It’s no secret that in the world today, when most of us need something, whether it’s an idea, an answer, a product, a service or even a strategy, we usually start by asking search engines.
Do you know that Google alone gets 3.5 billion searches per day? Incredible right?
Just as search engines have become important in our lives, they have also become an integral part of many business marketing strategies.
SEO is seen as a digital marketing practice that can be applied to any website, as it helps improve a site’s visibility on search engines like Google and Microsoft Binge.
People are constantly searching for anything, whether loosely or directly related to your business and SEO serves as an opportunity to answer their questions, solve their problems, become a trusted resource for them and connect with them generally.
But even experienced marketers or veterans in marketing can make SEO mistakes that can affect their rankings.
Whether your site promotes products, offer services or shares expert knowledge on a specific topic, SEO can help drive traffic and increase online visibility.
The better visibility your pages have in such results, the more likely you are to be found and visited.
In this article, you’ll not only learn about the common SEO mistakes, but you’ll also be enlightened on what SEO is all about, why it is important for online visibility and be given practical solutions on how to avoid common SEO mistakes.
So, dear reader, if you’re someone whose website is not ranking for your top keywords or if you’re struggling with attracting and retaining the right audience for your site, this article is for you.
Table of Contents
ToggleWhat Is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is a process of optimizing a website to improve his visibility on search engines like Google, Microsoft Binge, etc. by getting traffic from free, organic, editorial or natural search results in such engines.
It helps such engines understand your website’s content and connect it with users by delivering relevant, valuable results based on their search queries.
SEO is all about making improvements to your website structure and contents so its pages can be discovered by people searching for what you have to offer, through search engines.
In other words, it is what you do to rank higher on search engines and get more traffic to your site.
The aim of SEO is to improve your website’s position to rank on the first page of search engine results pages (SERPs) for the most relevant and valuable keywords to your target audience.
The higher your website is listed, the more people will see it, thus driving qualified traffic to your site.
Why SEO Is Important For Online Visibility
SEO is important and vital for online visibility because it helps websites rank higher on search engine result pages (SERPs) by significantly increasing the chances of your website appearing higher in those pages.
This makes them more likely to be found by users and increases the chances of potential customers seeing and visiting your website when searching for relevant keywords,.
It also boosts your overall online presence and traffic.
Other reasons include:
It Targets The Right Audience
SEO helps attract users who are actively searching for your products or services.
By optimizing relevant keywords, you can attract users who are specifically interested in your products or services.
It Increases Organic Traffic
By ranking higher in search results, your website attracts more organic traffic from users actively looking for information related to your business.
In addition, higher rankings lead to more clicks in visit from search engines like Google.
Cost-Effective Marketing
SEO can be a more cost-effective way of generating long-term traffic and leads when compared to paid advertising, as organic traffic from SEO is free and sustainable in the long run.
It Improves Brand Awareness
When your website consistently appears on the first page of search results, it builds brand recognition and credibility among potential customers.
In addition, websites that rank well are often seen as more trustworthy and authoritative.
Competitive Advantage
Implementing effective essay on strategies allows your business stand out from its competitors who may not be optimizing their online presence.
In other words, if your competitors invest in SEO and you don’t, they’ll attract more customers while you miss out.
Common SEO Mistakes And How To Avoid Them
SEO can be tricky and even small SEO mistakes can hurt your rankings. Avoiding these common SEO mistakes can help boost your rankings and improve your website visibility.
Here are some common SEO mistakes and how to avoid them:
Ignoring Keyword Research
One of the biggest mistakes site owners frequently make is trying to rank for the wrong keywords.
Many people randomly create content and expect to get search traffic. But if you’re nobody is searching for those topics, then no one is clicking through to any page.
Some examples of keywords you should avoid targeting include:
Generic Keywords
These are keywords used to attract and bring people who are not your target audience or customer base to your site.
Global Keywords
These are keywords that target a multitude of regions worldwide when you only offer your services locally.
Board keywords
These are high competition keywords that will be extremely difficult to rank for.
Low-value Keywords
These are keywords that attract visitors in search of free information but not potential customers who actually want to make a purchase.
If you want to rank in Google, you have to make sure you’re using the right keywords.
If you want to get search traffic, you need to target topics people are searching for.
The longer and more specific the keywords are, the higher your chances of ranking for these keywords.
You can use tools like Google Keyword Planner, SMErush or Ahrefs to find relevant keywords with good search volume and low competition.
Slow Website Speed
Everyone loves a fast website and Google is no exception. The faster your site, the more likely it is to increase in its rankings and the slower your site, the more likely it is to fall in its rankings.
