By now, most business owners understand the importance of having a well optimized website in order to be seen on popular search engines. Search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of guidelines necessary for websites to receive authentic visits from online users.
With proper tactics and strategies in place, a company can quickly improve their search engine page results, reach their target audience, and improve brand recognition.
The only problem is that many website owners assume that SEO is nothing more than keyword placement within the content on their site. The truth is, there is a lot more involved in SEO and its place in online marketing, as outlined in Neil Patel’s piece on SEO basics. Failing to incorporate all aspects of search engine optimization can lead to poor and ineffective results.
If you’ve recently incorporated SEO strategies on your company’s website and social media platforms but haven’t seen any improvements in your visibility or web traffic, you could be committing any of the following common mistakes:
Keyword Stuffing
One of the most common mistakes made by companies when developing content for their site is overusing the keyword. Contrary to popular belief, using the same word or phrase over and over again will not increase your visibility, but will cause your website to be marked as spam by web crawlers putting you at the back of the list in search results.
Poor Keyword Choices
When it comes to creating well optimized content your keywords should be relevant to the content and your brand. Choosing keywords that are rarely searched or irrelevant can cause your page rankings to go down. Use keyword search tools to find out what the most popular searched terms are as they related to your products and services.
Broken Links
When linking your content to other authoritative sites or posts it is important to make sure that the links work properly. While broken links can happen from time to time, search engines do not like content that consistently has this problem. When a viewer clicks on a link, they should not receive error messages, but should be routed to whatever information it is they’re looking for. Broken links lead to broken reputations and poor search engine page results.
Another common issue with adding links to your content is linking to non reputable sources. When viewers click on a link from your content, it should automatically take them to something that is of use and accurate. Sending them to a page filled with spam, ads, or inaccurate information ruins your credibility and reputation in your industry.
Duplicate Content
Copying the same content from one web page and placing it on another can also cause an issue. If your home page and your about us page for example present the same information, it confuses search engines. Ideally, it becomes uncertain as to which page should be referenced when consumers search for keywords and phrases. Since confusion is good for no one, it automatically decreases your page rankings. This is why it is important to create original SEO content for each of your web pages.
Title Tags and Meta Descriptions
Page titles and meta descriptions should also incorporate SEO. Websites that have the titles on each page is quite common, but not the best option. You should pay close attention to the title tags as they ultimately help search engine crawlers to determine how to index the pages along with helping viewers to determine whether the page is relevant to their needs.
Meta descriptions should also be created carefully. As meta descriptions serve as your website’s descriptions or sales pitch, you need to ensure that they’re well optimized and as descriptive as possible to get online searchers to click on the link.
There are many aspects of search engine optimization that must be put into place when drafting content. Search engines have guidelines for which website owners and developers must comply with in order to be visible on search engine page results. Improving and updating your SEO will most certainly improve your reputation and visibility online.
With proper tactics and strategies in place, a company can quickly improve their search engine page results, reach their target audience, and improve brand recognition.
If you’ve recently incorporated SEO strategies on your company’s website and social media platforms but haven’t seen any improvements in your visibility or web traffic, you could be committing any of the following common mistakes:
Keyword Stuffing
One of the most common mistakes made by companies when developing content for their site is overusing the keyword. Contrary to popular belief, using the same word or phrase over and over again will not increase your visibility, but will cause your website to be marked as spam by web crawlers putting you at the back of the list in search results.
Poor Keyword Choices
When it comes to creating well optimized content your keywords should be relevant to the content and your brand. Choosing keywords that are rarely searched or irrelevant can cause your page rankings to go down. Use keyword search tools to find out what the most popular searched terms are as they related to your products and services.
Broken Links
When linking your content to other authoritative sites or posts it is important to make sure that the links work properly. While broken links can happen from time to time, search engines do not like content that consistently has this problem. When a viewer clicks on a link, they should not receive error messages, but should be routed to whatever information it is they’re looking for. Broken links lead to broken reputations and poor search engine page results.
Another common issue with adding links to your content is linking to non reputable sources. When viewers click on a link from your content, it should automatically take them to something that is of use and accurate. Sending them to a page filled with spam, ads, or inaccurate information ruins your credibility and reputation in your industry.
Duplicate Content
Copying the same content from one web page and placing it on another can also cause an issue. If your home page and your about us page for example present the same information, it confuses search engines. Ideally, it becomes uncertain as to which page should be referenced when consumers search for keywords and phrases. Since confusion is good for no one, it automatically decreases your page rankings. This is why it is important to create original SEO content for each of your web pages.
Title Tags and Meta Descriptions
Page titles and meta descriptions should also incorporate SEO. Websites that have the titles on each page is quite common, but not the best option. You should pay close attention to the title tags as they ultimately help search engine crawlers to determine how to index the pages along with helping viewers to determine whether the page is relevant to their needs.
Meta descriptions should also be created carefully. As meta descriptions serve as your website’s descriptions or sales pitch, you need to ensure that they’re well optimized and as descriptive as possible to get online searchers to click on the link.
There are many aspects of search engine optimization that must be put into place when drafting content. Search engines have guidelines for which website owners and developers must comply with in order to be visible on search engine page results. Improving and updating your SEO will most certainly improve your reputation and visibility online.