If you own a website for a while now, you must be aware of the term digital marketing, search engine optimization, web design, etc. You must have heard about several variables that matter in SEO and sometimes it gets difficult to get 100% accuracy in the technique. Even the sharpest of minds make mistakes, but what’s important is rectifying them on time.
Falling a few numbers in the organic rankings can affect your business at an alarming rate. If you are not aware, a website ranked at number 1 position of Google enjoys 15% more traffic than that placed at the second position, which is gain the receiver of 20% more traffic than the third. When you aim to get the most out of your digital marketing process, making mistakes is not an option. Hiring an Affordable Search Engine Optimizatio services in India will only be helpful when done right. Here are 7 fatal mistakes in search engine optimization you need to ignore in 2020.
1. Writing for robots
Never place a search engine before your customers. Search engines are not going to buy your products and services, but your customers. It is essential to give value to your readers by rendering well-optimized content that they can engage with. Stuffing keywords in your content and linking it to other content just for the sake of linking will take you nowhere.
Taking the length of content into concern, Google likes longer content typically, but that doesn’t indicate that you must post three 2000word blogs in a week. You should find out what length of blogs your readers want to read and stick to it.
What to do:
- Consider customer value first and SEO second
- Create content keeping your readers in mind
- Start optimizing your content when you know the readers will read it.
2. Owning a website that isn’t crawlable
When you have a web page that is crawlable and has got links within and to other pages, search engine spiders can find and follow these easily. But in case the search engine spiders fail to find those links, the destination pages couldn’t be included in the database of the search engine.
It is very crucial to design your website in such a way that navigation for the search engine spiders becomes easier through the links. If not, most of your pages will remain undetected y the search engine. Do not embed links in JavaScript or Flash as Google’s spiders find it difficult to crawl through Flash files and JavaScript menus.
What to do:
- Ensure your domains are easy to follow
- Be cautious with JavaScript and Flash.
3. Two versions of your domain resolving to the home page
www.yourdomain.com and domain.com are both two different web addresses for a search engine. SO having both these domains resolving to your home page might be a problem for your search engine optimization. Google will assume that you have the same content on two different websites. It leads to the issue of duplicate content. Similarly, create a home page URL such as www.yourdomain.com/index.html as it is also considered as a different address.
What to do:
- Have a single version of your address to avoid issues of duplicate content.
4. Not knowing your site is penalized
How can you fix a problem when you have no idea it exists? There are some organizations that don’t realize that their optimizing efforts are going in vain. They wonder why despite all the efforts, the organic ranking is missing.
We have discussed a few overlooked mistakes that might have got your site penalized without you having a hint:
Spammy link building: Spamming cheap links and buying links to your website is no less than poison for your SEO.
Slow load time: The slow loading speed of your website is hurting your organic rankings.
Keyword stuffing: You need to maintain a keyword balance in your content, as stuffing it with keywords might get you in trouble.
What to do:
- Create valuable content with relevant and meaningful links.
- Increase your site’s speed (less than 3 seconds).
- Keep your content natural with proper keyword insertions.
- Use tools like WebPage Test or Pingdom to check your website’s loading speed.
5. Inconsistencies of NAP in citations
Your local search rankings depend largely on citations. Citation is mention of your brand/business online using NAP (Name, Address and Phone Number) of your company in the same format as in your business listings. Problem occurs when NAP becomes inconsistent in your citations. It can potentially hamper your local SEO campaign. If you have different numbers in different citations, your rankings will bear the blow.
What to do:
- Create a template for NAP and follow it whenever you insert the information in a listing.
- Use tools like Moz Local and Yext to simplify citations.
6. Optimization of wrong keywords
Optimization of keywords is one of the most important things total care of while doing SEO. You cannot target the keyword ‘how to choose the right accessories for men’ in your blog when you deal in women’s accessories in particular. Similarly, there is another kind of ‘wrong keywords’ that you must avoid. These are the ones not connected to your business at all. Suppose you are a cosmetic dealer and you target keywords like ‘best footwear for women’, it is considered misleading for your users.
What to do:
- Do detailed keyword research and shortlist the most relevant ones to optimize.
7. Skipping meta descriptions and title tags in your content
Skipping meta descriptions and title tags in your content can cost you a big amount as you fall in the SERPs and fail to boost your CTR. When done correctly, meta descriptions and title tags can help you grab the attention of the visitors and make them reach your website.
What to do:
- If you have an open-source CMS (Content Management System) like Blogger or WordPress, install plugins to optimize these two elements properly.
- For a website written in a programming language, you need to have HTML tags for descriptions, keywords and tags.
