Are you still struggling to rank #1 on Google for your focus keywords? Not sure why you are facing the issue? Well! You might be missing on minor things or making silly mistakes that most site owners make. SEO is a fast-changing industry. One needs to keep updated about the SEO developments and trends to fix the issues and rank above your competitors. From small-medium-sized businesses to large corporate houses, many website owners make similar mistakes. To help you score high on the search engine results page, we have penned down a few common SEO mistakes most beginners and experts often encounter. We will also share some tips on how to avoid them.
- Website Speed
First and foremost, we will discuss the site speed. Do you know how many people switch to competitors due to a slow-loading website? Take yourself as an example. Will you prefer a website that takes a lot of time to load, or instead choose the one that offers a quick display for your query? Well! You have the answer. As a visitor, if you are not willing to hold on to a website for your answer, why would Google put a website on top that might lower users’ interest? Search engines like Google and Bing are trying to make the web faster, and they are doing everything to deliver better results to their visitors. Site Speed is one key ranking factor. Check your website speed from various free online tools like GT Metrix, Google PageSpeed Insights, and more.
If you find your website loading time is bad or poor, start with compressing and optimizing your images as they take a lot of time to load. Re-size your images, go for less number of plugins, reduce JavaScript and CSS files, use website caching, and lessen the use of web fonts. These are a few things that you can work on to reduce the website loading time.
- Focussing on Wrong Keywords
Many SEO experts help rank your website on top searches for a few search terms. But have you ever cross-checked if these terms have search volume or not? If you really want to gain better traffic and leads from search engines, you must look for the right keywords for every page. In most cases, site owners optimize their websites for generic keywords and miss the opportunity to attract the attention of a large audience. Rather than choosing a highly competitive term as a beginner, we recommend going for location-based keywords or long-tail keywords for better reach and results from your targeted location.
Long-tail keywords have a higher-ranking rate. However, the search volume might be less, but one can compensate by optimizing other pages with different search terms. You can get visitors from a large number of keywords rather than by just optimizing for one main keyword. Look for a bigger audience and engagement to uplift your position and get better results.
- Page Titles and Descriptions are not Unique
Metadata is one of the key elements to rank on the search engine result pages (SERPs). It includes the page title and meta description that appears on the SERP whenever a visitor searches for a query. You must optimize the page title and its description correctly by keeping it short. Also, make sure to add the keyword to the meta title and meta description. If your title crosses the SEO limit, your metadata will get cut off.
Optimizing Metadata (Title and Description) with a clear and attractive message helps increase your Click Through Rate (CTR). Also, it makes it easier for the visitor to understand what the page is about and whether it matches the visitor’s query. Make sure to provide unique titles for each page and be clear for the description stating what the page is about.
- Missing out Writing Unique Content
Apart from writing great content for your blog section, make sure to also keep an eye on what impression it will give to your visitors. Quality content is essential to increase the engagement score for your website.
Each page on your website must have a minimum of 300 words long content. Make sure to have content on your website that is unique and valuable. Google’s job is to analyze the whole page to understand what the content is about and is it appropriate for the user’s query.
Remember, you have to optimize your content for your visitors. Google’s purpose is to check if your content is valuable and whether it is the best possible solution to the visitor’s query or not. Thus, aim to deliver quality content for your audience – unique, fresh, and shows your expertise. Avoid keyword stuffing into your content as it might go against you. Also, try publishing blogs frequently if you have a blog section. Blogs are a great way to share new information and keep visitors engaged.
- Not making proper use of Analytics to check on your Converts
SEO is not only about getting free organic traffic from search engines. It is also vital for you to check if you are getting any leads or conversions.
Analytics help your figure out how many users are reaching your website, for what phrases, and how many are increasing your bounce rate. Apart from these, there are more advantages to using analytics. At times you may convert better for low-traffic keywords than super-competitive ones. Thus, getting on the first page for such keywords can also help drive quite a few sales. But how to find one?
The only way is to track your website. Set up conversion tracking for your search terms, compare, and see for yourself which search terms are producing better results. If you know which phrase is getting you converts, you can optimize better and decide which search terms are worth focusing on.
- Local Search Optimization
It is a must to optimize your website as per local search if you run a business that wants to target a specific area, city, or region. Unknown to how to reach a more local audience, people often target broad and unspecific keywords. To rank your website on local searches, you need to find region-specific keywords, properly optimize keywords with locations, and more.
To turn into a local traffic-generating website, make sure to add an address and local phone number on your contact page or header and footer. List your business on some of the top directories and business listing websites like Google My Business, Yelp, Merchant Circle, Foursquare, and more. Reach out to your customers for generating positive reviews for your website and respond to negative ones to reduce damage. Finally, prepare a link-building strategy to enhance your website authority.
- Not Thinking Much About Mobile Users
The last and most important one is Mobile Optimization. At times owners are focussing so much on the website that they often miss out on the traffic they may gain from mobile users. Google introduced mobile-first indexing in 2018. The purpose was to rank sites on how well-optimized and responsive is their mobile versions. If you have brilliantly set up your website desktop version, but lack a mobile version, you are definitely losing it from your competitors. Thus, make sure to work on Mobile SEO. Many free online tools can help figure out if your website is mobile-friendly or not.
Check for mobile-friendly test tools. Visit your website from mobile and see if every button or link is clickable and images are in proper size. Browse your website through your mobile phone and see for yourself if everything is displayed correctly? As we all know, mobiles are too common in use, and people prefer searching through phones in an emergency rather than opening devices to log in for purchase or learn more information. Thus, do not miss out on this part and deliver a better user experience on mobile by properly optimizing it.
Conclusion
We know SEO is tricky, and one cannot always remember each part to work on. But, you must keep updating your SEO regularly to avoid the above-listed mistakes. Focus on various aspects to improve your ranking on Google SERPs, such as site speed, content quality, and focus on optimizing the right keywords for your website. If you ensure the above-listed pointers are properly optimized, you have crossed halfway. Figure out and check your pages that need optimization as per SEO guidelines.
Also Read: Tips For Improving Your SEO Ranking
