Common SEO Mistakes That Are Killing Your Website
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is important for every company because it provides organizations with the visibility they need in order to fetch more visitors in an organic manner in this digital world. A strong SEO strategy helps your business rank higher on search engines like Google, and it helps your content be visible on Search Engine Result Pages (SERP) for all the relevant keywords that users are using, bringing them into the sales funnel. SEO is thus a great way to improve the quality of your website by making it user-friendly, easier to navigate, easier to understand, and faster in terms of the loading speed of your web pages.
Search engines serve hundreds of thousands of customers per day, customers who are seeking out answers to their questions or solutions to their issues. If you have a website, blog, or online shop, Search Engine Optimization can help your business develop and meet the desired goals. Organic search is a large part of most businesses' website performance in addition to a vital aspect of the buyer funnel and, in the long run, it gets users to convert or engage.
The goal of any skilled Search Engine Optimization specialist is to establish a robust basis for a website with a smooth, effective consumer experience that is easily discoverable in search thanks to the trust and credibility of the brand. Search Engine Optimization can place you ahead of the competition. If two sites are promoting identical products, the Search Engine Optimized-web page is much more likely to have extra customers and make more income than the web page that is not optimized properly from an SEO perspective. In the process of trying to keep up with the SEO demands that go on in the market, sometimes businesses make a few critical mistakes that affect their organic search ranking.
Here are 10 common mistakes to avoid while doing SEO for your website.
1. Choosing Wrong Keywords
Search Engine Optimization is all about choosing the correct keywords that you want your website to rank for in the search engine. But you need to make sure you are choosing the right keywords for your website.
When you define the product and services offered by your company, it is more important to understand what words your customers would use while searching for the products or services you offer. One of the most common mistakes is neglecting the preference of search engines in selecting keywords and the usage of long-tail keywords. You need to understand that the keywords you might consider correct might mean something completely different for other people or could be too generic for your users.
In both cases, you will end up optimizing your website for all the wrong keywords. It is very important to do proper research carefully before you start the optimization process with the correct set of keywords. Various tools are available, like Google AdWords Keyword Planner, Google Trends, and SEMrush, which can help you get trending and find adequate keywords.
2. Duplicate Content
Let's understand what exactly is duplicate content. In context with SEO, duplicate content means the same content is present on more than one web page within the same or different domains. The problem that arises with duplicate content is that search engines are unable to decide which content they should index, this eventually leads to the content not showing up in the search results. There are duplicate versions of homepages that are being served to search engines. They are also called duplicate content. Most of the time search engines are successful in figuring out which version they should index, but sometimes they get it wrong.
Then, there are duplicate URLs that are used inconsistently, causing search bots to be confused and consequently devaluing the URL or affecting your website's search rankings. Duplicating content material takes place when you or your team members duplicate the content material of another website and then paste it on your site or you use the same piece of content material across various pages inside your website. This difficulty takes place more frequently when an SEO guideline has not been placed properly in the architecture phase of building a domain. A fashion designer or content creator of your website might not notice it due to the fact they're no longer Search Engine Optimization professionals.
3. Ignoring Google MyBusiness Listing
One important Search Engine Optimization blunder is not claiming or nicely handling Google MyBusiness listings. With Google continuing to give location importance to "close-to-me" searches, the single biggest opportunity for small businesses is to assert their location, offer all information, and answer available questions.
4. Poor Loading Time
Sometimes all the photographs, videos, banners, and many other types of graphics present on your website increase the overall appearance of your website, which makes it more appealing to the consumers. But it is essential to balance all these features with the loading time of the website. If your website takes a lot of time to load, then the customers will quickly leave the website. This is especially the case for mobile users who lack a strong internet connection and large amounts of memory.
Every time a user visits any of the web pages directly from the search results, the search engines pay close attention to how long they stay on that page and what actions they take on the web page. If the user quickly leaves that page, it shows that the web page is not according to what the customer is looking for. There are various methods to lower a website's loading time which include the use of caching programs and limiting the number of plugins. One of the main culprits can be poorly written codes as well.
5. Using Black Hat Methods
Black hat methods are used by many companies to get quicker results. These practices influence search results by violating search engine guidelines. These tactics are riskier to use while optimizing the website because search engines, particularly Google, actively monitor and then penalize or even ban websites that try to violate the guidelines. Common black hat tactics include link exchanges, keyword stuffing, blog comment spamming, purchased links, and hidden text.
6. Considering Link Building Optional
Backlinks are the links directed toward your website. It is considered that the more backlinks, the more famous is your website. It is believed that backlinks are crucial for Search Engine Optimization because various search engines including Google offer greater credit to those who have a myriad of backlinks. This truth is largely accepted and incorporated by the leading Search Engine Optimization agency in India but there are digital advertising strategists who try to avoid the significance of link building. However, this is clearly an incorrect step.
As a result, link building plays an essential role in the achievements of Search Engine Optimization services and it clearly defines how Google can determine which websites ought to be pondered on the first web page of Google Search.
7. Forgetting Mobile Users
Nowadays, the majority of the audience is using a mobile device to access good content. If your website isn't mobile-friendly, the User Experience will be negatively impacted and you will lose out on many users.
8. Missing Quality Links
The quality of the external links is more crucial than their quantity. It's miles better when one can make sure that you link to relevant, better-ranking websites with a strong reputation, no longer to simply any website. It is also beneficial to link back to websites that have linked to you because it brings back traffic in the coming future.
9. Forgetting Analytics Tools
Google Analytics is an important tool used in the process of Search Engine Optimization that helps you measure your website's performance. You can see how your optimization is working for the various types of content present on your website and which strategies are working best for you. Many marketers don't prefer analyzing performance on a regular basis, but this is a serious mistake that they are committing. Setting up an analytics tool for your website and regularly viewing the performance is very essential for your optimization results.
10. No Social Media Interaction
While you are sharing your content material on social media, you get the attention of customers who have considerable online influence. This indicates their content is noticed by both your target market and search engines like Google as well. That’s why it’s important to create relationships with such users and apply their credibility to promote your content.
If you really want to improve the organic search rankings of your website, you must properly understand how SEO works. It is also important to understand the common SEO mistakes you might be currently making and then try to fix them properly. The sooner you start correcting these mistakes, the better your organic rankings will be.
