With so much to center of attention on in Search Engine Optimization, it is easy to make a mistake. We’ve made a list of the top 10 SEO Mistakes to Avoid when working on your Digital Marketing campaign. As we have already seen, Digital Marketing is the organic way of getting traffic to your website. It makes it easy for your audience as well as the search engine to discover and go through your website. SEO has become necessary for every business as most of the traffic comes from search engines like Google, Bing, etc.
You need to be very careful while doing SEO as, in the same way that the right SEO can get you thousands of visitors and increased attention, the wrong moves can hide or bury your site deep in the search results where visibility is minimal.
10 SEO Mistakes to Avoid
Stuffing Your Content with Keywords
This is one of the biggest and the most common SEO mistakes that a marketer can make. Don’t ever spam your content with keywords in order to increase your ranking on the search engine results page. It not only shows the poor quality of content but if you get caught by Google then it might seriously kick down your ranking.
Leaving Broken Links
Broken links are one of the most frustrating things that any website can have. When a person clicks on a link, they expect to be redirected to a page relevant to the link, but when links are broken, they get frustrated and disappointed as their expectations aren’t met.
In the same way, search engines also lower the ranks of websites that have broken links. This is because broken links give you a bad online reputation which in turn makes your website less credible.
Choosing Keywords without Research
In order to effectively optimize your site, you need to choose the appropriate keywords. Not only are they important because they are used throughout your content, but they are also responsible for attracting search engine spiders. With the wrong keywords, you can miss valuable opportunities and gain traffic that won’t convert.
Ignoring The Title Tag
A title tag is what will be displayed when someone sees the search results of your page in Google or another search engine. Not optimizing it for the search engine is, unfortunately, a common mistake made by many companies. This isn’t only important because it shows the title of your site in the search results, but it also helps with optimization.
Using A Flash Website
One of the main problems with flash-based websites is that it is not very friendly. Not only is it limiting to the users, but it also is unreadable to search engines. Search engine spiders can’t read your content if it is in flash and therefore they can’t index your site. If you must have a flash website please provide an HTML alternative.
Having a Very Long Meta Description
Meta Descriptions are important as they help you in increasing the click-through rate of your website in the search engine results page. The recommended length for Meta descriptions is 150-160 words. If you write very long descriptions then only half of it will be visible under your website in the results page. Meta descriptions should be short and effectively convey the message. Keyword placing also needs to be done strategically.
Avoiding Analytics
This is the worst SEO mistake that you can ever make. Google Analytics is one of the most important tools for tracking traffic on your website. Analytics tell you what is working and what isn’t. They also tell you who is visiting your site, what are they looking at, how much time they are spending on your site, etc. You need to constantly keep on checking analytics and make changes to your website accordingly to optimize it better.
Flooding Your Content
You do need to make sure to include your keywords in your content, but you also need to make sure you don’t flood your content. This means that you place so many keywords throughout your content that it ends up being unreadable. Make sure you place your keywords logically throughout your content so it read naturally to search engines and your readers.
Ignore your target audience
When you optimize your site you need to make sure you keep your audience in mind. Use language that your audience uses and will understand, and make sure to define terms that aren’t commonly used.
Using Irrelevant Anchor Text Links
Anchor text refers to the clickable hyperlinks in your context. Sometimes, people put a lot of anchor text links that aren’t really relevant to their content, in order to increase their rankings on search engine results page. What they fail to realize is that if they get caught by the search engine then it could have serious consequences.
Search Engine Optimization may seem simple at a glance, but it has its own strategies and technical aspects, which, if not kept in mind, might lead to a failed campaign. Hence, it is always best to get the help of a professional/agency.