SEO is a powerful tool that can ensure quality traffic to your business website. But here's the catch. SEO might be
easy to implement but it is very difficult to master. A poorly implemented SEO plan can make your search ranking
plummet. Hence, a thoughtful approach towards SEO is necessary for any business's marketing strategy.
Sometimes, not making mistakes is more important than doing the right thing. This list will be helpful whether it is
your first time trying to optimize your website or you're attempting to iron out chinks in your existing SEO armor.
These are some common On-Page SEO mistakes that you should keep an eye out for.
Duplicate Content
Having 'copy & paste' content is a big no-go if you're trying to improve your search rankings. Google will always
prefer websites with original content and if your website has duplicacy issues, consider fixing it with some
original content. Also, consider using plagiarism detection and website audit tools as a safeguard against duplicate content.
Missing Alt tags and Broken images
Search engines like Google and Bing cannot actually see your images and rely on alt tags. That's why websites
without alt tags are not preferred by these search engines. Your website's User Experience (UX) is based partly on
this which is important for your website's recall. Also, users are more likely to leave websites with broken images
increasing a website's bounce rate. High bounce rates are seen as poor quality by Google, and this will in turn
affect your SERP results.
Bad external links
Google is constantly looking for reliable websites. This means that all the content on your website will determine
your search rankings including all external links on your website. All your external links should have relevant
anchor text -the words you use to link other websites. Misleading or spammy links will lower your rankings. Want to
optimize your web-content? Check out Search Monkey's free website audit tools.
Not using LSI Keywords
SEO is not only about keywords but also about 'searcher's intent'. Including alternate terms that searchers may use
to find you is really useful. Latent Semantic Indexing or LSI describes these words and their variations. The search
engine's first priority is to solve the searcher's needs. Solving this will hence give great results.
Slow loading pages
If your web-pages take too long to load, users will leave. This too will increase your bounce-rate which will
decrease your website's rankings. According to Google, 46% of users say that waiting for the websites to load is
what they dislike the most when browsing online.
Most importantly, remember that SEO is not a one-and-done effort! The biggest mistake many make is to not tweak
their SEO strategy regularly to optimize what works and what doesn't. Constantly updating your pre-existing
web-content can help increase your website's rankings substantially. Search Engine Optimization is an irreplaceable
part of any content marketing strategy today and bad SEO is a direct violation to search engine rules. Hence taking
care of your websites and your users should be a priority in your future strategies.