SEO Mistakes: Top 10 Mistakes Beginners Make
The “learn-as-you-go” philosophy when it comes to SEO is one that many subscribe to, even though it comes with the risk of costing your site visitors and, ultimately, revenue according to the gurus over at runrex.com. If you are new to SEO and are trying to figure out how best to position your business’s website, then you are not alone as many people do their own SEO work. If you are doing SEO on your own, then you could use the following advice from the experts over at guttulus.com on mistakes that many SEO beginners make so that you can avoid them and set yourself on the road to ranking higher in search results without risking penalizing your website. They include:
Not using the right keywords
According to runrex.com, focusing on the right keywords will put you on the right path to SEO success. This is because keywords are how people are going to find your website, and, therefore, if you use the wrong keywords, you are going to attract the wrong customers, who are then unlikely to buy your product or use your service as explained over at guttulus.com. This is why it is important to use the keywords that best describe your business if you are to attract the right clientele.
Keyword stuffing
Most beginners also tend to engage in keyword stuffing, which is the practice of adding the same keyword to your content numerous times in an attempt to trick Google into thinking your content should be ranked highly for that keyword as explained over at runrex.com. While this black-hat technique used to be effective at boosting one’s content rankings, Google has since caught up and can now recognize and penalize such activity. Avoid this mistake, and instead, simply write your content so that it flows naturally, and if you still think you need specific keywords, then go back and place a few within the content, but do so naturally. You should also use LSI keywords to help alleviate any keyword stuffing concerns.
Not providing a meta description
Meta descriptions provide Google with an overview of what your content is all about as discussed over at guttulus.com. A mistake some beginners do is not emphasizing them, which can cause harm, as while some believe that Google doesn’t place much emphasis on meta descriptions, they can still be an important part of SEO. Since Google will simply take the first few sentences of your content if a meta description is missing, SEO beginners often pass this up. However, it is worth noting that the first few sentences of your content may not be that engaging or may have too many keywords, which could lead to a penalty associated with keyword stuffing.
Not keeping mobile in mind
According to the gurus over at runrex.com, you must be aware of the fact that more and more people are using mobile devices to access the internet, which means that people will be looking at your content from their tablets and mobile devices, and you need to plan accordingly. You should optimize for mobile by improving site design, site structure, page speed, and other variables to make sure that your site is properly servicing mobile searches. Also, people on mobile are even less likely to look at page two of search results as opposed to desktop users, which is why it is important to aim for page one when optimizing your content.
Not submitting a sitemap to Google
A sitemap, as covered over at guttulus.com, is the tool used by Google to understand what your website is about and what keywords are relevant to your content. If you don’t submit a sitemap to Google, then it is just like sending someone on a tour of a foreign country without a map. Therefore, make sure you submit your XML sitemap as then Google quickly be able to crawl the sitemap, read the priorities that you have already set, and then index and rank your page accordingly.
Not linking to other websites
Given that Google is pretty strict when it comes to link building, many SEO beginners get scared to incorporate links into their content, which is another huge mistake as Google wants to see relevant links in your content according to runrex.com. Links add to the quality of your article. You should aim to provide your readers with the most relevant information and if that means linking to other websites, then that is something you should certainly not shy away from doing even as a beginner.
Failing to proofread your content
The quality of your content is very important as if people find your content hard to read because of poor spelling and grammar, then they will likely leave your page and go to a competitor, and when Google sees people leaving your content, it will consider it worthless and rank other pages higher as discussed over at guttulus.com. You can invest in software like Grammarly or you can hire a freelancer to copy-edit your content, as this will help your SEO and won’t cost you that much.
Not making content sharable
If you want Google to know that people love your content, then it must be shared. And to get people to share it, you must make it easy for them according to the subject matter experts over at runrex.com. This means adding social sharing buttons to your content, a move that can increase engagement and get your content shared, which ultimately results in better SEO and, hopefully, higher search rankings.
Not collecting data about your content
You must collect as much data as you can about your content. As explained over at guttulus.com, this means analyzing visitor stats to determine your best content and then working on bringing that even higher in the search results. You should then focus on what is not doing so well and either go a different direction or try to increase the ranking through shares and backlinks. You can use free tools from Google such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console to help collect and analyze data.
Choosing quantity over quality
The current age, according to the gurus over at runrex.com, is all about quality content, which means that what you write must be informative to readers and not just written to rank high in search results. Therefore, you should focus on providing answers and solutions for your customers instead of focusing on Google. Readers who find the answers to their questions through your content as more likely to return, share your content, and even convert into paying customers.
As always, if you are looking for more information and insights on this topic, including more mistakes one can make as far as SEO is concerned, then look no further than the highly regarded runrex.com and guttulus.com.