SEO is the backbone of any website. However, search engine optimization strategies will only help your website if you implement them in the right way. And in order to learn the right way, you must know the mistakes to avoid while applying SEO strategies. So, that’s what we’ll cover here.
In this post, we’ll discuss the common mistakes most beginners make while implementing search engine optimization strategies. But other than that, we’ll also share their possible solutions. So, let’s begin.
1. Keyword Stuffing
Those days are gone when people used to trick search engines by stuffing their content with target keywords. That’s because nowadays, search engines rely on advanced NLP-based algorithms. And those algorithms can understand the valuable text meant to benefit the target audience. This means that if the inserted keywords do not fit according to the context, search engines will instantly realize that you are just trying to rank higher instead of helping people through your content.
✅Solution
In order to prevent keyword stuffing, we recommend adding keywords with proper clustering. This means that if you’re trying to add a keyword related to ‘paraphrasing,’ you must create a proper background before inserting it. Use a well-researched combination of long-tail and short-tail keywords in your content instead of focusing on a single word. Otherwise, you’ll just fall prey to sudden keyword placement.
2. Overlooking the On-Page SEO Factors
Besides optimizing the content, it is also essential to optimize the other on-page elements, like:
- Title tags.
- Meta descriptions.
- Headers.
- URLs.
These things inform people and search engines about the content’s intent. For instance, search engines use title tags to understand your content, whereas people use meta descriptions to identify whether a web page is relevant to them or not. But generally, beginners don’t consider these factors. As a result, their website and content don’t get the required results. So, what can you do to cope with this issue?
✅Solution
Well, you must use the target keyword in the meta description, title tags, URLs, and headers. But again, the inclusion of keywords must be natural and relevant to the context. Otherwise, keyword insertion will be useless. Additionally, make these elements specific and descriptive so that search engines and the target audience can easily understand the purpose of web pages or content they represent.
3. Low Content Quality
People think that by duplicating the currently ranking content, they can rank their content as well. But that’s wrong.
If your content doesn’t offer any value and unique insights to the audience, search engines won’t rank it. This means that if you are using AI-generated content or copying chunks from already ranking materials, your work won’t be able to make its mark. So, how do we resolve this issue?
✅Solution
Well, the ideal way to overcome the issue of low-quality and duplicating content is to hire a professional writer. But if you want to do it yourself, that’s also perfect. So, research your audience and determine their likes and dislikes. Then, use them to enrich your content with value. But make sure to use easily readable wording.
Also, make sure that the content you write must be original. And for that, you must perform sound research. In order to confirm the originality status of your content, you can use a reliable plagiarism checker. This tool will instantly help you identify the duplicated traces within your content. That’s how you can maintain the quality and originality of your work.
4. Ignoring Mobile Optimization
Search engines, especially Google, believe that 64% of searches are carried out on mobile phones. And that’s why Google has included mobile optimization in the list of ranking factors. But people, especially beginners, don’t realize that. As a result, their website fails to reach its true potential.
✅Solution
To solve this, we recommend optimizing your website for mobile. This means that the display and overall functionality of your platform must be as responsive on mobile devices as they are on desktops. If you can do it yourself, that’s perfect. Otherwise, we highly recommend hiring a professional because this process is pretty technical, and you must leave no stone unturned in ensuring optimum user experience on your website for people who access it through smartphones.
5. Low Page Speed
Like mobile optimization, page speed is another critical ranking factor. But people don’t realize that. Instead, they try to make their websites attractive by using animations and heavy images. Animations and visuals definitely complement your web design and make it catchy. However, there is also a downside to using them. These things slow down the loading speed of your page, and a website with a slow page loading speed will frustrate visitors because of a bad user experience. A bad user experience will lead to an enhanced bounce rate, which will ultimately lower the SERP rankings of the website. So, what’s the solution here?
✅Solution
Well, to increase your page speed, you must compress the media, including imagery and animation, you have used on your website to make it appealing to visitors. The idea is to compress the media with such intensity that it doesn’t highly impact its quality. Similarly, if you are using some sort of theme on your website, we recommend using a simple and clean one.
Besides, we also recommend reducing HTTP requests, avoiding redirects, optimizing the cache, reducing cookie size, and removing unnecessary codes from JavaScript and CSS files. These are some proven strategies that can help you increase the page load speed of your website. But if you can’t perform them on your own, it’s best to hire a professional web programmer who knows all the ins and outs related to the code working in the background.
Final Words
Search engine optimization is a vast field. This means that SEO involves a plethora of strategies. However, covering all of them is not the intention of this discussion. Instead, this discussion only includes strategies that people commonly overlook, which is why they get below-average results. So, if this situation represents your use case, we recommend reading the above discussion and rectifying the errors you find in your website’s SEO. Doing so will surely help you boost your website’s SEO and online exposure. We wish you luck with the process!
