As the internet becomes the most important sales channels, businesses go an extra mile to be visible on the top of search rankings. No wonder, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has become a norm for businesses that want to secure a place up there. However, there is a lot that goes into bringing results in the form of high search rankings and sustaining them as well.
Even small mistakes can have an adverse impact on your ranking and it may take months to get your website back on its feet. While being forward-thinking and embracing the latest SEO trends is important, it is also vital to know where you might go wrong.
Here are some worse yet common SEO mistakes that you should absolutely avoid:
- Having an inappropriate internal link structure
As your website grows in size, maintaining a proper link structure becomes challenging. Small issues such as 404-page errors and duplicate content on pages can hamper the UX, which eventually can lower your SEO ranking. Internal linking is meant to ease the user journey, engage the users better and drive conversions; if it fails to do so, your website will get into trouble. The best way to resolve this matter is by reassessing the site’s architecture and organizing the pages categorically, with relevant internal links at the right places.
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Not keeping content as your top priority
Undoubtedly, quality content is the lifeline of SEO as it has the potential to influence Google to place a website on the top of the search rankings. The best practice is to have niche-relevant, valuable and informative content on the site. It is equally important that you churn it out on a consistent basis to increase the indexation rate and brand exposure. You may be doing homepage SEO right and be on the top of all other strategies, but the results will be elusive unless the entire plan is supported by good content.
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Failing to utilize the right content delivery channels
Another common mistake that can spoil your SEO game is the failure to utilize the right content delivery channels. Even if you have the best content to your credit, it will not fetch you adequate benefits unless people are able to view it. Thus, content promotion becomes as significant as content production. Leverage diverse strategies such as guest posting, social media posts, targeted emails, and more. Create personalized content pieces if you want to target a specific set of the audience through a specific promotional tactic.
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Not optimizing for the right keywords
Investing ample time and effort in keyword research is of great importance for crafting a successful SEO strategy. All the hard work in creating long-form content will go waste if you do not have the right keywords placed in it. This is because the chances of figuring out in search results will be poor in these circumstances. Also, you should also understand that long-tailed keywords matter a great deal now as voice searches have become a crucial factor for search rankings.
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Ignoring local SEO
You may be tempted to go for the more sophisticated SEO tactics to extend your website’s reach, but ignoring local SEO can be a big blunder. It is utterly important to understand the significance of local SEO as it has a major hold over mobile searches. Moreover, local listings have reviews that can be valuable for the business, considering the fact that potential customers use them as a yardstick to assess your credibility. Hence, you should focus on strengthening your local reach even while targeting a global audience.
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Not auditing your website regularly
You may think that website audits are tedious and useless but not doing them can be detrimental for your SEO plan. Periodic audits enable you to identify issues and fix them before they cause any major harm. From the absence of responsiveness to poor loading speed, duplicate content, broken links, and more, audits can be useful for detecting big and small glitches with your website. Therefore, it is essential to invest time in regular site audits even if everything looks good on the surface.
Even the best of SEO specialists can make these mistakes but being aware and vigilant can make all the difference. The best advice is to look back every time you take a step forward because it will enable you to identify the errors, fix them and make sure that they will not be repeated in the future. A flexible and open approach goes a long way in ensuring that you get speedy and sustainable results with your strategy.
