SEO is something which no decent website can exist without. It is a planned strategy which you can implement in a few weeks but takes time to learn and master. However, rest assured, with some careful tweaking and white-hat SEO techniques, you can rank right up there on the first page.
Those with the basic knowledge of SEO techniques must be familiar with terms like keyword research, image optimization, etc. It’s also important to have catchy descriptions and relevant titles, make backlinks, as well as promote your content.
If you still experience problems with insufficient traffic, it means you are making some technical mistakes which may need to be fixed. Here are some of the common SEO mistakes which could ruin a website.
Don’t Use very Specific Domain Keywords
Always remember that when you stuff certain keywords in your domain names, it won’t help in the long run. For instance, if you use your city name like Dallasboutique.com, it will not help you expand your business beyond this domain. Broader keywords which contain brand power can be used. All the keywords you use should be relevant to your business. It should also be simple, short and represent brand power.
Keyword Stuffing
This is a common mistake many of us make. We know, it’s important to use the right keywords and plant them at strategic points in your content. In spite of finding the perfect keywords, you could ruin your SEO this way. Research suggests that wrong keyword placement is one of the biggest mistakes on-page made by bloggers and web-owners.
It’s a very thin margin between “keyword targeting” and “keyword stuffing”. Search engines know if you have snuck in keywords and thus you drop in rankings. To avoid this mistake, opt for the long tail keywords and LSIs. LSIs or Latent Semantic Indexing indicate keywords which are related to the target keywords you focus on.
For instance, if your target keyword is “dog lease”
The LSIs would be
- “dog lease prices”
- “dog food brands”
Never use Anchor Text for Internal Links
There are many sites which have links like ‘Click Here’, ‘Next Post’ and the likes. From an SEO perspective, this is not going to add any value to your site since you can tailor your anchor text to something much better, rather than wasting the opportunity.
For instance, you are running a site which you want to link to your business page, you can post a link like ‘interior design services’ instead of ‘click here’. If you need to mention as a call to action, you can always write it like “click here to learn more about our interior design services”.
Right Keyword Optimization
There are several mistakes people make here. It includes using generic keywords which could attract the wrong customer, using global keywords for local services, keywords which do not bring prospective customers, broad keywords, keywords with too much competition and a lot more.
When you are choosing your keywords, try to be specific which usually lead to quicker rankings and more qualified traffic.
For example, as in the previous example, an interior designer shouldn’t go for the keywords interior design” but rather try to rank for “interior design services for New York apartments” – such keywords could give you instant results. Optimize for more competitive keywords for better growth of the website.
Non-mobile Friendly Site
A very important factor which could kill your website in this digital age is the incompatibility with mobile phones. Since every person, today is glued onto their phone for searches and even business, make sure your site is mobile friendly and easy to load. It’s important that your website is optimized enough to be easily accessible on phones.
Remove any Copied Content
Never go with copied content as Google views it as plagiarism, you could even get banned. Many times, matching expressions and phrases could not spell plagiarism per se, yet the Bot could treat it that way. Let your page be unique from all other pages with respect to the content, this way it is easy to avoid anything perceived as plagiarism. Many also make a typical technical mistake of creating two versions of one page for HTTP and https which match entirely. Therefore it’s important to use 301 redirects.
Lack of Optimized Information
Always use content relevant to your subject so that the search engine and the algorithm can recognize your site. While pictures and media is important to add value to your content, remember to maintain a balance between the two. Search engines look for content and not any fancy images. Understand the worth of optimized information when you write content.
Focus on Link Quality rather than Link Quantity
It’s not enough if you get plenty of backlinks pointing to you but rather focus on the quality. One link from a top ranking blog could do wonders for your search engine rankings than hundreds of low-quality directory links. Getting a link from a top site is hard, but that’s why search engines place a higher value on them. The quality of your site is also judged from the quality of the site of your backlink.
Get links from the following:-
- Top-ranked sites relevant to your website
- Sites which do not have a lot of outgoing links
- Avoid adult and gambling sites
To check the strength of the domain and incoming links, you can also use free tools like SEOquake.
Error 404
An annoying error, this could prove costly to your site rankings. Provide proper links to redirect your user. If a visitor encounters such technical errors on your site, they are likely to leave and not return. Don’t forget to direct your visitors back to the working pages.
