When creating SEO for your businesses’ website, it is easy to focus on what you should be doing, such as signing up with Google My Business and creating keywords that will increase your search engine ranking. However, it is just as important to consider the SEO mistakes that you should avoid, as these are just as likely to affect the outcome of the traffic to your business.
- Changing Domain Name
After putting a lot of time and effort into creating strong links and up-to-date SEO for your website, it can be disheartening if you have to change your domain name and start again from scratch for any reason. However, even if you perform a migration to a different domain name efficiently, it is likely that you will see your organic searches drop when you open your new domain. This is due to Google’s ranking system, which continually creates a new picture of websites and the links that they connect to. This is explained by Shawn Powrie’s Google Bear analogy, where their site rankings are updated only after a significant interim of time has passed, leading to a delay in site rankings and SEO improvements. Therefore, rather than change your domain name, you should aim to make improvements to your existing site.
- Ignoring SEO Trends
SEO is changing all the time, and so is the technology that we use to implement it. For instance, current trends include adapting website design to become mobile-first, optimizing websites for voice searches and the contribution of artificial intelligence. To keep up with these trends, you have to adjust your SEO to meet them specially. If you do not, this can lead to a significant decrease in the traffic to your website by changing Google ranking factors.
- Failing to Add New Content
Once many businesses have their site set up, they tend to leave it as it is and fail to add new content to it. However, one of Google’s major ranking factors depends on how often the site is active and updated. You can combat this however through means such as writing a monthly blog where guests can contribute. Not only this, but blogs are also a great way to show your value by sharing your knowledge of your industry.
- Cramming Keywords
If you pack keywords into your webpage, your website will provide less value to your clientele as it will be more focused on SEO than your customer’s needs and the information that they want. Inserting keywords should be done naturally and only a few keywords on each page will be enough to ensure your target audience finds your website.
- Duplicating Content
Duplicate content, such as content appearing on more than one page of your website, can seem as if you are helping your target audience and the search engine. However, search engines will struggle to index your content if it is duplicated and so you should attempt to minimize this as much as possible.
Although there are many SEO mistakes to avoid, these can be easily fixed so that you can enjoy the full benefits of your SEO campaign. From finding duplicate content to publishing new content, there are many quick ways that you can ensure your SEO is up-to-date.
