In digital marketing, the little things can make all the difference. This is especially true when it comes to SEO.
One such little thing is having long URLs that are not reader or search engine friendly. This can be a big mistake that can negatively impact your rankings, as well as not using SSL. SSL improves the user experience which benefits SEO.
Another is having gaps in your keyword and content strategies. This can make you compete against yourself, sabotage your ranking and allow your competitors to outrank you.
1. Using the Wrong Keywords
Keyword optimization is one of the most important steps in a successful SEO strategy. This step involves carrying out adequate research and analysis to choose the right keywords that can bring you traffic and other benefits. However, many people make mistakes when doing this task, which can lead to unexpected results such as a lower SEO ranking, less traffic or even no traffic at all! Let’s take a look at some of the most common mistakes that can be made when choosing and optimizing keywords.
One of the biggest mistakes you can make is using the wrong keywords. This can be a problem because it can lead to low-quality content that doesn’t attract visitors or customers. Also, it can cause your competitors to outrank you in search engines, which can be very damaging to your business.
When choosing your SEO keywords, it’s important to consider the search intent of the user. This will help you to create content that matches what they’re looking for, which will improve your chances of getting more clicks and conversions. You should also focus on keywords that have a high search volume, as this will give you more opportunities to rank in the top spots of search engines.
Another mistake that can be made when choosing SEO keywords is focusing on local keywords instead of national or global ones. This can be a big mistake because it will limit your reach to potential customers who aren’t in your geographical area. If you want to maximize your content reach, you should always focus on local keywords that relate to your industry and location.
Finally, one of the biggest mistakes that can be made when choosing and optimizing SEO keywords is stuffing them into your content. This can be a huge problem because it will lead to poor-quality content that is hard to read and understand. It’s also important to avoid keyword stuffing because search engines will recognize it as a spammy practice and penalize your site accordingly. Make sure that the keywords you use are natural and that they fit in well with the rest of your content.
2. Not Having a Mobile-Friendly Site
The internet landscape changes on a daily basis, and it’s important to keep up with the latest trends in order to stay competitive. One of the most common mistakes that businesses make is not having a mobile-friendly website. Mobile devices are now the primary way people access the internet, so it’s crucial to ensure that your site is optimized for mobile users.
Search engines have made it clear that mobile-friendliness is a critical ranking factor. In fact, Google’s 2015 “Mobilegeddon” update boosted the rankings of sites that were responsive on mobile devices. Since then, Google has announced that they will begin using a text warning on desktop searches if a website is not mobile friendly.
In addition, mobile friendly sites tend to load faster on mobile devices, which is another ranking factor. If a visitor encounters a slow-loading site, they will likely leave within a few seconds, which can negatively impact your SEO.
Another aspect of mobile-friendly sites is keeping the content on them short and concise. It’s important to avoid putting too much information on your site, as this can overwhelm visitors and cause them to click away. Instead, try to include all of the relevant information in a few sentences. This will help to improve your SEO, as it will give search engines a better understanding of what your site is about.
To find out if your site is mobile-friendly, use Google’s Mobile Friendliness Test. It will give you a pass or fail, along with a list of reasons why your site is or isn’t mobile friendly. If you want to get a little more detailed, you can also use Bing’s SiteChecker, which gives a grade on a scale of 1-10, as well as a comprehensive list of recommendations for improvement. It’s important to note that these tools are not perfect, but they can be a good starting point for identifying areas of your website that need improvement.
3. Not Having a Contact Form
When it comes to getting new business, there are few things more frustrating than having a contact form that doesn’t work. This is a common mistake that many businesses make, but it can be easily fixed by making sure your forms are functioning properly.
Having an effective website contact form is one of the most important elements to have on your site, and it’s essential that you regularly test it to make sure it’s working. You can do this by visiting your website as if you were a potential customer and filling out the contact form to see if it works. This will help to ensure that any form submissions are being emailed to the proper email address and that all text fields are displaying correctly.
While it might seem counterintuitive to include multiple field options in your contact form to qualify leads, this can actually improve your conversions by weeding out people who aren’t really interested in your products or services. However, you should always avoid forcing visitors to provide unnecessary information that will put them off and make them leave your website, which is why it’s so important to keep your forms as short and simple as possible.
Another tip to remember is to have clear instructions for your visitors as to what information is required in each field. Having a ‘Required Field’ label and making them stand out by using a different color or font is an easy way to do this. This will prevent users from leaving your website in frustration if they are unable to complete the form because of missing or incorrectly formatted information.
It’s also a good idea to have the option for a visitor to submit a message without completing all of the fields in the form. This will allow them to give you feedback or ask a question without having to fill out the entire form. This will make your website more user-friendly and encourage people to contact you.
Having an effective contact form on your website is a great way to get more customers and leads, but it’s important that you test it frequently to make sure it’s working correctly. This will help to prevent any unnecessary frustration for your visitors and ensure that you’re getting the most out of your SEO efforts.
4. Not Having a Blog
There are many factors that contribute to SEO success, including conducting thorough keyword research and optimization, building quality backlinks, ensuring website speed is optimized for mobile devices, and more. But without a blog, your site is missing out on one of the most powerful tools to improve its ranking in search engines.
Having a blog allows you to create content about topics that your visitors want to know about, which can help boost your SEO ranking. This content also helps potential customers learn more about your business and how you can meet their needs. In addition, well-written blogs that contain useful information are more likely to be linked to than your homepage and service pages.
One of the main reasons a website may not rank well on Google is because it does not have a blog or because it has not updated its blog for a long time. This is because Google looks for content that meets the E-E-A-T requirements – experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. A well-written and up-to-date blog post is a great way to prove that you are an authority on a topic.
Blog posts also allow you to target keywords that are not as competitive as your homepage or service page keywords. If you do proper research and optimize your blog posts for long tail keywords, they are more likely to rank highly in search engine results. Long tail keywords have fewer competing websites and are more specific in nature, which makes them easier to rank for.
You can find long tail keywords by typing a phrase into the search box on Google or using a tool like Answer The Public. Once you’ve found a good keyword, try to integrate it into your post naturally. However, be careful not to overdo it – if you stuff your blog post with keywords, Google will penalize you.
In addition to adding long tail keywords to your blog posts, you can also update old blog posts by changing the title and/or adding new data. This will help the post to rank for the updated term, while still bringing in traffic from the older version of the article.
