With the majority of businesses now online, it’s never been more important to make sure that your website SEO policy is robust and fit for purpose. Failure to keep abreast of new trends and developments can lead to a drop in search engine rankings, which is bound to have a negative effect on your business model in the long run.
According to a recent article published by Forbes, around 75% of people never progress beyond the first page of the search engine results, so failure to feature prominently is bound to have implications for your profit margins. Yet it doesn’t have to be this way – make sure that your website is highly visible by avoiding the following errors,
Ignoring the Mobile Market
Now that most people are using their smartphones to source products and services of interest to them, a failure to optimise your online content for mobile users is a very grave error. The search engines look for a fast and efficient mobile service when assessing websites for ranking, and they mark down sites that fail to cater for this demographic adequately.
Incorrect Keywords
Some business owners choose their own keywords, which could have a detrimental effect on visitor numbers. That’s because your site needs to appeal to the people who are actually typing in the search terms, and unless you research what those exact terms are, you could be adopting the wrong approach entirely. Companies such as http://digi-tel.co.uk/gloucestershire-seo-services/white-label-seo-services/ provide White Label SEO services for a wide range of businesses, ensuring that prospective customers find your products and services exactly when they need them most.
Keyword Stuffing
Once you’ve established the keywords that website visitors are actually using to find your business, do you know how often to include them in your web pages? Some companies adopt the approach that you can never feature enough keywords, leading to pages of content that sound stilted and advertorial. Unfortunately, the search engines dislike this approach, so if you overuse keywords your site will be marked down and may disappear from the first page of results altogether.
Not Maximising Social Media Opportunities
They may not be your cup of tea, but social media platforms are a vital tool in spreading the word about your business. Engage potential customers through a carefully planned social media strategy and watch your business grow!
Protecting rankings when a site changes
Every website needs changes eventually, from a full redesign to updated page layouts, and each one can affect search rankings. Before making changes, audit every page and the search terms it ranks for. Once the new version is live, compare the results to see what is working and what is not, then adjust.
Design itself can drive visitors away. People dislike pop-up adverts, fussy layouts, small print, dull colour schemes and slow-loading pages, so check that a new design avoids all of them.
Keyword stuffing is another common mistake. Pages crammed with keywords read badly and come across as desperate, and search engines do not reward them. Use keywords sparingly and well. Navigation should take visitors smoothly from search to product to checkout. Clear menus and sensible internal links reassure people that the business is well run. A frequent fault after an update is changing the navigation on some pages while others keep the old format. Consistency across the whole site matters.
Writing for people, not search engines
One of the most common mistakes is writing for search engines rather than readers. Adding keywords purely to catch Google’s attention spoils the natural flow of the text and makes it harder to read. The more naturally keywords are worked in, the more readable the content becomes, and the more likely people are to share it on social media.
Chasing keyword density is a related trap. Many people still treat it as the key to success, but Google targets keyword stuffing and can lower the rankings of sites that do it. Instead of aiming for a keyword ratio, place keywords where they matter, such as in headings and link text, and focus on producing good quality content.
Social media content needs optimising too. Hashtags make a keyword or phrase searchable on platforms such as Twitter, so a post built around a relevant hashtag can reach people interested in that topic. Understanding these basics makes handling your own marketing far less daunting.
Guessing keywords instead of researching them
One of the most common SEO errors is choosing keywords by guesswork. Keyword research means finding out the actual words and phrases people type into search engines when they look for what you offer. Using the right ones attracts the right visitors and helps pages rank, while sites that consistently rank well have not simply guessed.
Research also shapes content. Knowing what people search for shows what problems they want solved, and that can guide the pages and articles you create. It can uncover gaps your competitors have missed.
Another mistake is writing in industry jargon. Research shows the language customers really use, and changing a single word to the term people search for can make a noticeable difference even when the meaning is the same. Search habits also shift over time, so keyword research should be revisited regularly rather than done once, otherwise an SEO strategy quickly goes stale. It takes time but is not complicated.