A lot of website owners complain that they don’t notice any significant improvement in search engine ranking despite making so many efforts. It’s important to understand that the SEO game is quite complicated and there could be several issues stopping your site from appearing in top search engine results.
In today’s post, we will talk about the top 10 common SEO mistakes most new website owners make knowingly or unknowingly. We will try providing their solutions as well. So, without further delay, let’s get started.
1. Selecting the Wrong Keywords
So you optimized your website for organic keywords? But are you sure you chose the right ones? A large number of website owners make this common SEO mistake. They often overlook the preference of their target audience and search engine in regards to keywords.
It’s essential to understand what keyword your prospects could use to refer your products and services. The keywords you use might mean entirely different for your audience. Consequently, you must carefully research your keywords.
Some of the popular tools that can help you with proper keyword research include Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Ahrefs Keyword Explorer, KWFinder, and more. These tools help you understand average monthly search, competition, and more for a particular keyword.
2. No Mobile Optimization
As we’re living in the mobile era, mobile optimization is crucial to rank well in search engines. In fact, Google shifted its search algorithms to “Mobile-First Indexing” to make sure webmasters build mobile-friendly websites.
According to a report, about three-quarters of the world would use their smartphones to access the internet by 2025. So, don’t neglect mobile optimization when making SEO strategies.
Here is what you can do to optimize your website for mobile users.
- First, take a mobile-friendly test to find out which specific areas of your site need improvement in terms of mobile optimization.
- Improve your website’s loading time.
- Redesign your site to improve mobile user experience.
- If you’re using WordPress, choose a responsive theme.
3. Not Using Web Analytics
Unless you know how your visitors find your website from a search engine, you won’t be able to create effective search engine strategies for your site.
A web analytics tool helps you identify which pages your visitors click the most on your site and what keywords are they using to reach those pages. By analyzing your website data, you can take your SEO efforts to the next level and make sure that any new SEO strategies you implement actually work. Some of the popular web analytics tool you can try out include:
4. Keyword Stuffing
Optimizing your content for keywords is an ideal way to improve search engine ranking, but you should avoid overoptimizing by stuffing them in every sentence of your content.
Although there is no specified number for how many times you should use a keyword in your content, you should add 1 keyword per 200 words of copy.
To avoid keyword stuffing, you can use long-tail variations, synonyms, and LSI keywords. For instance, if your primary keyword is “on-page SEO techniques”, you can also use similar keywords within your content such as “on-page SEO tips” and “on-page SEO tutorials.”
5. Publishing Thin and Duplicate Content
Writing duplicate content was a widespread practice in the old days of the internet. However, Google has rolled many updates enforcing website owners to improve the quality of their content. Since plagiarized content manipulates search engine results, Google strictly discourages this approach.
Publishing duplicate content could be one major reason your webpage does not get indexed. You should start creating content that is original, well-written, and helpful for your target audience.
6. Improper On-site SEO
There are two forms of search engine optimization: On-site optimization and Off-site optimization. To gain maximum benefit from SEO, you must pay attention to both. Unfortunately, a lot of new website owners fail to give enough attention to the first, resulting in poor visibility in search engines.
For those who don’t know, on-site optimization is the practice of optimizing a website to enhance its search engine ranking. It usually includes optimization of page titles, meta descriptions, meta tags, body tags, keyword density, internal linking, and URL structure. In order to improve your on-site SEO, try running an SEO audit.
7. Not Optimizing Your Website Speed
Did you know, your website visitors can jump to your competitor’s websites if your site takes more than 3 seconds to load?
Over the past few years, website loading speed has become a crucial factor in search engine ranking. Both Google and Bing use it as a ranking factor.
Moreover, website loading speed is important from a user experience point of view. If your site does not load in a second or two, it can have a massive impact on your website conversion and eventually revenue.
Below check out some quick tips to improve the loading time of your site.
- Reduce the number of HTTP requests by minimizing JavaScript, CSS, HTML, Images, Style sheets.
- Consider using a content delivery network (CDN)
- Eliminate unnecessary redirects
- Compress image files
- Invest in a reliable hosting
- Use a caching plugin
8. Ignoring Website Errors
As a website owner, it’s your responsibility to ensure that your visitors don’t experience any errors on your site. Website errors such as 404, 400 and 401 not just damage your brand’s reputation, but also decreases your site’s ranking.
Google often penalizes webmasters who don’t eliminate misleading, broken or harmful links from the website. There are numerous tools out there that can help you find the dead links on your site. Some popular ones include:
9. Not Leveraging Social Media Networks
Today, around 45% of the population across the globe use social media. So, if you’re not taking advantage to promote your website, you are missing out on a ton of opportunities.
Although social media doesn’t have any direct impact on ranking, it can play a significant role in improving your site’s authority.
10. Not Running Website Audit
You must analyze the performance of your site from time to time. A careful examination helps you identify the scope of improvement. Perform an SEO audit.
Find out if your site is properly optimized for search engines. If you notice any issue, eliminate it as soon as possible.
So these are a few common mistakes that a lot of small businesses make. If you want to take your SEO game to the next level, stop making them now.
