Business owners online use SEO, search engine optimization, to catch the attention of search engines like Google. Many of them forget the basics and start going after tricks to get their pages seen faster. These tricks don’t last and it makes for quite an ordeal to get them fixed.
You want to work on the basics and make sure you are producing content that is valuable to your audience.
5 SEO Mistakes Even the Pros Make
It’s all too easy to mess up your own SEO, and if you’ve hired somebody else to do it for you, that doubles the anguish when they also make these types of mistakes you just paid for.
SEO mistakes can be extremely hard to correct, and take a substantial amount of time and expense. For that reason, we want to be ultra-careful to avoid making these critical errors in the first place.
Let’s look at 5 ways SEO mistakes can happen, and how they can be avoided.
5 Main SEO mistakes to avoid
Keywords and anchor text – Google has now refined the search engine algorithm to the point now where it can easily detect heavy-handed attempts to game the system. No longer can you get away with much, and the resulting penalties can be harsh if you’re caught trying. Instead, aim for natural keyword profiles with plenty of related verbiage, and in conjunction with that, a diversified and sensible anchor text policy using naturally occurring keywords, naked URLs, and other generic terms.
Avoid using Tags – The primary reason you’ll want to avoid the use of tags is that they automatically create a duplicate content issue for you. Use categories instead. And if you use a tag cloud you’ve only compounded the problem by using valuable front page real estate as well.
Don’t use Flash – In the quest for some spiffy visual effect, many designers are tempted (or forced) to use Flash. The harm done to your SEO and mobile can make it very unwise to do so. Besides, most people who use those ‘fancy’ flash sites are just using templates that other businesses are using. You don’t want your website to look like everyone elses, do you?
Not optimizing for Mobile – Since over half of all web users now get here via a mobile device, you need to make sure you recognize and account for this. Google also now devalues unresponsive pages in search with the label that your page “May not work on your device”. Take time to pull up your website on your phone and make sure it is working. If you have an andriod phone, check it out on Iphone, Google and Windows phones. You want to make sure it looks good no matter what phone is viewing your page.
Not taking advantage of internal linking – The best way to secure better rankings as of late is to make sure your pages are optimized well, and the primary element here is sound internal linking. Google loves this, and it is a far easier get than valuable external links. Internal linking shows that the pages on your page are relevant to the topic you are talking about. It alerts Google that you are an authority in your niche.
Conclusion:
As you can see, these are really basic things if you know anything about webpages. You just want to keep an eye on your webpage, even if you have hired someone else to do your marketing for you. The key is to keep on top of what is working and not try to ‘trick’ the system.
There are probably fifty or more tips we could give out on these issues, but you will need to find what is working for you. If you need an evaluation of your website, get in touch with us. We can develop a full report and even can shoot a video explaining everything in simple language that you can use to train your staff.
