The Internet is a competitive place. Users are most likely to click those sites that rank higher in search results—so using the right SEO tactics is important. For example, imagine that a student looks for the keyword ‘my paper done’. This keyword is going to bring up over one billion results on Google and those sites near the top are most likely to receive the student’s business. Sites that rank have good search engine optimization (SEO) practices. However, if you are making some of these SEO mistakes, it doesn’t matter how many good practices you are using. You may not get the traffic you are hoping for.
This is one of the biggest SEO mistakes. If you don’t use the keywords your customers are looking for, they’ll never be led to your site. It is easy to focus too much on long-tail keywords, especially when trying to define your products or services in a certain way. Do background research on your target audience and your competitors before you choose the keywords to optimize for.
Meta descriptions and tags are great places to incorporate your target keyword. They also let you customize the snippet that people see before they visit your website. Search engines will typically fill these in if you do not change them yourself. However, the preselected choice may be less useful than what you choose. Additionally, you cannot add keywords or attract search engines if you do not alter meta descriptions and tags yourself.
Creating content that is not linked to the keyword chosen for a page also causes a lower ranking. The algorithms used by search engines have the purpose of choosing articles that are most relevant or useful. As you choose keywords, be sure you are producing relevant, useful content.
Search engines use algorithms that understand what your site is without repetitive keywords. When you overuse a keyword, it negatively impacts readability. Some search engines will even blacklist a site for this practice, so it’s best to avoid unnatural repetitions of your target keyword.
People do not walk around with computers in their pocket. If your site is not mobile-friendly, you are missing a wide audience that uses their phone. It is not uncommon for search engines to prioritize results for mobile-friendly searches, so be sure your site is among them.
Influencers are people who have a following on social media that may share your content. This is a great way to get viewers to your site. As more people use it, the content will climb in results naturally because it will be deemed more useful by search engines.
Duplicate content is spammy and does not work well to make your site stand out. Even something like spinning content into new words doesn’t always fool a search engine, which is looking for texts that answer the query while being meaningful and original. Instead of ripping off content, take the time to create your own that will stand out in search results.
External links play the important role of giving some credibility to what you are saying. Ideally, you should link to an authoritative site. Additionally, be sure your external links enhance your information instead of repeating the same topic.
Internal links are those that link back to your own website. It’s important that you do not over-do this, as having too many links makes content harder to read. Like with external links, you should choose those that enhance your content.
While SEO is important, there are other components that go into naturally generating content for your site. Analytics allows you to track different content and SEO techniques. As you learn what works best for your target audience, you can adjust your practices.
Search engine optimization is all about creating webpages that are informative, useful, and easy-to-navigate. By being sure to avoid the SEO mistakes above, you can rise in the ranks and stand out from your competitors.
