In the SEO world, small businesses are thought to be in the obvious culprits when it comes to making the worst SEO mistake you can imagine. The truth is, even the established business and self-proclaimed SEO experts do make these mistakes. The number of mistakes in this context isn’t just limited to five. There are many missteps you can make and kill your dreams of SEO working to your advantage
Here are 5 of the worst mistakes you can make.
- Making SEO Plans Based On Obsolete Algorithms
Search engine optimization is always evolving. One area that keeps changing is the search engine algorithm. There are marketers who fail because they invoked black hat SEO. However, the rest will flop in their quest simply because they create strategies based on outdated Google algorithms. With older algorithm tactics, your site rankings will tumble and it will hurt your bottom-line. There are penalties that come with the use of previous algorithms. Remember, your competitors are leveraging the latest Serp tracker tool suites and algorithms to stay ahead, you need to follow suit or your site will always appear at the bottom of SERP results. There are SEO tools that can help you turn around your sites performance. As a marketer who wants nothing but success, it’s your duty to stay updated on new SEO trends and make them work for you.
- Poor UX and Design
The design of your website is an integral factor from a search engine ranking perspective. If your site keeps turning off customers and your bounce rates are screaming all the way to the top, your rank won’t be anywhere near the top 100. If you rely on a site that offers the worst user experience and you haven’t optimized for mobile searches, you are doomed.
Arguably, your followers or prospects want to find what they are looking for easily. The device they are using shouldn’t be an issue, if you don’t guide them smoothly throughout your site, they will leave and never to return. Avoid a website whose page loading speed sucks and don’t use fonts that are a nightmare to read.
The bounce rates associated with nasty UX are easily picked up by search engines. The results is a lowered rank and you are bound to fail if you are perceived as a low authority website. The human attention span is no more than 4-5 seconds. Avoid clogging your site with unnecessary images. Even if you have compelling and user friendly content, slow loading speed will turn your efforts to null. Audit your sites’ core aspect and tweak to enjoy a better user experience and longer dwell time.
- Ignoring Website Audits
Small and big businesses will make the mistake of over optimizing and forgetting to modify and correct site mistakes that accumulate over time.
Failing to do a site audit can be the reason why your site slows down and commits Google-punishable mistakes. If you have migrated the site or integrated new plugin, not only do you need to test their efficiency, but you need to check whether they are compatible with your hardware or software.
At the same time, you need to audit your site to identify existing mistakes and find solutions for them. There are specific issues you need to address including broken links, optimized tags, duplicate content and keyword stuffing to mention a few. The good news is that you don’t have to drain your energy doing a manual site audit. There are site audit tools that can assist you. Some are free and the premium version comes with more features. Don’t overlook your content strategy and avoid over relying on the same content all the time.
- Optimizing For the Wrong Keywords
Marketers are always in distraught if their rich long-form content isn’t driving back traffic to the site. There are explanations to this. Your prospects may not find you since you are optimizing the wrong keywords. This is one mistake that will deny you traffic regardless of the number of times you post your value-packed content.
Even if you are targeting long tail keywords, you are bound to make the wrong move. Some marketers concentrate on popular phrases that never attract conversions. You will make a mistake if you are trying to force awkward but matching phrases into the content. Equally, relying on rich keywords within irrelevant content and optimizing keyword that don’t make sense to your audience will lead to a disaster.
Ignoring keyword research is the other mistake you will make in this context. There are reliable keyword research tools that will help you anchor your site in a way that it ranks higher than your competitor’s website. Remember, keyword stuffing is a boon to your websites rank. Even if you have found the best keyword after researching widely, make sure they appear naturally in your content.
- Working with Low Quality Content
Your site rank heavily depends on the kind of content you present for man and machine. You need to re-analyze the content is king phrase and create some to attract and drive customers to take action. In your quest to create content, you need to know how to invoke reader emotions. It’s the best way to endear and create loyalty.
At the same time, you need to avoid content that offers little if any value. Always use content that resonates with your follower’s pain points. There are rules of content that you cannot afford to ignore. Google is smart and it will flag, duplicate, scraped and irrelevant content. If you have been relying on automated source content, it’s the reason why your SERP rank is down in the trenches. Try and use SEO tools that help you identify why your bounce rate is high.
It goes without saying that marketers who rely on faulty or retrogressive SEO tactics never achieve much. Not only will you doom your website, but you will incur huge costs to turn around your efforts. The moment you realize that you are making one simple mistake, it’s wise to look for a solution before it gets out of hand. Remember, algorithms are changing and you need to step up as well. There are many lessons and case studies that can help you, you only need to take time and review them.
