TribeLocal

The Top 10 SEO blunders you are making

You need a strong and capable driver to navigate your way through any traffic. In this train of online marketing, SEO is the driver we are talking about. It is imperative that you have an effective SEO strategy in order to succeed in business and save you from making seo mistakes.

What are the traits of a good driver? He is one who makes fewer mistakes than the others do. Realizing your mistakes and ensuring that you do not repeat them is a hallmark of a competent professional. Let us look at some most common SEO mistakes to avoid. We will also see how to avoid them thereby improving the quality of your campaign.

Search engines and users have their preferences for long-tail keywords. Understanding customer preferences is very important when you define your products and services. Using terms that they are searching for is important. It is better to use specific terms rather than generic keywords.

Solution: Doing your background research properly is advisable. You can make use of tools like Moz Keyword Explorer and Google AdWordsKeyword Planner to discover and prioritize your keywords.This is one of the most search engine optimization tips.

Keywords are important, but using too many of them can prove detrimental. People have the misconception that using keywords in every sentence they write is one of the best ways to improve local search SEO ratings. Search engines consider such activities as spam. Overusing keywords can make your content look unnatural.

Solution: It is not necessary for you to repeat your keywords. Google has a special semantic search program, Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI)in place to recognize your content’s topic that obviates the needfor keyword stuffing.

 

The problem with certain people is that they start out with some SEO content in mind but end up writing something else. Matching your content with the keywords you use is important. Focusing more on the keywords rather than on the content takes you in a different direction. This affects the overall quality of your content.

Solution: Focusing on content is very important. It is advisable to have an understanding of your target audience’s needs and use the right search terms. This enables search engines to match your content with the optimizing keyword. This is an effective local SEO tactic.

Plagiarism is one of the biggest SEO mistakes people make. It is one thing to take inspiration from someone, but something else to copy and pass off their article as your own. It was common practice in the past. However, search engines are strict in penalizing this approach today.
Solution: Originality is a great virtue to possess. Your SEO strategy should revolve around being original. This has a positive effect on your search engine rankings.

Writing great content and optimizing keywords are essential for ensuring good SEO rankings. In doing so, many people ignore the importance of SEO title tags and Meta descriptions. Search engines consider these aspects as significant when crawling over your website.

Solution: Focus on SEO title tags and Meta descriptions as much as you focus on content and keywords. Image tags are also equally important. One can argue that search bots cannot see these images. However, they are able to read alt tags. Hence, they can index your pages appropriately.

Including external links in your content is a great idea. However, people do not realize that quality of these links is more important than quantity. Many people ignore the usage of SEO backlinks. Another common mistake people make is using incorrect ‘Anchor texts’ like ‘Click here’. This can throw readers as well as search bots astray. Search engines consider using the same ‘anchor texts’ repeatedly as spam.

Solution: Ensure to link to good ranking websites with sound reputations. Use your SEO backlinks intelligently as this can bring traffic to your website. Use effective anchor texts so that it can benefit the users.

One of most common SEO mistakes you find is the unnecessary use of internal links. These links are necessary but many people go overboard thereby making them seem unnatural. Search engines do not appreciate this tactic very much as well.

Solution: Using internal links is a great way to improve visibility. Including the right links at the appropriate place is essential. You should not use internal links just for the sake of using them.

People today love to browse the internet on their mobiles. Hence, every website should offer a mobile-friendly experience. Many business owners ignore this aspect while designing their websites. This affects their local SEO citations. Search engines can make out whether your website offers a mobile-friendly experience or not. This affects your SEO rankings.

Solution: Concentrate on making your website as responsive as possible. It should be accessible on all kinds of devices including mobiles and tablets. Your website loading speed is very important. Use online tools like Pingdom to analyze speed problems and learn how to fix them. This can improve your local listing in SEO.

Social media has a very important role to play in content marketing. Underestimating this major media is a mistake many people make. Influences contribute greatly to your success. Ignoring them can prove disastrous to your social media SEO strategy. Influences can help you connect with your target audience easily.

Solution: Create a healthy relationship with influencers to succeed in your SEO campaign. Use their credibility to your advantage. This should be the cornerstone of your SEO optimization strategy.

Finally, analytics is the only way to know the extent of your SEO optimization. It is a wonder many people do not give much consideration to this aspect.

Solution: Know your numbers. Use popular tools like Google Analytics or Google Webmaster Tools to evaluate the performance of your website. It will give you vital information about how your optimization tactics work for your SEO content.

Summary

You have just seen the top 10 mistakes people do while chalking out their local SEO campaigns. We have also discussed search engine optimization tips for each of these mistakes. It does not matter whether you are optimizing local SEO for small business or big businesses. Having an effective strategy is important for your SEO campaigns.