We admit, sometimes we mess up. Everybody messes up and it doesn't exactly feel good when a mistake happens. The most important part is realizing the mistake, learning from it, and putting processes into action to prevent it from happening again. Here are our top 10 common SEO mistakes to avoid making. We hope you enjoy it and let us know if you've ever had these happen!
1. Failure to perform a Technical SEO
Performing a Technical SEO audit is critical. Google doesn't like to display pages that have high load times because it is considered a bad user experience.
- Page load time
- Total Blocking Time (TBT)
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
How to fix it:
Perform monthly audits on each website and make an action plan on Technical SEO items.
2. Not having a business profile setup
A business profile is necessary if you want to reach a local audience. Most searches are recognizable to search engines if they contain certain phrases such as "near me". A search for a restaurant will show a "snack pack" and most of the time, one of the 3 results that get displayed, will be clicked on.
How to fix it:
Claim or create at least 3 business profiles across sites that include maps:
- Google Business Profile
- Bing Places
- Apple Maps
3. Missing page titles and descriptions
Since Google made a search update in August 2021 to re-write the page titles to their own, they still are relevant to search engines. It's also important to have a meta description that describes what the page is about.
How to fix it:
Make sure every page on the website has a page title and meta description.
4. Broken links
Broken links can cause havoc on search results. When a link is broken, Google just doesn't index it.
How to fix it:
If it's possible, use a 301 redirect to a page that is related.
5. Creating the wrong content for the topic
This one is relevant for people creating copy with content that is not worthy for the topic. If you are writing about a specific vehicle but end up steering the reader in another direction, is an example of the wrong content for the topic.
How to fix it:
Always write about the topic and stay focused on it. If you have 6 target keywords, be sure to build out your content with that in mind. Keep keywords relevant to the topic.
6. Copying content from other websites
The bad part of the web is sometimes there are bad actors. Sometimes bad actors like to cloak websites and copy content from reputable ones. This is common for websites with an RSS feed.
How to fix it:
Try to create original content and don't plagiarize. Avoid using an RSS parser on your website to make content.
7. Internal link stuffing - adding links to pages that are not relevant to the topic
You may be stuffing internal links on your website and not even know it. Internal link stuffing can bring down your search results if you aren't careful.
How to fix it:
Internal linking is a good strategy but take care and avoid link stuffing. Start by creating a topic and using only the internal links that are relevant to that topic.
8. Not using other media types for SEO
Imagine having a website with just text. Sounds boring right? By not using images, video, social media, podcasts, and press releases it will be difficult to build a trustworthy brand.
How to fix it:
Create media channels for videos and social media channels at the absolute minimum. If you have the budget for press releases then do it.
9. Not pushing the envelope past text only for blog posts
This one is hard to get past. Typically most blog posts consist of a header image followed by text in a structured format.
How to fix it:
Have at least 3 to 4 images in every blog post and keep them relevant to the topic. The featured image should be the header and find other images that support the content.
10. Not using Schema
Google and other search engines don't always understand the text that's on the website. Schema is a great way to also gain a Rich Snippet in Google.
How to fix it:
Implement schema or structured data on your website. You can easily tell if the website is using structured data by looking at the source code of the webpage. Below is an example of structured data in the source code.
If you or your company need guidance on how to approach any of these common SEO mistakes, we would love to hear from you. You can visit our SEO Best Practices page to learn more about implementing SEO.
