In the world of search engine optimization (SEO), there are a lot of different myths, misconceptions, and bad advice out there. Many people jump into SEO with no experience whatsoever and end up making mistakes that are easy to avoid. You don’t have to be an expert to build a website that ranks well on Google, but you do need to learn what not to do. In this article, we’ll cover some common SEO mistakes that even experienced marketers make–and how you can avoid making similar blunders yourself.
Being Too Broad
You will struggle to rank on Google if your unique selling point is too broad. If you’re trying to rank for a broad term like “marketing,” it may be difficult. In fact, you can’t even rank for “marketing”—only specific phrases with the exact spelling and word order will get you anywhere. You need to identify which keywords are most relevant to your business and what people are looking for when they search online in your industry.
To find these keywords, we recommend using the Google Keyword Planner tool: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordPlanner.
Making Your Site Too Slow
Take a look at some of the most popular websites on the internet. How fast do they load? For example, Google’s home page takes about 1 second to load on a desktop, while Reddit takes less than half a second. The average page load time for desktop is 3.5 seconds and for mobile is 5 seconds; these numbers are likely even lower these days with faster internet speeds being more accessible to users around the world.
Test your site’s speed using tools like Pingdom Tools (free) or WebPageTest (paid). You can also use Google PageSpeed Insights which gives you an overall score based on how quickly your site loads and how it performs under various conditions such as when bandwidth is low or high (mobile vs Wi-Fi).
Using The Wrong Keywords
Keyword research is important because it can help you determine what people search for when they’re looking for a product or service like yours. If you target the wrong keyword, however, your website will get nowhere near as much traffic as it could if you chose a more relevant term.
Not Updating Content Regularly Enough
This is especially true of blogs and other types of websites that feature written content (such as an e-commerce site). If something isn’t updated regularly enough on your site, Google will think the information isn’t current or accurate and will penalize you accordingly. Make sure to keep all of your web pages updated with fresh content so that users (and Google) don’t see stale results when they search for something related to what yours provide.
When it comes to SEO, there are a lot of mistakes that you can make. Some are obvious and easy to avoid, while others are less so. This list is not exhaustive, but it should give you a good idea of what to look out for when optimizing your website. If you follow these guidelines, you can help ensure that your website will perform well in search engine results and attract more visitors.
