Good SEO is essential for any business with a website. With most people now turning to the search engines when they want to find a product or service, you want to ensure that they come across your business first.
But SEO is a complex area, and it’s very easy to make simple mistakes that can ruin your chances of ranking.
Here are some of the most common mistakes that businesses make when they start working on their SEO, so read through them and make sure you don’t make the same mistakes.
Not Having a Responsive Website
The first mistake that many websites make is not having a responsive website or at least a mobile friendly website.
Many people use their mobile devices to access the web these days, and you will provide them with a much better user experience if you have a mobile-optimized site.
Not only that, but Google prioritizes mobile-friendly websites in its mobile search results, so you could be hurting your SEO if you don’t optimize your site.
Responsive websites are recommended, and even Google suggests that these are the best option, so consider getting your site redesigned ASAP.
Not Optimizing Your On-Page SEO
While on-page SEO is only part of the process for optimizing your website, it is still very important. This is also one of the easiest parts of SEO, so it’s well worth doing it.
This involves using your main keywords on your main website pages like your About page, service pages, and product pages in the right locations. The best places are in the H1 tag, the URL, the title tag, and other subheadings.
Don’t keyword stuff, but make sure you use your main keywords where it makes sense to do so, and you can help to optimize your site for the search engines.
Not Creating High-Quality Content
Content is the foundation of good SEO. Without content, there is nothing for people to find in the search engines, so you should make this the backbone of your strategy.
Whether you do this yourself, or you hire an agency that uses a white label SEO reseller, content is king. Create detailed, valuable content that people will actually want to read, and optimize it with your keywords.
Do this regularly, and you will be in a much better position to generate backlinks, which are a huge part of good SEO.
Not Promoting Your Content
While creating content is one thing, don’t expect to get results from this unless you promote your content as well. If people can’t find it, they cannot link to it.
So reach out to bloggers in your niche and recommend your blog posts so that they might link to them. Also, share your content on social media so you get it in front of more of the right people so they can link to it as well.
Guessing Which Keywords to Use
Keywords play a big role in an effective so strategy, so you want to make sure you choose the right ones to focus on. But rather than just guessing what your customers are using, instead, carry out proper keyword research so you know which keywords your prospects are using to find the products and services that you provide.
That way you can focus on the correct keywords and avoid wasting your time creating content around keywords that no one is using.
Building Spam Links
It takes time to get your SEO strategy up and running properly, and the temptation can be to use black-hat SEO tactics to speed things along.
Don’t do this. It will only have negative repercussions for your business, and this can really hurt your SEO in the long-term.
Be especially careful not to build a large amount of low-quality links, which are nothing more than spam. Google is likely to penalize such behavior, hurting your SEO and wasting your time.
Failing to Keep Up with the Latest Algorithm Updates
Always keep an eye on what’s going on in the world of search, which means following the news so you know when Google makes a significant update to its algorithm.
Sites like Moz can keep you informed of all the latest events, then you can adjust your approach accordingly to ensure you are always using the most up-to-date tactics to improve your search rankings.
Avoid These Classic SEO Mistakes
These mistakes are all easy to make, but they can be devastating for your SEO. If you want to ensure that you don’t hurt your rankings, avoid these mistakes and boost your presence in the search rankings.
