client search rankings. And, with the right firm, you’re possibly in for an excellent orders boost!

Users expect your website to feature a modern design. They also want a site that’s easy to use. Moreover, you can employ plenty of small SEO ins and outs in your plan that affect your rankings.

With the right partner, this can be a big win for your SEO.

4. To Avoid: Using “Doorway” Pages

“Doorway” pages may target multiple cities or locations but link to one specific page. They can also summon various similar pages in search results, which Google and web searchers don’t like.

You can create pages on your site relevant to various cities and suburbs. After all, searchers need to know you offer your service in their location. You’re okay if you don’t link and drive searchers back to a single final destination on your site.

Doorway pages, as they are used, actually offer little utility and typically spam keywords to achieve search visibility. Discussing the benefits of your products and services and highlighting why you’re different and better than the competition does provide value and won’t irk Google (or searchers).

Wrapping Up

So, there you have it: smart SEO risks to take and foolish ones to avoid.

Which will you choose in 2022 and beyond?