On-page SEO is integral to achieving rankings in the current climate, but when you talk about SEO with most online marketers, the conversation will usually focus on backlinks and off-site optimization. These areas of promotion are still highly important to ranking, but do tend to take attention away from on-page SEO. Ensuring your site, and each page within it, is optimized correctly, is still an integral part of the SEO process. However, critical errors can damage chances of reaching one of the top spots, leaving you constantly fighting against the tide. The following on-page SEO mistakes are fairly common, but can easily be resolved with the right planning and course of action.
Working On-Page SEO After a Site is Built
On-site SEO often becomes a secondary focus after the website is built. If you already have an existing website, it is still possible to resolve any problems, but it is far easier to include on-page optimization in your initial planning stages. Web designers can sometimes focus their attention on appearance, meaning usability issues are only discovered later on. Creating a bad user experience will create a high bounce rate, ultimately impacting your ability to rank. To avoid these issues, consider your site structure, permalinks, typography, layout, and monetization strategies early in the process.
Lack of Keyword Research
Keyword research is one of the most important stepsĀ if you want to rank successfully, you need to know what terms are being searched for. In the past, targeting a limited number of keywords across individual pages was a proven method, but more attention is now focused on a broader range of terms. Due to a required reduction in backlink anchor text, you can insert a larger number of keywords naturally into an article, promote your content using a range of keywords, and rank for multiple terms. Wasting time trying to rank for highly competitive search terms is a common problem, so researching in advance can help you set realistic targets.
Using Flimsy Content
The search engines used to be filled with spun and duplicate content. Over time, algorithm changes has reduced the influence of these articles, leaving better, more relevant content in the top positions. Bounce rate, time spent on site, and manual reviews have all led to a greater need for quality content. Many search terms won’t require heavily researched white papers, but creating an interesting article or video will provide a searcher with what they were looking for.
Not Being Mobile-Friendly
Mobile search has been growing consistently over the last few years, with search engines making mobile optimization a requirement for sites hoping to rank. If your site won’t function correctly on a mobile browser, you can expect to be penalized for this. More site owners are becoming aware of this now, but there are still plenty of older websites that have not adapted. Choosing a responsive design will allow your site to function across a variety of browsers, though some sites prefer to redirect browsers to a specific mobile version.
Content Placed Below the Fold
Everyone is looking to maximize their revenues, but this can often come at the expense of good SEO. Including too many advertisements or promotional areas above the fold will usually be detrimental, particularly if you get a manual review. Focus on providing excellent, accessible content for your readers, while still testing conversions. Bounce rate has become an increasingly important part of SEO, so you need to consider this in the layout of your content.
Avoiding these mistakes won’t guarantee prime position in the search engines, but smart on-page SEO does enhance your chances. For competitive terms, various promotional efforts, including press releases, guest posting, and social media will be required. For less competitive terms, ranking will not take as long, with a carefully purchased authority domain sometimes ranking for terms without any promotion at all. SEO is always changing, but effective on-page SEO still remains integral to the process. –SeoGuy
The Cleveland SEO Guy, Danny Todd says 'Itās not what you sell; itās how you sell it. He understands that sometimes the best brands get left behind because their web design and SEO has become outdated. The Internet is always changing! Google and the other search engines are always adapting! Keep your brand current and reach Googleās #1 spot.
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I would say my biggest mistake was keyword stuffing. Using it again and again killed the appeal of my content and cost me a lot of readers. Save yourself and stay away from it!
Hello,
Well, Greatly described points about SEO mistakes, we make or have made in our past.
When it started my career in blogging, the only thing I know, was writing article and building links, but majority of my articles were full of keywords and the links I was building was just spam links with optimized anchor texts.
Also, I was not aware of internal links important, but with time everything has improved and these days, I rarely make any SEO mistake.
But, still a huge number of newbies are making these mistakes and I sadly say, that they are wasting their valuable time.
So, considering this, a brilliant post written, it will help many out there, searching for this.
Keep up the good work.
Cheers.
Indeed a great post about SEO mistakes.
According to me, Search engine optimization is something which can make our future If we do it the right way.
You have listed most common seo mistakes which almost every blogger is doing.
In order to rank instantly in SERPs, people are trying un-ethical SEO strategies like keyword stuffing, building low quality or spam links.
Keyword stuffing is the most common and worst SEO mistake I have ever seen. People think that filling the article with so many keywords will help them to rank fast.
But It is wrong, Nowadays Google is very much strict for such webmasters and rolling regular updates to kill these webmaster’s work.
Copying articles from other site is also a most common seo mistake and I had also did this mistake when I started my blogging carrier But now I have completely avoided it.
I am completely against keyword stuffing and copying content.
Thanks for listing all the mistakes here so that people can learn about these mistakes and can try to avoid them. š