SEO techniques are constantly evolving because of the search engine’s developments and the ever-changing perspectives of users. It is surely quite challenging to stay abreast of the most successful search engine optimization methods with many businesses and even SEO experts doing SEO incorrectly. Instead of witnessing huge traffic and rising conversion rates, the results could prove to be quite disastrous.
As per Search Engine Journal, there are certain common search engine optimization mistakes that are pretty difficult to avoid even for SEO experts. Moreover, testing optimization approaches could also prove to be immensely difficult simply because the methods cannot be verified in real-time as the rules and practices of a search engine are becoming quite impossible to predict. We might assume that we are infallible but the fact remains that when it comes to SEO, sometimes even the industry’s best could end up making harebrained mistakes.
Often the best way of tackling these mistakes is to consider moving forward by taking a step back to the fundamentals of SEO. As Bing and Google’s algorithms are evolving and as cutting-edge technologies are being incorporated for search, your stratagems also, need to keep evolving with time. Things could seem pretty overwhelming as you are optimizing your content for desktop visitors, voice search, social media followers, and mobile swipers. Here are some of the common search engine optimization mistakes that top experts still make.
Mistake: Generating Content Just for Content’s Sake
SEO best practices necessitate that you must generate content consistently for boosting your brand’s authority and exposure and also, enhance your website’s overall indexation rate. However, as your website expands to hundreds or even more pages, it becomes increasingly overwhelming to identify unique keywords meant for each of those pages and stick single-mindedly to a cohesive stratagem.
Often even experts make the mistake of generating content just for having more of it. That is surely uncalled for and may result in useless and thin content that certainly amounts to a complete waste of resources. You must not consider writing content without doing ample strategic keyword research in advance. You must ensure that the content seems to be relevant and compatible with your target keywords. You must see that the content contains closely-related keywords in body paragraphs and H2 tags.
This should be conveying successfully the full context of the content to the various search engines and fulfill user intent on several levels. You must dedicate some time and effort in generating long-form content that is evergreen and actionable. Remember you are SEO specialists and content marketers, not journalists. You must keep in mind that optimized content could take several months to appear on page one results. You must ensure that it stays unique and industry-relevant when it does. You may seek professional assistance from Walnutseo for perfect SEO solutions at affordable rates.
Mistake: Not Paying Attention to Paid Media
As the industry presently stands search engine optimization lays emphasis on getting and nurturing leads, however, paid media concentrates on getting and converting leads. As an SEO expert are you aware of the client’s advertising message or do you have any idea about the specific keywords they are using? Do you promote the same service or product pages using the specific keywords that are also being used by the paid media experts? There is a tremendous amount of insight that could be learned from landing page performances and PPC keyword research that could prove to be immensely useful in their campaign.
Moreover, Twitter and Facebook’s advertising platforms provide powerful audience analysis tools and these could be used by SEO consultants for better understanding their client’s customers. SEO experts could effectively focus on the unified message for discovering precise keywords that have the capacity to convert to the maximum extent and are responsible for driving the maximum number of clicks in your search results.
Mistake: Not Remembering About Local
We have seen that the Pigeon Update from Google has given a whole new dimension to local SEO. Local SEO seems to be intensely targeted with high conversions in terms of custom-tailoring a page in Google My Business, local directory reviews, and even the local three-pack. Here are some critical statistics to consider:
- 50 percent of the local searches on mobile are for specifically local business information.
- Half of the searches on mobile devices lead to an in-store visit on the same day.
- Somewhere between 80 to 90 percent of the people would be reading an online customer review before deciding to purchase an item.
- 85% of the people are known to trust online customer reviews just like they trust personal recommendations.
It is of crucial importance to consider segmenting your relevant keyword research for national, as well as, local intent. If you are providing local services, it is imperative to generate apt content reflecting local intent like incorporating city names just beside target keywords and also, in the content body. You simply cannot overlook or undermine the significance of local SEO even though a majority of you concentrate on growing your business very much at the national level on a much broader scale as compared to the local scale.
Mistake: Not Auditing Your Website Consistently
One serious mistake made even by SEO experts would be not carrying on optimizing your client’s site and not fixing the errors that keep cropping up from time to time. You must focus on a site audit once the implementation of a new plug-in or tool or site migration is complete. Some of the most common technical errors that take place over time would be including broken links, duplicate content, un-optimized Meta tags, and slow site loading speed because of poor JavaScript implementation or over sized pictures. Duplicate content could be appearing because of several reasons whether via session IDs or pagination.
Consider resolving any duplicate content or URL parameter results from your cookies simply by incorporating canonical on precisely the source web pages. While moving content around your website broken links are bound to occur, hence, it is critical to incorporate 301 redirects to a related webpage on whatever content you eliminate. You must focus on resolving 302 redirects as they are known to act as purely a temporary redirect. It is just not enough to have AMP or responsive web designs; it is of critical importance to audit your website for mobile search.
Do not forget to minify JS and CSS on your mobile site design and go ahead and shrink pictures so that you can get a responsive and fast design. You must focus on reevaluating your onsite content stratagem,
Conclusion
Everyone including top experts could be susceptible to errors in their craftsmanship. However, the most effective way of fixing those mistakes is to go through the best practices from time to time. You must be willing to learn and your mind must be agile. Keep reassessing your activities and decisions and examine if you are putting in your best for scaling your client’s business.