Most businesses have an online presence. That presence may take the form of a website and include various social media platforms. But one of the key factors many companies miss is the correct use of SEO. SEO is one of the most important ways to rank a website and draw in site visitors.
In this post, we’ll take a quick look at what SEO is and some of the most common mistakes made with SEO.
What is SEO?
SEO is an abbreviation for Search Engine Optimisation. It stands for methods used to help your website and social media platforms to rank higher in the search engine results pages (SERPS).
The higher your site ranks in the search engine, the more visible it becomes to anyone searching for information and solutions your business offers (such as products, services, and more). SEO can be applied to all search engines, including Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
The goal of optimising your website with SEO is to rank on page 1 of the search engine results. This is done by using the same keywords (search terms) used by your target audience.
This is a very brief explanation of SEO; of course, this is a method that goes into more depth than we’ve explained here. But it’s necessary to keep this explanation in mind when reading about the mistakes to avoid when you use SEO.
There’s no question that using SEO is one of the best methods for gaining visibility on the web. It’s a powerful strategy that, when used correctly, can mean the difference between your site’s success or failure.
The Most Common SEO Mistakes to Avoid
Now, we’re ready to move on to the most common SEO mistakes to avoid.
- Slow Page Speed
One of the worst things to bring down a site’s SEO is its speed. Google penalises sites that load slowly.
Loading speed is one of the most important factors that determine how your site ranks. In addition, page speed also affects the website’s bounce rate and the number of time users spend on the site. All of these have a direct impact on SEO.
Google and other search engines are focused on promoting websites that provide the best user experience.
So, test your site to see how fast or slow the pages load. Google looks for pages that load in three seconds or less. If your pages don’t load this fast, your site’s SEO will fall behind in the search rankings.
- Not Being Mobile-Friendly
As the main search engine, Google wants to give preference to mobile-friendly sites. The reason is that more people are now using mobile devices to access the web. Google recognises this and has geared its algorithms to promote sites that are mobile-friendly.
Yet, many websites still fail even to have a mobile-friendly version. The result is that SEO is harmed, and the site falls behind in the search engine rankings.
So, if you’d like to improve your website’s SEO, make sure the site is mobile-friendly and responsive.
- Not Registering or Failing to Update Google Business Listing
Another common problem is that some businesses fail to create a Google business listing. Or they may not update their listing when key information about their company changes.
A Google business listing is done on Google My Business. This is a free site that’s been created to promote local businesses online. It helps businesses show up on Google and help their businesses stand out over the competition.
Creating a listing provides many benefits, including:
- Allowing your business to appear on Google Maps and Google Local Pack listings
- Makes it easy for customers to leave reviews of your business
- And more
All of this can improve your site’s ranking in Google and other search engines.
- Ignoring Content
Content is essential to the success of any business website. But what is content? This is information that provides information for site visitors. It can be expressed in text, images, video, audio, and presentations. Content in any form must be high quality and useful. These are key to SEO.
Google focuses on promoting websites with useful, relevant content for visitors. The keys to creating useful content to improve SEO include the following:
- Provide value and be more useful than competitors
- Content must be original and high-quality (avoid the use of duplicate content)
- Content also needs to be engaging
- Content must also be fresh (that means posting content on a regular basis)
- Not Enough Multimedia Content
While we’re focused on content, it’s essential to bring up the use of multimedia content. The content on your site is not limited only to text. Google also wants websites to include other forms of content, including videos, tables, presentations, and more.
As you consider multimedia content, it’s essential to consider your target audience. Take into account their needs and expectations. Focus on creating the types of content that they find most beneficial and useful.
- Keyword Stuffing Hurts SEO
Keyword stuffing’s been around for quite some time. It’s a black hat method used to rank in the SERPs quickly. However, using this SEO method is a huge penalty. Google and other search engines will catch this on your site and rank it much lower as a result.
Search engines view keyword stuffing as a type of spam, and websites that use keyword stuffing are considered spammy and not legitimate. These are the reasons sites with keyword stuffing are penalised in the search engine rankings.
Google says keywords should not be used more than 1% to 4% within an article. So, be sure your content is written for your target audience, keeping the use of keywords to a minimum.
- Not Building Backlinks
Links are valuable for ranking in search engines, and building backlinks is necessary for SEO. What’s more, the backlinks must be done correctly, or they can penalise your SEO efforts.
Backlinks are connections from one website to another. They’re seen as a “vote of confidence” from the second site to the first site. The links work to let search engines know that your site is credible and offers beneficial content.
When a website has plenty of backlinks from credible websites, the search engines rank the site higher in the search rankings.
So, building backlinks to other sites is an important way to improve your site’s SEO.
Summing It Up
Finding and fixing the most common SEO issues is a great way to optimise your website and improve its ranking in the search engines. While it can take time to implement some of these tips, the effort is well worth it when your business starts to scale as a result of your hard work!
