10 common SEO mistakes and how to avoid them
Are you making these common SEO mistakes? Learn how to avoid them and boost your website’s visibility and attract more traffic organically.
An SEO strategy is basically a blueprint used in the center of creating, designing, and selling content to ensure that it is easily seen in result pages developed by search engines hence more visitors visit the website through natural search.
This entails numerous approaches like keyword study, technical SEO, and on-page optimization or link building. Investing in monthly SEO packages can streamline these efforts, ensuring consistent progress and expert management of your SEO strategy. All of these strategies ensure that the page ranks in the top five search engine results.
High ranks are essential for content to effectively convert readers since more than 67% of clicks are directed to the first five organic search engine results.
10 common SEO mistakes you need to avoid
However, too often businesses make common SEO errors (such as long title tags or poorly optimized URL slugs) that keep their content from rising to new heights on the SERP, even if they have a great content and SEO strategy in place.
So what are these mistakes? When it comes to flawed SEO strategies, there are so many ways you can go wrong. Here are 10 common SEO mistakes you need to avoid.
1) Similar content
Publishing duplicate or similar content that caters to the user can be confusing for search engines like Google. This is what dilutes your page’s visibility. Identical content can especially be harmful if you have outsourced the content. If the content has stemmed from somewhere outside of your organization, the algorithm would prefer the page that came with it first.
How to solve the similar content mistake
Make sure every page provides your audience with something different by using canonical tags to identify the original version of the material and to group related content onto a single page.
For instance, let’s say you have an eCommerce site. Now this requires product description that has been sourced from manufacturers. For them to rank high, you need to ensure a couple of things including:
You can add value to these products by rewriting the descriptions that offer additional useful information.
You can also add other valuable information like customer reviews that will make the page more authentic.
2) Keyword stuffing
Search engines are also aware of unnatural keyword positions. If you use unusual keywords, the system can see it as an attempt to manipulate search engine rankings, and it will penalize you accordingly. Additionally, readers can become aware of the unnatural rhetoric and spend less time on your website or navigating the funnel.
How to fix the keyword stuffing mistake
You need to thoroughly research keywords to discover the ones that are long-tailed and are adjacent to the term your site attempts to rank for. Then you must select a few of the relevant ones, keeping a couple of other things in mind, like:
- Search volume
- Keyword difficulty
If you’re writing a blog article, only include your target keyword in the title, intro, and conclusion—place it elsewhere in the copy where it makes the most sense. In case of other write ups, you may include the keyword two-three times in the copy.
3) Insufficient mobile optimization
To keep your website consistently optimized for SEO with relevant content and keywords, consider building a digital marketing team through a platform like VirtualStaff.ph. You can hire experienced professionals – whether full-time or part-time – for roles such as content writers, SEO specialists, outreach managers, and more.
Ignoring the fact that people frequently view your material on mobile devices is one of the worst SEO blunders you can make. It is more crucial than ever to make sure that your material is easily available in any format in order to maintain an excellent user experience. Your rankings will appreciate it if you put in a little extra effort to make the switch from desktop to mobile devices smoothly.
How to fix the insufficient mobile optimization mistake
You can easily incorporate a responsive design for your page in the layout of your content. Learning more about best practices for blog design will help you with the same. It will especially save you the time it takes to manually optimize your site as per mobiles or tablets. A seasoned organization like ours that provides premium web designs will help you with it.
Another SEO strategy for the same would be to create other versions of your interactive content that is mobile-friendly. Which means to create content that can easily be read on mobiles.
4) Site speed
Think about how annoying it is to wait for a page to load. Now picture a prospective client experiencing the same frustration with your sluggish website. Users are more likely to leave your website if it takes too long to load, which raises bounce rates and lowers conversions.
How to solve the site speed mistake
Think about the possible causes of your website’s delayed loading speed. A few possible alternatives being:
- JavaScript and CSS files.
- Changing website servers
Schedule a technical SEO strategy session if you’re having trouble figuring out the underlying reason for SEO mistakes like these. Compress huge picture files to minimize their size and speed up page loading if your blog page has an excessive number of visual elements.
