SEO, when implemented correctly, can increase your brand recognition, improve your search engine results, as well as dramatically increase the quality of incoming website traffic. Who doesn’t want more conversions, more leads, and more revenue? However, these SEO mistakes can severely impact your ranking.
Search Engine Optimisation Mistakes
Far too many companies do not understand the value of Search Engine Optimisation, where even a small amount of attention can go a long way towards gaining an advantage on your competition.
Whatever stage you are in your digital marketing journey, it is crucial to understand common SEO mistakes and how to correct them. Read on to find out five of the most common SEO issues and our tips to fix these.
1) Not having Meta Descriptions
Sure, meta descriptions don’t directly influence the search engine results page (SERP) positions. But, search bots analyse how your visitors interact with the provided page after clicking the SERP.
Suppose a user reads your meta description on a SERP and clicks through to your page, but the content doesn’t relate to what they were expecting, you’ll find them leave straight away. This “bounce” will penalise your SEO score.
TIPS:
- Create concise and relevant meta descriptions that describe the content of each page correctly.
- Keep meta descriptions to 160 characters or less to ensure the copy fits within the SERP.
- Ensure each meta description has unique content – never double up!
2) Keyword Stuffing
Keyword stuffing is a big “no-no” in the SEO world and for a good reason. Search engines penalise sites which load their page with keywords by ranking them lower in results. Don’t try to hide these either, Google and other search engines use bots to crawl your site and read the content.
TIPS:
- Write organic content that is relevant to the context of the page.
- Embed key focus words into your content
- Look at long-tail keywords
- Provide clear and useful information that will encourage positive experiences
3) Write to your audience base
Do you know who your customers are?
If you’re not sure who you should be writing for, you’ll never understand how you should be writing for them. And, most importantly, you’ll never be writing relevant content or keywords to target the right audience.
If the audience isn’t right, your users will steer away from your site, and search engines will reflect this as an unsuccessful engagement, ranking you lower.
TIP:
- Write accurate and effective buyer personas to help you identify who your buyers are, what they’re interested and what they are looking and searching for
4) Overlooking Off-Page SEO
It’s easy to forget about off-page SEO, with many marketers not considering this as part of their strategy.
But creating engaging content on other targeted websites can help build brand awareness and credibility whilst building quality backlinks.
Backlinks are incredibly important for websites. These can build your domain authority, BUT these backlinks need to be from reputable sources.
Don’t spend money on 100 links for $5 off Fiverr or other task-orientated sites. These can negatively impact your ratings.
TIPS:
- Build relationships with regarded and relevant sites.
- Reach out to websites you like in your field and ask to write an article or for a social mention – be friendly and polite!
5) Failing to audit your website routinely
Think again if you believe you can do SEO once, and then leave it to grow.
Search algorithms are constantly changing, and so are your competitors. You need to stay ahead of the game, and this means, keeping up with those changes and keeping competitive.
TIPS:
- We know it can be expensive to have someone to assess this every day or every week, so do what works best for you – weekly, monthly, half-yearly or yearly.
- Subscribe to reputable channels like Yoast SEO, SEO Journal to understand the significant changes and fix those.
By following these tips, you get a great start in the right direction to keeping your search engine results in check and increasing your visitors.
Want to take it to the next level? Contact Design Grid to speak with and SEO expert!
