It is easy for those new to SEO to make mistakes that can be critical and cost them money for their business. We’ve outlined some of the top SEO mistakes you could be costing you money so that you can be aware and understand them correctly.
1. Not Optimizing for Local Searches
People often search for a company, service or product locally. If you have not optimized or targeted for local searches, you will not get any traffic from this sort of search. Make sure you include the search radius you want to cover such as city or state.
2. Producing Poorly-Written Content
Content is king when it comes to search. You will want to make sure you are using proper grammar as well as engaging and useful content. Think about how your website can become the ultimate resource for your audience. Good content will make your visitors want to share it, and this will allow an increase in content engagement.
3. Not Having a Mobile Friendly Site
61% of website users are more likely to leave if a site isn’t mobile friendly and 67% are more likely to buy at a mobile friendly website. Your potential customers are on the go, and they’re accessing your website from their mobile devices. This is why it is crucial your website be Mobile Friendly.
You can check if your site is mobile friendly by doing a Google Mobile Friendly Test.
4. Missing XML Sitemap
A sitemap lists URLs that are available for the search engines to know what parts of your site they can displayin the search engines, latest site updates, frequency of changes, and importance of URLs. This allows search engines to crawl the site more efficiently and intelligently.
5. Difficult to Share
In order for something to “go viral” it needs to be easily shared. If your blog posts, images, or website isn’t easy for the visitor to share with their friends, family, or following, they will be less likely to share. Search engines want to see your content is being disbursed across the Internet, even if it doesn’t “go viral”, because it means others are talking about your website, products, or services.
Implementing tools on your website that make it easy for your visitors to share images, products, and information allow the visitor to help promote your products, for free.
6. Poor Website Navigation
Poor website navigation means a higher bounce rate or a quick exit from your site and it is not helpful for your search engine rankings. You website’s navigation should be user friendly. Don’t overcrowd the menu and try to reduce clutter. Make the important things stand out more. If you provide a good user experience with well-written content, people will stay on your site and be more likely to return.
7. Keyword Stuffing
Keyword Stuffing is where the post contains the same keywords repeated an excessive amount in an attempt to rank for that keyword. This makes the content unnatural to read and will drive away your audience. If your content is unreadable and has been stuffed with keywords then you may get penalized from Google.
8. Duplicate Content
Don’t copy from someone word for word. Duplicate content not only looks bad for your business, but search engines will catch on. If there is a post someone has written that you like, try and write it in your own words and link back to them to give them due credit
9. Broken Links
A page without broken links provides a better user experience. Google will look favorably at sites with less broken links. Additionally, search engines will not display a page if the URL is broken, thus users will never see that part of your site. It is important that you identify and fix broken links as part of your site maintenance to keep all of your pages appearing in the search results.
10. Broad Keywords
It’s easy to focus on broad keywords and wanting to hit an array of topics. However, the more targeted the keyword phrases are, the closer the user is to a buying decision. It’s recommended to use long-tail keywords (ex: virus removal services is better than virus removal).
Conclusion
Avoid these top 10 mistakes and focus on providing great, unique content that people will want to share and keep your website user friendly. If you have any questions regarding SEO or not sure if you’re making these mistakes, contact Tree Ring Digital today for a Free SEO review.