Businesses and brands of all shapes and sizes are hitting the internet, offering their products and services online. However, in the most recent years, search engines like Google are on the hunt for good-quality content, and will penalise sites that don’t abide by their guidelines. For that reason, search engine optimisation (SEO) is key. In other words, it’s important to avoid any and every SEO mistake that can hinder your marketing efforts and hurt your brand.
In this article, we’ll talk about the 7 most common SEO mistakes that all websites and brands should avoid at all costs:
1. Not Socialising With Your Content
“When running a website, you should be able to share it all over the Internet to gain more traction and followings,” says David Dante, a copywriter at Draft Beyond and Last minute writing. “With many social media platforms to be on these days, it’s important to post about your content in the platforms that you and your audiences go to all the time. This tactic allows you to turn fresh users into customers.”
Consider the following social media platforms to share your website on:
- Pinterest, etc.
2. Not Using the Right Keywords
SEO involves using the right keywords, so that your website can rank well in search engines. Remember: You’re trying to explain your products and services, while keeping in mind what your potential customers might be looking for on the Internet.
To ensure that you’re using the right keywords (especially long tail keywords), then consider using the following tools:
- Google Trends
- Google Ads Keyword Planner, OR
- SEMrush
3. Not Creating Good Content
While keywords are important to your website, so is the content itself. Poor-quality content will make your site look inferior to users. Unfortunately, search engines like Google will crack down on poor-quality content, hiding them within search results.
When running a website, you should be able to share it all over the Internet to gain more traction
So, make it your job to create appealing content for your website. Having high-quality content allows your website to thrive through social media shares, brand reputation, and so on.
4. Ignoring Mobile Users
Nowadays, people will do online searches on a mobile device. Therefore, it’s important to have your website optimised for mobile devices as well. If you don’t optimise for mobile users, then you’ll lost potential traffic to your site.
Plus, mobile optimisation allows you to take advantage of local SEO. Since more and more mobile users are searching locally for things online, it’s imperative that your site cater to them by letting them find you in high in the search results.
5. Not Properly Building Links
Google hates when you try to build unnatural links. Doing so will get your site penalised and or hidden from search results.
So, be sure to do link outreach, which helps you create effective backlinks that will not only help users find you and connect to you, but also abide by Google’s rules.
6. Not Using Adequate Images
“Marketers understand that businesses should show, not tell,” says Augustus Child, a marketing blogger at Writinity and Research papers UK. “So, one must not underestimate the power of visuals, since they make your website stand out more. However, you must still use visuals wisely, or else your site will look too decorative, and can distract users from seeing what’s really important on your site.”
7. Neglecting Meta Tags and Descriptions
Finally, you’ll need to look at the meta data, and make sure that everything in it is correct – that includes tags and descriptions.
In truth, search engines like Google will look at your meta titles, descriptions, and tags, and then use them in the results pages as “organic ad text.”
Organic ad text is what helps you boost traffic and click-through rates for your site. Remember: It’s good to personalise your meta data, so that it’s unique to search engine. So:
- Keep your descriptions between 140 and 150 characters long.
- Add your primary keyword in only one part of your headings, while using proper formatting of no more than 20 words.
Conclusion
As you can see, SEO is extremely important to your website. When utilised properly, SEO can do wonders for your site. Despite its technical and complexing atmosphere, it’s not hard to do things properly for the sake of your brand.
By avoiding the 7 common mistakes discussed in this article, not only will your website continue to satisfy search engines, but you’ll also gain more user traffic. Finally, never stop educating yourself about SEO, since expectations are always evolving.
