Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process by which both on-page and off-page elements of the website are tuned to achieve better rankings for different search terms on different search engines. This enables the website to achieve more visibility and attract more traffic to it for conversions. With Google being the dominant search engine, most of the SEO activities are focused on it, however, considering that other search engines like Yahoo and Bing also have a lot of users, it may be worthwhile not to ignore their algorithms completely. With the competition becoming intense in the online arena, SEO is unarguably one of the most important strategies that you cannot afford to ignore to boost the visibility of your site. While there are thousands of guides on the best SEO tactics, it is important to focus on a select few to achieve the best results without losing focus. It is also equally important to avoid some of the more common SEO mistakes that can undo all the good work that you have done. A quick look at some of the top SEO mistakes that you should take care to avoid:
Broken Links
A broken link, especially when it is an internal link can be a big problem to a good SERP ranking. When a link is broken, because the page itself has been removed or there is a spelling mistake in the URL, it means that the search engine bots cannot crawl it to index it. Search engines do not like encountering 404 error codes because it wastes their resources and they tend to penalize such pages by driving it down the rankings. If on-page content contains broken links, it can result in the rankings of the page to dip, which is why it is not only important to check the links when you are including them in your content but also to perform a regular audit to check that they are working. Checking for broken links is one of the easiest things to do with one of the easily available online tools and represents a very good way of ensuring that your rankings do not fall.
Poor Quality Content
Since Google or for that matter any other search engine tries to deliver the most relevant content to its user in response to search queries, the importance of good quality content cannot be overemphasized. All the search engines have become far more intelligent and as a result, tactics like keyword stuffing and thin content are no longer successful in getting the online visibility that websites are aspiring to. With the competition in the online space become increasingly intense, the only way of attracting users is by offering content that is aimed at specific target audiences in anticipation of their real needs. Premium is placed on content that is authentic, original, fresh, and updated with the latest statistics and industry developments.
The quality of the presentation of the content is also an important factor for user stickiness. When the content contains photos, infographics, tables, charts, graphs, or even videos, users are liable to spend more time on it and this sends out a strong SEO signal to Google that the content is useful and valuable. It is also vital that the content is not repeated even when the same content is shared on different pages of the same website. If you need to use the same content, the subsequent pages with the duplicate matter should be given a “no follow” tag so that it is not indexed by the search engine. Plagiarism is a very sensitive issue and Google immediately downgrades pages that it finds to have plagiarized content, which makes it very important for the content to be original. It is essential that the content has the right amount of words. Google is very strict and pays a lot of attention to this thing. In order to ensure everything is by the book, you can use tools like this, to help you improve your writing.
SEO for Images
Even though images may speak a thousand words, search engines still have not been able to figure out how to make sense out of them. However, website administrators can make the task easier for search engines by making sure that they include the “alt-text”, which is a kind of a caption that can be used to describe the image as well as include keywords that the search engine can use to contextualize the image and use it as a factor while allotting the page rank. Including the “alt-text” does not take any effort, however, it remains one of the most widely ignore SEO tactics that prevent the pages from being able to take advantage of the images for SEO.
Slow Loading Website
Internet users, especially those who are using mobile devices like smartphones are notoriously impatient when it comes to accessing the information on the web. According to studies over half of the visitors will abandon the site if it takes more than three seconds to load. What it boils down to is that every second that you make your visitors wait; you are losing the opportunity for making sales and generating profits. The page loading speed is also an important factor in your overall page ranking as Google has already announced that it will start considering page loading speed as an important factor in mobile search rankings. It thus becomes evident that web developers and admins will have to ensure that the website loads quickly to take the lead in SERPs. Using one of the speed tests available freely online can be helpful in monitoring and optimizing the website loading speed.
Inadequate Content Promotion
Two things common to all successful online marketers are good content promotion strategy and a vibrant social media presence. While you can do so many things on social media, one of the most productive is to boost your brand awareness. You can engage in brand promotion on popular social media platforms like Instagram to get access to a whole new audience who are potentially your target audience. Posting engaging content, particularly blog posts or videos can get Instagram likes by the hundreds serving to spread brand awareness and encouraging visits to the website. Posting engaging content, particularly blog posts or videos can get Instagram likes by the hundreds serving to spread brand awareness and encouraging visits to the website. For more information visit BlastUp.com.
Conclusion
When you are operating an e-commerce site, it can be difficult to be constantly innovative, however, by keeping an eye out for making your website user-friendly, responsive, and engaging, you can ensure that visitors will find value in you. It can be very easy to make simple mistakes that take the steam out of your marketing and SEO efforts, so you need to be extra careful to avoid common mistakes as stated by diggitymarketing.com.
Search Engine Optimization is one of the primary steps for a business to work in the direction of establishing its online visibility. To know more, visit onlinemarketinggurus.com/dallas-seo.
