Effective search engine optimization, or SEO, will deliver more traffic to a website thanks to improved search results rankings. While SEO is mostly straightforward, novices often make mistakes that undo the positive effects of their efforts.
Fortunately, simply being aware of the most common SEO pitfalls will make it easy to detour around them. Make sure you avoid the following five SEO mistakes, and your site will benefit greatly.
It used to be common for websites to stuff pages full of targeted search-query keywords. Automated algorithms employed by Google and others, though, have gotten a lot better at recognizing and penalizing such crude SEO tactics.
Work with a reputable, accomplished Digital Marketing Agency today, and keywords will be incorporated into website content naturally and judiciously. While it is still important to choose, target, and include appropriate keywords, overuse is always to be avoided.
Just how many keywords can be included on a given page is a subject of some debate. Some now insist that the best approach is to simply use selected keywords only where they make a page’s content better. That certainly aligns with Google’s advice for webmasters, which emphasizes focusing on the experiences of users instead of applying established SEO tactics blindly.
Almost every adult American today owns and uses a mobile phone, and most of those are connected to the internet. Starting several years ago, Google began assessing how well websites work with mobile devices and incorporating its findings into its search results rankings.
An approach known as “responsive design” can be used to make sure that a website will be just as welcoming to smartphone users as it is to those on desktop computers. Sites that do not perform well on mobile devices will cede traffic to competitors.
Some website owners have trouble focusing, and that can create SEO-related dangers. Content that causes visitors to leave a site instead of lingering will attract negative attention from Google.
Focus on publishing only pieces that will serve a real need successfully. Whether that is because they are interesting or entertaining, posts that keep visitors reading will always be better than pointless fluff.
Waiting for a website to load is never much fun. Part of the appeal of the internet, after all, is the nearly instant gratification it enables.
Google measures the response times of websites and prioritizes those that keep waits short. Even a second or two of delay can reduce a site’s search results rankings and send far too many visitors packing.
Fortunately, there are almost always some simple, effective ways to cut loading times significantly. Compressing images and JavaScript files, for example, will cut down on the amount of data that needs to be transferred. Switching an entire website to a faster host can also do away with slow loading at a stroke.
When Google’s search engine started in 1998, it was the first to view the presence of links from elsewhere as indications of the quality of each page. Google has become a lot better at detecting meaningless, underhanded linking, but it still takes genuine, authoritative links seriously.
Website owners who publish usefully, high-quality pages should encourage others to link to them. Even casually reaching out to others in the same space can generate rankings-improving links over time.
Be aware of the need to avoid these five common SEO problems, and your website’s rankings should rise. While it can take some effort, SEO can also pay off in ways that any website owner will appreciate.
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