If you’re running a business, it’s important to make sure your website is as search engine friendly as possible. Unfortunately, many businesses make common SEO mistakes that can hurt their ranking and visibility online. In this post, we’ll list seven of the most common SEO mistakes and how to avoid them.
No one is perfect, and that includes businesses when it comes to SEO. Even the best companies can make mistakes that can hurt their search engine rankings. In this blog post, we’ll list seven of the most common SEO mistakes businesses make, so you can avoid them. Let’s get started!
If you’re running a website, it’s important to make sure you’re doing everything you can to optimize it for search engines. After all, SEO is one of the most effective ways to drive traffic to your site. However, SEO can be complex and tricky, and it’s easy to make mistakes. Here are seven SEO mistakes to avoid:
1. Not doing your keyword research.
Keyword research is essential for SEO success. You need to identify the right keywords to target for your website. Otherwise, you’ll be ranking for keywords that no one is searching for, and you’ll get no traffic.
2. Not optimizing your title tags.
Your title tags are one of the most important elements of your SEO strategy. Make sure your title tags are optimized for your target keywords.
3. Not optimizing your meta descriptions.
Meta descriptions are another important element of SEO. They give searchers a brief preview of what your page is about, so make sure they’re clear and concise, and include your target keywords.
4. Using too many keywords.
Keyword stuffing used to be a common SEO tactic, but it doesn’t work anymore. In fact, it can actually hurt your SEO efforts. So don’t stuff
#5 Not Focusing on Mobile
Worldwide, mobile search accounts for just over 50% of all web traffic. Over the past decade, Google has placed a much greater emphasis on websites that are mobile-friendly. Despite this, far too many businesses rely on an outdated web design that has not been optimized to support a mobile experience.
Some of the biggest SEO mistakes businesses make on mobile include:
- A non-responsive web design
- Slow website speeds
- Slow loading times for videos and pictures
- Incorrect or missing local information
- A difficult navigation system
The Solution
As Google continues to move toward a mobile-first search index, it would be wise to follow their lead. Neglecting more than half of your daily potential customers will only jeopardize your ability to rank highly and expand your reach.
A website redesign—one that utilizes a responsive cross-platform design—is a worthwhile investment. Done right, it will immensely improve the user experience. Not only does this create a happier customer base, but it also means users will spend more time browsing your site. These prolonged interactions will increase your SEO ranking over time.
#6 Sub-par Content
Yes, Google search results are controlled by a complex computerized algorithm, but the search engine monolith can be surprisingly judgmental when it comes to the content you’re putting out. Google’s algorithm is interested in providing high-quality content only—your users want the same.
Relevant keywords are important, but not at the expense of a poorly constructed, low-quality website. Far too many companies make glaring SEO mistakes when it comes to their content, including:
- Creating useless content with heavy keyword stuffing rather than valuable information
- Plagiarizing other websites’ content
- Trying to optimize for too many keywords in a single article
- Building content that is inaccurate or untrustworthy
- Scarcely posting, or following an inconsistent posting schedule
The Solution
Blog content is a great way to drive SEO value, but its fundamental purpose is still to provide readers with valuable information. Your articles and web pages should champion your authority and trustworthiness, including potential customer solutions.
To that end, strong SEO efforts is a byproduct of good content (not the other way around).
Here are a few ways to ensure your keywords are surrounded by top-notch content, rather than fluff and inaccuracies:
- Work on your content strategy and SEO strategy in tandem
- Brainstorm hyper-relevant pillar topics then variate around these main themes to create content clusters that cover a wide variety of topics
- Outsource your copywriting to professionals who aren’t just SEO content machines, but can produce high-quality writing
#7 Incorporating Optimized Anchors
In the past, optimized anchors were one of the easiest ways to improve SEO results. These anchor links were embedded into keywords that companies were hoping to rank for. You’ve almost certainly seen this technique used before, even if the concept doesn’t immediately sound familiar. Here’s an example according to Google:
“There are many wedding rings on the market. If you want to have a wedding, you will have to pick the best ring. You will also need to buy flowers and a wedding dress.”
Wedding rings, wedding, best ring, buy flowers, and wedding dress are all relevant keywords for a bridal shop or wedding planner. In theory, these links would lead to internal pages and increase the SEO rating. But Google caught on to this somewhat underhanded technique.
Now, they’ve banned the practice of link scheming, which includes any URLs that are intended to manipulate page ranking rather than provide useful links.
The Solution
There are safe anchors you can use, including naked URLs, branded URLs, and long phrases. Focus on link quality over link quantity to use these tastefully without algorithmic penalization.
SEO, or search engine optimization, is a process of improving the visibility and ranking of a website on search engines like Google and Bing. In order to achieve this, SEO experts use techniques like keyword research and link building. While SEO can be a complex and time-consuming endeavor, there are some common mistakes that can sabotage your efforts.
One mistake is failing to do proper keyword research. Keywords are the foundation of any SEO campaign, so it’s important to choose them carefully. Another mistake is relying too heavily on low-quality links. Link Building is an important part of SEO, but Google penalizes sites that have links from spammy or irrelevant websites. Additionally, over optimizing your website with keywords can also hurt your ranking. This is known as keyword stuffing, and it’s something that Google’s algorithm looks out for. Finally, neglecting your website’s mobile experience is a huge mistake in today’s digital world. More and more people are using their phones and tablets to browse the internet, so it’s essential that your website looks good and functions properly on mobile devices. Avoid these common SEO mistakes, and you’ll be well on your way to achieving better visibility and ranking on search engines.
