SEO is a massive part of building a really successful website. Fortunately, all the information you need to start doing good SEO work is available online. You just need to have the patience to learn. However, when you make some SEO mistakes, all your hard work goes down the drain.
Sometimes, even if a person has a firm understanding of all modern practices, a costly error ruins everything. In order to help you out, here are the worst possible SEO mistakes, those that you have to avoid.
Creating Inferior Quality Content
There is a reason why everyone in the industry says that “content is king”. Unfortunately, many website owners do not understand how important this is. Due to the fact that all the major engines work hard to be able to present quality results, the quality of the content will determine a large part of visibility.
While many things do count, everything starts with the quality of your content. It would be best if you put much more effort into creating high-quality content than you might believe. This is what increases social media shares, conversion rates, brand reputation, and SERP rankings.
Underestimating How Important Keyword Research Is
No matter what some people want or believe, keywords are critical and will always be vital in SEO. These words or phrases are used to look for something online. The problem is that finding the trending or relevant keywords you need to create successful content is something that requires effort on your part.
If you do not conduct good research, you end up using keywords that perform very poorly. You can write brilliant content and still end up with a lousy ranking performance simply because of the fact that users do not look for what you write.
You can conduct keyword research in many different ways. For instance, you could analyse BuzzSumo to see trending articles, and you can also check out Google Trends.
Not Taking Mobile Users Into Account
The number of people using mobile devices to browse the internet is continuously growing. This is precisely why Google is prioritising mobile searches. In 2021 and beyond, if you do not optimise your content for mobile users, it is a certainty that you will lose traffic.
At the same time, mobile optimisation goes hand in hand with local SEO. Many business owners think the local searches are not relevant for them, but this is not the case. It is an excellent idea to work with a local SEO agency specialising in both to bring out better results. For instance, if you hire an SEO company in Australia, it is easier to rank for local searches in Melbourne or Sydney.
The fact is, you need to prepare for the digital revolution that is already happening. This automatically means you have to optimise your content for mobile users.
Underestimating How Important Internal Links Are
Suppose there is one on-page SEO element that is often underestimated. In that case, it is the internal link. These are links that have massive power in search engine optimisation because of the fact that they increase the value of the articles they point to. Also, they decrease bounce rate while increasing the time spent on site.
One thing you should understand is that Google prioritises user experience. When they see that the visitor moves to a different page after the landing page, they see this as a sign that the website offers value.
Whenever there are internal links that can add value to your content, it is important to add them.
Thinking All Backlinks Are Good
The most common mistake we see in search engine optimisation today is creating as many backlinks as possible without considering quality and relevancy. You indeed need to get backlinks to rank, but these are not created equal.
As an example, let’s say that you run an online cat pet store. In this case, if you get a backlink from a car blog, it is entirely irrelevant and worthless.
In SEO, you want to build a solid network of relevant backlinks. You can only do this when you are extremely careful where content is posted and how it is created. Guest posts are always excellent, but not when they are just created to get a link.
Neglecting SSL Encryption
This is an excellent example of not knowing what is relevant in the industry and what is not. Because of the importance of online safety and the significant number of hacks that are happening, major search engines started to prioritise security. Google is public about the value of SSL, and in 2021, we know that it will put an even higher emphasis on it.
The really good news is that it is effortless to get an SSL certificate today. The investment is meagre, and there are even some free services that can be considered when you only need the basics of encryption. Always invest in SSL, and you will not lose traffic because your site is marked as unsecured by the visitor’s browser.
Forgetting The Sitemap
It is incredible to see that most websites these days do not have a sitemap. This is a huge SEO mistake since the sitemap is what Google crawls to find your content. If you do not build it and then submit it, content can be ignored. You are putting blind faith into getting backlinks from other sites when it comes to indexing.
We should add that using JavaScript menus is not a great idea since the search engine bots do not read them. They can be great for a site and user experience, but not for indexing.
Final Thoughts
Search engine optimisation is highly technical and much more complex than people think. In many cases, the success of a website is not necessarily determined by what you do right. It is dictated by the mistakes you make.
Remember that the mistakes above have to be avoided at all costs. But there are many others you could be making. Always educate yourself and learn all that you can about SEO so you can make smart choices.
