SEO Sins that could damage your Google ranking.
A well-optimised website with rankings of prominent search engines such as Google is the Holy Grail of Internet marketing. But how do you go about the process of search engine optimisation? Whether you want to customize your own website or appoint a specialist SEO agency to do the hard work for you the road is paved with pitfalls, false and hope and a plain lack of direction.
Sometimes what you do wrong is every bit as important as what to do right. Make sure your search engine optimisation gets off on the right foot and stays on the straight and narrow by avoiding these 7 SEO sins.
Putting Search Engines Before Users
Optimisation is the process your website undergoes in order to help achieve the best possible search engine listings. The reason for a hankering after number one ranking? To attract targeted website traffic. Its therefore surprising how many websites forget about their human users in the quest for search engine success.
A text heavy page can be an instant turnoff. Organise your content so users can drill down and find the information they require easily. Ensure each section has consistent text title and image tags and catchy descriptive headers. Cramming as many keywords as possible into each page may yield short-term SEO results but is guaranteed to turn off human eyes. Well written content is much more likely to result in a sale and win over the search engine web bots.
Link Spamming
Link spamming sees the website chasing after as many links as possible using spurious excuses to answer forum questions or social media discussions in order to build external links.
The reality here is that the links gathered are of little relevant use and of no commercial value. Search engines rate links based on the authority of the sites that come from, so using link spamming techniques actually devalues the site’s authority. A much better policy is to use that time spent harvesting poor quality links for a more strategic SEO campaign. By focusing on link building efforts on relevant sites, optimisation activities will also target the desired demographic.
Disregarding Link Text
The anchor text of the link should be written as carefully as possible. Search engines such as Google can you use anchor text as an indicator of internal links ( links from a page of the site to another). Unimaginative anchor text such as “click here” also does little to add value to the user experience.
Not Tracking Progress
It’s impossible to assess just how effective SEO activity is if there is no record of or benchmark set at the starting point of the campaign. Tracking is an often forgotten stage of SEO, with many people thinking the best measure of progress is simply improved organic listings. Not so. The number of sales and new search inclusions are important metrics indicating the success of the SEO strategy. A reliable and regular report detailing these factors can be used to decide on any necessary changes in direction and assess the impact of any new activity.
Choosing The Wrong Keywords
Some SEO companies propose guaranteed listings for obscure keywords, showing just how easy it is to generate page one rankings returns with little competition. But keywords involving product names and numbers are of little use in a strategic optimisation program. Optimisation for “flat screen TV” would be a good goal for a company selling flat-screen TVs. Optimisation for Sony flat screen AB12 3356bbb may not.
Don’t focus on too many keywords
Select just two or three phrases relevant to that page and work them carefully into your text, sub-headers and title tags. Always proofread and edit accordingly until you never know they were there. Never write copy purely for the search engines because it will quickly turn off your visitors and compromise your “call to action” messages. Instead focus on creating a connection with your reader and massage your keywords into text with care and attention. Be verbose with your keywords but don’t get hung up on keyword density.
Overlooking Accessibility
Website accessibility is a critical consideration, making your website navigable to all users regardless of disability or visual impairment. This includes making link text descriptive as possible as part of this, but accessibility goes much further with actions such as introducing relevant alt and title tags compliant wc3 guidelines.
Not Planning Your SEO Strategy
Planning a useful campaign is very much like planning a journey. One of the common mistakes made by newcomers is to be overtaken by enthusiasm and neglect to map out points of interest along the way. Rather than focusing on the end goal, set short-term objectives that are signposts towards the elusive page 1 ranking.
Need Some Help With Your Website’s SEO?
The competition for search engine rankings has never been higher, and for good reason. Over 90% of consumers don’t even look past the first page of search engine results!
While everyone wants their website to be at the top of search engine results, most small business websites have small errors that are preventing them from getting there.
If you need help with your website SEO strategy please feel free to contact us today for a FREE SEO Consultation with one of our Sydney based SEO experts.
