5 SEO Mistakes You Can’t Afford To Make

It may sound drastic, but your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy can make or break your website. A good, well-thought out and properly implemented SEO strategy can turn your website into an alluring authority in its niche, it can boost traffic and it can also increase your ranking in search engine results.

On the other hand, if you fall into the traps of common SEO mistakes or use black-hat tactics, chances are your website will be severely penalized by search engines like Google or even have its indexed pages removed, rendering you virtually invisible on the Internet. And no one wants that. So let’s take a look at five SEO mistakes you can’t afford to make and how to avoid them.

1. Buying Backlinks

Reciprocal links, commonly referred to as backlinks, are an important part of the link building process. In a nutshell, one of the aspects Google takes into account when ranking a website is the quantity and the quality of the websites that link to and from your website. One of the biggest mistakes people make is to simply buy backlinks in an effort to increase their SEO. However, these links usually come from low-quality websites that have been flagged as spam. If a low-value website links to you, Google will automatically lower your website’s ranking as well.

Instead of just purchasing links from anywhere, focus on getting links from high-quality sites that relate to your business. It may take more work and you’ll probably have fewer links, but search engine algorithms are continually changing to favor sites that are user-friendly and provide informative and useful content instead of sites that have multiple backlinks from questionable places.

2. Having A Disorganized Site

If your site is cluttered or not properly organized, this will take its toll not only on the website ranking, but also on the traffic. Whenever visitors access a website, they want to find out more about a specific thing as quickly as possible, and if the website is disorganized, they get lost in the details and simply leave. A well-organized sitemap helps keep visitors on your site longer and helps search engines who crawl your site see that you’ve put thought and effort into the user experience. So remove any unnecessary content, develop a logical sitemap and streamline the experience with your visitors in mind.

3. Writing for Search Engines

You may think that if search engines are what decide if your site is worthy to be served up on a results page, then the content you should create should be full of things that search engines find attractive. But these days, sophisticated algorithms not only analyze content for keywords but also analyze syntax. So avoid “keyword stuffing” and overly optimizing your content to make it appear as high on a SERP (search engine results page). Write for humans first.

4. Failing to Optimize for Mobile

This is a mistake that often costs businesses a lot of money and traffic. For many, almost half their overall website traffic comes from mobile users, who use smartphones or tablets to surf the Web and get the information they need. A regular website isn’t usually designed for the small screens of such portable devices, which means the user will find it difficult to navigate when accessing through mobile and then leave the site. Keep users on your site no matter how they access it by having a responsive design at the very least. We strongly recommend you consider designing a mobile site for your business that conveys a similar experience to your full site for those who find you on the go.

5. Not Updating Your Website

Last, but certainly not least, it’s crucial to constantly update your site with fresh, well-written and unique content. Not only is this important for getting your visitors to come back regularly to check what you’ve posted, but it also causes search engines like Google to index your pages and your content in a faster and more efficient manner. If you post regularly, your website’s ranking will be significantly increased – on the other hand, if you only post occasionally (say, once or twice a month), this will lead to decreased traffic. A great idea to keep your site updated with content is to start a blog and stick to a posting schedule that has you posting two times a week at minimum. Still, even with a blog, make sure you’re regularly going through your website to update pricing, service offerings, portfolios, product descriptions and more.