5) Long title tags
Writing a short and concise title tag isn’t just about science, but also requires some art. In search results, the long titles can be cut off, thus minimizing their effectiveness in letting audiences know how significant your content is to them. Putting the name of your website or business on the title tag is an added advantage as well if you want people to remember you easily.
How to fix the long title tags mistake
When creating title tags, keep them concise (50–60 characters) and include primary keywords and an accurate description of the content. Make a decision regarding the case of your tags—title case or sentence case—and maintain formatting consistency.
6) Missed linking opportunities
One of the most common issues in SEO strategy is missing out on effectively including an organic and comprehensive link. Knowing about effective link-building strategies will help you even higher on search engines. When you have internal links, Google reads it as an important page. This helps your page bag a higher position on the list.
The authority of your website may decrease if you fail to include links both within and externally. This will hinder search engine crawlers’ ability to find and index your material.
How to fix the missed linking opportunities mistake
When applicable, include external connections to reliable sources and pertinent internal links to other pages on your website. One surefire method to increase your backlink profile is to hire experienced link builders. It is also possible to promote passive link building by giving shareability methods top priority when creating content.
For instance, you can provide internal links to publications that address technology, finance, and the most recent advancements in app development in fintech app blog post trends.
7) Generic anchor text
Anchor text is the visible characters and words which are shown by hyperlinks linking to other documents or locations on the web. Dull anchor text often looks like spam and won’t let Google or the readers know what your webpage is about.
Avoid letting SEO problems such as dull anchor text prevent you from achieving a higher rank. If you use generic anchor text like “click here” or “read me,” it would decrease the SEO value of the link but using informative and keyword-rich anchor text can lead to creating organic links.
Avoid letting SEO problems such as dull anchor text prevent you from ranking. The SEO value of a link can be reduced if it is used with generic anchor text, such as “click here” or “read more,” rather than with descriptive, keyword-rich anchor text that creates organic links.
How to fix the generic anchor text mistake
You may first consider your intent behind your link and the page it leads to. This will help you decide on the anchor text. Use elaborative language that advances the reader’s comprehension of the article’s main idea and, if at all possible, incorporates Primary keywords.
8) Lack of local SEO
Using the advantages of localized SEO services is essential if you’re running SEO campaigns for new or small businesses in order to increase brand awareness and exposure in the area you serve. If you skip this phase, your target audience might not know where to find you, how you can help them with their problem, or who you are.
How to fix the lack of local SEO mistake
To target local search queries, incorporate location-specific keywords into page titles, meta descriptions, and content. Promote client testimonials and list your company name in relevant directories, such as Google Maps.
9) Missing out on alt text
Another most common mistake in SEO strategy is not adding an alt text to the images you have added to your page. Search engines can not only crawl alt texts but they also make your content more accessible to people. It is especially beneficial for users who need text-to-speech assistance while navigating the web.
How to fix the missing out on alt text mistake
To rank high you need to ensure that the alt text you’re adding to your images provides a clear description of the picture. It also must include the necessary long-tail keywords. One of the best ways to ensure an appropriate alt-text is to partner with organizations that prioritizes user experience above all.
10) Unoptimized URL slug
The final most frequent technical SEO problem is one that goes unnoticed. The address for a particular page appears as the URL slug, which is the final portion of a URL. Long, ambiguous, or non-descriptive slugs can be confusing to users and search engines alike, making it more difficult to determine the relevancy of the content when ranking.
How to fix the unoptimized URL slug mistake
You need to create slugs that are precise yet descriptive. In order for the search engine to easily determine what the website is attempting to rank for, it is ideal for the URL slug to match the target keyword.
Avoid these 10 common SEO mistakes
Content marketing thrives on SEO strategies. Let us flex our strategic muscles and take on the heavy lifting of keyword studies, technical SEO reviews, and user experience assessment. If you want to boost your content strategy and steer clear of usual SEO fails, make sure you avoid these 10 common SEO mistakes.
Need more help with SEO?
You’ll find plenty of helpful SEO content on our site if you’d like to learn more. Just click here to see all SEO articles.
We also take you through building a successful SEO strategy step by step in our online course Easy SEO. Easy SEO is designed for complete beginners to SEO, as well as small businesses and freelancers who don’t feel confident using it and aren’t yet seeing the results they want.