Your site and its pages need to load fast enough to keep them in the search results, especially now with page experience being one of Google’s ranking factors.
Over time, it has been discovered that large images, excessive scripts and poor hosting slows down websites.
A lot of websites have relatively large images which take a lot of time to load. This makes your website slower than it should be.
To avoid this, a good solution is to optimize your images.
Resizing your images can speed up the loading time and if you have a WordPress site, you can easily do this by installing a plug-in that does that for you.
In addition, choosing a reliable hosting provider, enabling caching and using a Content Delivery Networker (CDN) are other recommended Solutions.
Keyword Stuffing
This is one of the most common mistakes site owners make in their attempt to rank higher on search engines.
Keyword stuffing is the process of cramming a page full of keywords in an attempt to rank higher for those keywords.
For example, “Getting the best shopping experience can feel like a daunting task. But, with our comprehensive Best Shopping Experience Guide, we relieve the stress by providing you with the best shopping experience hotspots and the most trustworthy and professional best shopping experience vendors”.
Keyword stuffing does not only make your content look unnatural, but it also goes against Google’s Spam Policies.
To avoid this, use keywords naturally and focus on user experience. Aim for a balance of primary and secondary keywords instead of trying to squeeze related keywords into your content.
In addition, prioritize creating comprehensive content by covering important topics and subtopics searchers expect to see.
Not Mobile Friendly
Not considering mobile is another common SEO mistake. A few years ago (July 1st, 2019), Google switched to Mobile first indexing.
This means that Google now looks at the mobile version of your site to decide how high you should rank.
So, if the desktop version of your site is brilliantly set up, but your mobile site isn’t responsive at all, this will negatively reflect in your rankings.
Google recommends that you’re content be the same on both mobile and desktop versions of your website.
You should also make sure that the descriptive title and meta description are equivalent across both versions of your site.
To avoid this problem, use responsive designs and test your site on different devices.
If you discover that your site isn’t meeting your mobile expectations, you can audit your site by browsing it on a mobile device.
Spend some time on the mobile version of your site, visit all your pages, click on all your links, buttons and images to see how your site responds.
If you want to check and see how user friendly your site is, you can do so with Google’s Mobile Friendly Test which tells you how easy it is for visitors to assess and use your site on mobile devices.
In addition, if you take the time to optimize your site for mobile use, you will definitely notice an improvement in your rankings.
Creating Poor Quality Content
As far as SEO is concerned, content is King. No matter the type of standards or SEO best practices you incorporate, they won’t do much good if you don’t have high quality content.
It’s a great idea to have the content on your site optimized, but if you don’t think about the impression you’re content will have on your visitors, all that optimization will be in vain.
Every page on your site must have decent content that’s at least 300 words long.
Google needs enough copy to find out what your page is about and whether you’re providing the answer people are looking for.
You can’t expect Google to see you as an expert on a certain topic when you’ve only written three sentences about it.
To earn your visitors’ trust, focus on producing original, high-quality content that is both valuable and unique, then you can turn your attention to optimizing your pages for SEO.
Creating quality content for your audience is highly recommended if you want to rank well in Google.
In addition, creating quality content means creating original content that shows your expertise and is easy to read and understand.
Not Utilizing\Failing To Utilize Title Tags And Meta Descriptions
If you’re someone who uses your company or website name as a title of all your web pages, you are missing a tremendous opportunity to organize those pages for such engines.
Every page on your website should have it own distinct title that should describe what that page is all about. Why? You may ask.
This is because Title Tags are used as the text for bookmarks when someone bookmarks your page; and these titles often appear when you’re article is shared on social media.
If you want to consistently include your company or website name in your page titles, that’s okay but it should be included at the end of the title after you’ve already used the specific keyword that page is targeting.
In addition, it also important to not forget about your meta descriptions. Meta descriptions are your chance to pitch your web page to search users.
You have 160 characters to tell users why your page is worth clicking on. Those 160 characters should include your target keywords and make users want to click on your link in the search results.
Conclusion
SEO mistakes are exasperatingly common and your site won’t rank while they remain a problem. However, these common SEO mistakes can easily be fixed.
Most common SEO mistakes can be avoided if you stay up to date on the latest trends and techniques.
In addition, make sure to focus on site speed, write great content and optimize for the right keywords.
Also, entice people to visit your site, use call to actions and relevant internal links to keep them on your site and optimize your website for any device.
It’s vital to keep your content fresh, relevant and engaging to ensure you reach your target audience.
So, dear reader, avoid these common SEO mistakes today and see your website thrive.