Search engine optimization (SEO) is a way to help your website rank higher in search engines. This guide is for business owners and bloggers who want to improve their SEO game.
There are many common mistakes that you can make when it comes to SEO, but here are six of the most common ones. Read on to learn about these 6 common SEO mistakes and how to fix them!
What is SEO and why is it important??
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or webpage on search engines. It can be through content, design, or both. When your site ranks higher on search engines, it means more people are likely to visit your site.
Although we don’t offer SEO services I like to make sure my clients are at least setup with the basics. So I install a plugin called Yoast SEO. It’s a great plugin and does a lot of the work for you. I will be showing you how I set it up.
So first you’ll want to go to Plugins > Add New. Search for Yoast SEO and install. Once installed you’ll see a SEO toolbar over here to the left. There isn’t anything that you really need to configure here I pretty much just leave everything to the default settings. The magic happens on the pages themselves.
Not Optimizing Your Title Tag
The title tag is the text that shows up in the tab of your browser. It’s important because it defines what your page is about and tells you where to click to go there, so it’s crucial that you optimize this.
Most browsers show a maximum of 64 characters in the title tag, plus spaces. So make sure to include keywords in your title tags for your SEO.
Forgetting about meta descriptions
Meta descriptions are 150-160 character summaries of a web page. They show up when you hover over the preview thumbnail in Google search results and when the result is highlighted in the search engine. You can use meta descriptions to improve SEO, but if they’re not written well, they can hurt your ranking.
Here are some tips for creating an effective meta description:
- Make sure it’s concise, informative, and relevant
-
Add keywords that are relevant to the page
-
Include call to action
Our donuts are fresh and so delicious, we guarantee you will be one of our regular customers. Our donuts are the freshest around and they come at a price that is affordable for everyone. So whether it’s breakfast or snack time, our donuts have your taste buds covered! Stop in for a tasty treat!
Duplicate Content
One of the most common mistakes business owners make is duplicate content. What many people don’t know is that duplicate content can be penalized by Google and other search engines. This means even if you have the most optimized page, it could still rank lower than a page with duplicate content!
To avoid this mistake, check to see if your website has any duplicated content on it. There are a few ways to do this:
- Use a tool like Copyscape to check for plagiarism
- Check for duplicate pages
- Check for hyperlinks pointing to outdated URLs
If you find any type of duplicate content on your website, update or remove it!
No Internal Linking
Internal linking is a way to cross-link different parts of your site to help search engines know what your site is about. This can improve your site’s ranking and make it easier for people to find the information they need. If you have a blog, you should link back to the blog post that will be referenced in this blog post.
The major mistake many businesses make when it comes to internal linking is not linking back to any pages on their website. This makes it seem like they don’t want people to find other articles or content on their website and that they’re using their blogs as a one-time shot instead of a place where they’ll aggregate content.
To fix this, you can add links in the text for other posts in your blog or in the sidebar of your blog so that there’s no confusion. You can also add links in your “About Us,” “Contact Us,” and “Blog” pages so that people who might be interested in those sections will know where they are on your site and be able to visit them easily.#
Include keywords in your image alt text
When you upload an image to your website, make sure to include keywords in the alt text. This text is what displays when images can’t be loaded. You want to make sure that this text contains keywords that are related to the image so that people can find it more easily.
SEO is a very important part of an online marketing strategy that is often overlooked. It is important to take the time to do it correctly, since it can boost your website’s ranking in search engine results and bring in more traffic. Avoiding these mistakes and taking the time to implement proper SEO can take your business to the next level.