We all know that SEO is crucial for increasing our website’s visibility in search engines.
However, navigating the world of SEO can be overwhelming, especially for business owners who are new to the concept. As a result, it’s easy to make mistakes and overlook basic best practices.
In this article, I’ll guide you through the top 5 SEO mistakes to avoid.
By learning from these common pitfalls, you can enhance your website’s search engine rankings and attract more potential customers.
Local SEO Guide
Before we go on, download our free guide on Local Search Engine Optimization guide to help your business stand out from the crowd.
A slow-loading website can directly impact your search engine rankings. Google, in particular, considers page speed as a crucial ranking factor. Additionally, they focus on Core Web Vitals, which measure user experience.
To improve your website’s performance, aim for a loading time of under 2 seconds. If your site takes longer, it’s time to optimize its speed. A fast loading website can be the difference in your rankings.
A great host (we use GridPane and Vultr HF here), a performance plugin like Perfmatters and a good caching plugin like WP Rocket will go a long way in getting you started.
If you’re site is loading slower than Christmas is coming, check out our post on what you need to do to really speed up your website.
Neglecting Metadata
Let search engines do more for you!
Metadata is vital in helping search engines understand your web pages and display relevant information in search results. By neglecting metadata creation, you leave it up to search engines to decide how to present your content.
Metadata lets you tell Google exactly what the page is about without search engines having to compile your data and make their best guess.
Take control and craft unique titles and meta descriptions for each page on your website, ensuring they accurately represent the content. Visual examples showcasing how metadata appears in search results can aid your understanding.
We like using SEOPress to set this metadata, but any SEO Plugin on WordPress pretty much has this capacity. We like SEO Press because it does a lot more than just metadata.
Blocking Search Engines
Sounds odd, but it’s easier to block a search engine than you might thing and accidentally blocking search engines from accessing your website can quickly destroy your online visibility.
Blocking search engines from your site is sometimes as easy as clicking the wrong checkbox.
There could be a simple mistake in the robots.txt file, preventing the Googlebot from crawling your site. Another unintended error is setting pages or the entire website to “noindex” in your SEO settings. You’d be surprised how often people accidentlally check a box and it marks their site to “noindex.”
These actions prevent proper indexing, making it difficult for potential customers to find you. Regularly double-check your settings to ensure search engine accessibility.
And while you’re at it, make sure you’re submitting your sitemaps to Google Search Console! That way Google can alert you to any problems and you’ll get insights into how your site is doing. This is another thing we like SEOPress for. It generates your sitemap and you just need to copy the link and paste it into GSC to make sure your site gets indexed.
Ignoring Internal Links
Internal links play a vital role in SEO by helping both search engines and website visitors discover valuable content on your site. An internal link is a link on your website that, when clicked, will take a visitor to another page on your site.
By strategically placing internal links within your website, you guide users to other relevant pages. Consider linking to product/service pages and relevant blog articles. By incorporating internal links effectively, you enhance user experience and improve your website’s SEO.
You should check through your website and look for key areas where you can include internal links. Good examples for this would be a link to a relevant product or service page from a blog post you’re writing.
Internal links create this web where links from one page to another on your website are criss-crossing and building a structure that can “hold weight.” That ability to “hold weight” in a sense gives you more SEO Juice.
The denser your “web” –> The stickier your content –> The better your SEO.
Viewing SEO as a One-Time Task
If you treat SEO as one time thing where you set up a plugin and walk away, you will never dominate in Local SEO rankings.
SEO is not a George Formal Grill. You can’t set it and forget it.
You may reach #1 in the map pack, or have several of your services ranking first on Google. You’re #1 and visible to potential customers who are looking for you. Should you stop worrying about SEO now? Heck naw! Because your competition isn’t sleeping while you have that number one spot.
SEO is a long-term strategy, and additional work is always required to maintain rankings as well as to look for new opportunities that can benefit your business.
When you get complacent with SEO your competitors will eat your lunch. Plain and simple.
Wrapping Up
Avoiding these common SEO mistakes will significantly impact your website’s visibility and attract more customers.
Prioritize website speed, optimize your metadata, ensure search engine accessibility, utilize internal links effectively, and embrace SEO as a continuous, ever-evolving strategy.
Remember, SEO is your gateway to reaching and surpassing your competition. Keep refining your approach, and success will follow.
Happy optimizing!
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