- While six to eight years ago some of the tools
that I'm going to mention were really useful.
Today, they're just going to waste your time.
So, when you read about them on the blackout forums
or SEOs talking about how they can skyrocket your rankings,
you should avoid them at all costs
cause they're going to risk your rankings.
Hi everyone.
I'm Neil Patel and today I want to teach you
four useless marketing tools that you're still using
and you should stop wasting your time and money on.
(gentle music)
Before we get started, make sure you subscribe
to this channel and if you're on YouTube
click the alert notification.
The first tool is automated link building tools.
A few years ago, you could use tools like Scrape Box
or SEnuke to build a ton of backlinks,
which would end up helping your website rank better.
But, those days are gone.
Since the penguin update, Google has become
more and more sophisticated with algorithms
created to detect artificial backlink patterns.
When you're using an automated link building tool
you're likely going to build irrelevant backlinks
from pages that aren't really related to your content.
This can hurt your rankings.
The biggest problem is you'll leave footprints behind you.
Google will be able to identify these patterns
with your backlinks and they'll know
that you're artificially inflating them
and this is going to either keep your rankings flat
or it can actually hurt them at the same time.
Google even has clear policies
that forbid you from doing things
like creating malicious backlinks.
They go as far as even saying that creating links
that weren't editorial placed or vouched for
by the site owners on the page,
otherwise known as unnatural links,
could be considered a violation of their guidelines.
They will often either ignore these links or,
worse case, they could penalize you for these bad practices.
And that's rare.
Most people don't get penalized
but still, why risk it?
Why waste time on something
that's not going to help you rank any better.
So, I want you to stop using automated link to link tools.
Instead, you need to create value.
Put the user first, whether it's content,
whether it's tools like Ubersuggest.
You know, if you look at Ubersuggest
I've generated over 10,000 backlinks.
How'd I do this?
Purely by giving away something for free.
That's helped tremendously for me over the years.
And you don't have to create a tool like that
or go as far as I have.
You can use sites like CodeCanyon,
buy tools that have already existed,
buy them for 10, 20 dollars, pop them on your site
and generate natural backlinks as well from that.
The next tool you need to stop using,
it's any text or content spinners.
Spinning content in an automated way
in rewriting articles has been done for ages.
Back in 2011, people could just spin up,
rotate up, content on already popular articles
from other sites, repurpose them,
and put them on your site and people are like,
"Wow, look at all these pages of content I'm creating".
But now, with the panda algorithm update,
Google now looks at this kind of being like,
"Whoa, it provides very little value to a user".
And if that's the case and your user metrics are terrible,
your rankings are going to plummet.
Not just for that page, but your whole site.
If you have a lot of pages that are just spun up,
that are not a great user experience,
it can affect your whole site, not just those pages.
So, what you need to realize is
creating content doesn't guarantee your rankings.
Creating amazing content that people love
is going to give you a much better chance
of ranking fairly well.
Google has a pretty smart AI
and they can easily identify variations of text
that you have on your website
that other people have and the places that you took it from.
So, instead of using these tools,
what I want you to do is do research,
people love research, they're more likely
to link to articles that have research,
look for reputable sources and tie in that data
into your article and site your sources
and make sure that you're writing
high quality, original content.
The next tool that you're wasting your time on
is LinkedIn lead generation bots.
A lot of people say great things
about using automated tools
that generate you leads on LinkedIn.
These tools can help you add dozens of contacts
on a daily basis, hundreds on a weekly basis,
do cold outreach and semi-personal messages
selling your products, your services.
So let's say you're a sales rep for a software company
and you need to get in touch
with as many potential clients as possible.
The best thing to do on Earth would be
use an automated tool, right?
Wrong.
The main problem with this is that A,
LinkedIn doesn't want you to use automation
and it goes against their rules.
And two, people know
that you're sending them spammy messages.
They're not going to convert.
You're going to be a sales rep at a company
or marketing person promoting some content
and it's not going to get you any love.
On top of this, LinkedIn has sited
that they're going to battle up and fight people
who are creating these chrome extensions automated tools
and put them down for good.
So, instead what you want to do it create valuable content
on LinkedIn that people want to read,
especially if it's video based, cause LinkedIn loves videos.
You'll also can go live on LinkedIn,
which does tremendously well as well.
And by doing those things you're going to get more followers
from there as well, you can sell your content and services.
Just think of it this way, if I create a live video
on LinkedIn and I'm providing value,
people are going to be like, "Oh Neil, this is great".
And within that video not only getting more followers,
more shares, more comments, more engagements,
I can talk about my ad agency, Neil Patel Digital,
and some people will go from my LinkedIn video
to Neil Patel Digital and then become a customer.
Last but not least, comment bot.
Much like automated content creation tools,
a lot of people have been using bots
to automate commenting on other sites for years.
This is what plugins like Akismet by Wordpress
are so popular.
No one wants all these spammy blog comments.
I literally get thousands and thousands
of blog comments per day.
Now, I even conducted an experiment to determine or not
whether comment links have affect on rankings.
And believe it or not, they do.
But, when using automated tools,
you're leaving a lot of footprints behind you
plus, you're providing no value to people.
Those comments are just going to get deleted
or get caught in comment spam traps.
So, instead, if you want to leave comments,
write up something that's thoughtful
that helps people.
Not just the person that wrote the article
but other people reading it and then leave it.
When you leave relevant comments
A, people are going to know about you
and start following you.
B, if they like what you have to say
they may check out your business.
And C, they may end up converting into a customer.
Now, Google is looking for spammy comments,
you don't want to associate your website with spammy comments
cause all it's going to do is hurt your rankings.
My recommendation is for you to think long-term.
Don't take those quick hits being like,
"Yeah, I just do this and my rankings are going to increase".
Anyone that tells you something that's too good to be true,
chances are it is and it's just going to hurt you
in the long run.
If you need help with your rankings,
your digital marketing, check out my ad agency, NP digital.
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Thank you for watching.