With so much content that’s created, published and promoted on the internet, the competition for catching your audience’s attention has been fierce than ever before.
That’s why, having the right SEO strategy is important, no matter where your audience is searching. That’s precisely why you need to find the perfect balance between creating user-centric content, and convincing SEO bots that your content is supreme.
But in the journey of creating the perfect content, you could make a couple of mistakes. Fortunately, committing these mistakes are avoidable.
Here are a couple of SEO mistakes, and some tips on how to avoid and remedy them:
1. Wrong choice of keywords
You need to optimize your site for the keywords that you want to rank for. But how can you be so sure that you’re choosing the right ones?
One of the most common mistakes a lot of people make when picking keywords is the preference of both users and search engines for long-tail keywords.
While you must define your products in a certain way, you have to understand the words that your prospects use to refer to them.
Sometimes, the terms that you think are right might be different to some. For others, it might come off as too generic. If that’s the case, then there’s a possibility that you’re optimizing for the wrong keywords.
2. Using generic page title and descriptions
One of the biggest SEO mistakes that you could commit is not providing unique titles for every page. Your page title is an important SEO signal. That’s why both users and search engines read first before they get to understand what your content is all about.
Here are some tips on how to create more SEO-friendly titles:
- They should be 60 characters, max.
- Act natural then describes what the page is all about.
- Keywords should be there, but there should be absolutely no keyword stuffing.
- It has to be unique on every web page.
- Titles should be displayed on search engine pages (SERPs) so it must be attractive enough to generate more clicks.
According to Mind Mingles, one of the top SEO services in India, “You should also provide a unique meta description to boost your click-through rates (CTRs) and if your content has delivered what you’ve said on the content description, then you’ll likely increase your conversion rates as well.”
Meta descriptions should be unique, must be at least 150-160 characters, extremely attractive to the user, and isn’t keyword stuffed.
3. Producing low-quality content
You might have created content over the last couple of years, and you haven’t paid much attention to it after it was published.
But the thing is, you might be leaving opportunity at the table by not regularly looking for ways to update it, making it engaging, informative, and high-quality. You should also make it relevant to searchers.
4. Don’t clog your content with internal links
Your page must have links that are related to particular topics, but not all links should be linked to your site.
It’s because it discouraged visitors from visiting your site, and therefore, it shouldn’t be clogged with internal links.
5. Unmanaged “Google My Business” listings
Another critical SEO error is not claiming and managing your Google My Business listings properly.
Google will always be placing importance on “near me” searches, one of the best ways for small businesses to provide their location, give information, as well as provide answers.
6. Non-responsive mobile website
Currently, we’re living in the “mobile age” where people are using their phones more than there PCs. Google said that mobile optimization has been a major ranking factor, and therefore, shouldn’t be neglected.
But for you to be able to rank higher on search engines, mobile optimization is vital, but for you to achieve that you must take your site to the next level. You can use the Mobile-Friendly Test of Google to check if your site is mobile-friendly or not.
7. Ignoring User Experience
One of the best ways to improve the performance of your site is to optimize the user experience of your site.
But how do you optimize the UX of your site?
Here are some UX optimization tips:
- Improve your website loading speed.
- Make your site more mobile-friendly.
- Not using aggressive pop-ups
- Not utilizing aggressive ad placements
More importantly, you also need to optimize your user intent.
But what does it mean exactly? Well, it means that you need ti to satisfy the intent of the keyword that is being searched.
Over to You
Now that you’re aware of these deadly SEO mistakes, you need to put in the effort to avoid them this 2020. Committing these SEO mistakes are unforgivable. Try to keep up with the modern SEO techniques and keep yourself updated to stay ahead from the rest of the pack.
I’ve done fairly amount of research and your post is the best!! I’m starting my own company and we need something sophisticated to handle the business. While other articles are good (but incomplete), your post touches every aspect. Thanks for writing and posting!!