The most essential part of online marketing for any business lies in its SEO strategy. However, every year that passes, SEO strategies get changed up as search engines find new ways to ensure that they provide the most relevant search results for consumers.
Unfortunately, some business owners have yet to adapt to the new ways of conducting effective SEO. As a result, they keep making the same common SEO mistakes and can’t figure out why their SEO strategies don’t bear any fruit.
Have you been optimizing your websites but you are still not listed or even ranked? Chances are you are making one, two or more of the SEO mistakes elaborated in this article.\
But don’t worry, we have you covered. In addition to listing seven of the most common mistakes in search engine optimization, we have also provided you with tips on how to avoid them.
Hence, you can improve your SEO and start seeing some results.
Here are 7 Common SEO Mistakes
To learn more about the SEO mistakes you should avoid, keep reading.
1. Wrong Use of Keywords
Keywords are essential to your SEO because they are what consumers usually search for when they are looking for goods and services. However, most websites make these three common keyword mistakes. The mistakes include:
a) Keyword Stuffing
A few years ago, stuffing your content with as many keywords as possible worked wonders for your SEO. However, times have changed. Search engines now focus on ensuring their users find the most relevant information when they search for something.
Nowadays, overusing keywords gets flagged as spam. Once you get flagged for spam, your website will not get listed in the search results much less get ranked.
b) Competing for Top Keywords
Most websites want to choose the easiest keywords to use in their content. However, the easier the keyword, the more competition you will face.
Focus on the keywords that are relatively neglected at the moment. This gives you a head start to establish your online presence before everyone else catches up. Consider keywords related to a niche that people are interested in but can’t find enough relevant content.
c) Using Non-relevant Keywords
Avoid using keywords that are not related to the main topic of your content. In a bid to use keywords for ranking purposes, many websites are diluting the relevance of their content by using keywords not related to the main topic at hand.
For better keywords use; conduct research on long-tail keywords and other types of keywords and AdWords that help you maximize your optimization.
2. Poor Links
Another common SEO mistake is assuming that any link is good. With this mentality, you don’t scrutinize the links you use.
In fact the quality of links you utilize also contribute to your SEO results.
Links provide additional traffic to your webpages but they should also be relevant to the content.
Hence, use internal and external links that are relevant to the content you are publishing else they will be a total waste of SEO efforts.
Seek backlinks to authoritative sights by providing them with guest posts that are associated with their content. Additionally, provide guest posts that are also related to your products or services. This makes it easier to backlink to your website while remaining relevant.
Also, make sure the anchor texts you use are related to the link. Anchor texts are utilized by both readers and search engine bots to determine the relevance of the link to the content.
3. Neglecting Local SEO
When you upload content, you should make maximum use of local SEO. Local SEO is essential for targeting customers and clients that are within your locale.
If you are not utilizing local SEO then you are turning away plenty of traffic from your area which is a grave mistake. Nowadays, people searching for products or services include a location in order to streamline the search results they get.
Let’s say you are looking for a particular business in Edmonton. You will enter the business you are looking for plus the word Edmonton; for instance, ‘dentist in Edmonton’. Local SEO makes it easier for your business to appear in search results within a given location more easily.
Check out this link to discover more about why you need local SEO.
4. Not Using Tags
Using the right keywords is not entirely sufficient for SEO optimization. In addition to keywords, web crawlers also use title tags, metatag description, and image tags to rank your pages. Hence, if your tags are missing, insufficient or weak, then the web crawlers will not deem your website worthy of ranking.
A meta description is the short text displayed on search results when search engines showcase your website. Hence when using meta description tags make sure you include your main keyword for each page.
Image tags are also essential because they help you generate additional traffic to your pages derived from image searches.
5. Slow Websites
Another SEO mistake to avoid is having a slow website. When browsing the internet, there is nothing as frustrating as a website that takes too long to load or freezes up. If your website is too slow for one, readers will not wait for it to load when there are faster alternatives.
Secondly, search engines are vehemently trying to ensure their users have the best user experience. A slow loading page is a hindrance to their customer experience goals. Hence, your website will get penalized for this and will get ranked poorly.
Make sure you are continuously optimizing your website for faster load times to ensure you do not get penalized. You can start by minimizing the number of scripts and plugins on your website to improve load speeds.
6. Not Optimizing For Smartphones
Nowadays the majority of internet users utilize smartphones to browse the internet. Hence, if your website is not optimized for smartphone users then you are missing out.
It doesn’t matter if your SEO efforts get you ranked at no.1. If your website is not accessible via handheld devices such as smartphones and tablets, then you are turning away thousands of users.
According to research, 58% of total web traffic in 2018 originated from smartphones alone. Hence, if you do not have a smartphone compatible website, you are missing out on about 60% of your organic traffic.
7. Not Using Analytic Tools
Irrespective of the SEO strategies you use, a measure of accountability is necessary. How do you compare and contrast the SEO efforts you put in against what you get in return.
Assuming that just because you are using SEO on your website you are going to get ranked is a mistake.
As a result, you should make use of SEO analytic tools to help you determine if your strategy is working effectively. Using analytics also helps you figure out where you need to pull up your socks as well as provide a basis to determine if your current efforts are worthwhile.
If you are unaware of which tools to use, here is a link to some of the best SEO analytical tools for you.
Final Word on Common SEO Mistakes to Avoid
Sometimes, the common SEO mistakes elaborated above can be the hindering factor to your SEO success. However, the best way to ensure you avoid making these mistakes is by ensuring you are up to date with current SEO trends.
SEO trends change almost every year because search engines come up with new guidelines on how SEO should get done. The more accustomed you become to the trends, the better you perform in SEO.
For more informative articles of SEO and online digital marketing, kindly visit our website.
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