To position a project on Google, it is necessary to have a good SEO strategy that takes into account all factors, both On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO. The problem many users face is that it is very difficult to keep up with the constant updates to Google’s algorithm, so they end up making some common mistakes that harm their ranking.
Understanding the most common mistakes will help improve a website’s ranking.
It is important to understand the most common SEO mistakes so that they are easy to identify and fix. To help those users who are reviewing their website’s SEO strategy, here are some of them:
Main SEO mistakes that hurt ranking
1-Ignoring search intent: Users perform searches with different objectives. For example, a user who makes a query is looking for information, so Google shows informational results, along with the “People also ask” snippet. In the case of searches like “buy…”, the search engine displays shopping results.
It is important that, when conducting keyword research, you are clear about the user’s search intent. To get these searches right, the user must always keep their users in mind and ask themselves: “What are my users looking for?”
2-Time on site and bounce rate: User experience became an important SEO factor starting in 2021. However, it is often forgotten in favor of more technical aspects.
When asking what users are looking for, you should review each page and see if its content really answers that question. Often, the headline can be misleading or the information provided is not entirely appropriate. The page must provide an answer to the user’s question; otherwise, they will jump to another page, lowering the time on site and increasing the bounce rate.
3-Not optimizing images: Images are part of the website’s structure and, therefore, their optimization must be considered. A common mistake is forgetting to set the Alt tag or uploading an image that is too large. It is important to fill in all the information fields in the images, as these tags will help position the content on Google.
Other very important SEO mistakes
4-Meta tags and meta descriptions: The goal of SEO is for your page and its content to appear as high as possible in the search results pages. Many professionals focus their efforts on content creation, with good keyword research and content calendars that cover all stages of the sales funnel, but forget to optimize Title tags and meta descriptions.
The meta description offers a summary of everything the reader will find when they click on your content, while the title will contain the keywords and be attractive. When both are optimized, they improve the click-through rate, bringing more visits to your page.
The meta description should not exceed 160 characters and should provide a clear description of your content and your company. Contrary to what some think, the meta description should be written for your target audience and not for Google’s robot, since in a couple of lines it should convince a potential customer to click on the link.
5-Duplicate content: Duplicate content can cause ranking problems. If the user finds duplicate paragraphs, title tags, or duplicate URLs, they should fix it. Otherwise, they may lose positions on Google.
If you have two identical URLs, you can do a 301 redirect or add the “rel=canonical” tag to the main URL.
6-Problems with internal links: Internal links are a way to improve user experience and keep the reader on the page longer. They should always add value, so it is important that the pages of a website have a good internal linking strategy.
You also can’t forget these SEO mistakes
7-Problems with link building: In addition to internal links, you must take care of external links and those links your website receives. Links should always be natural and high quality, reviewing the link profile and removing low-quality links whenever possible.
As for links, you have to take care of the anchor text; you should not over-optimize, as adding too many keywords in the anchor text can lead to Google penalties.
When it comes to incoming links, a good link from a page close to your topic and with a lot of traffic is always better than many low-quality links from smaller or dubious websites.
8-Page load speed and server response: Page load speed is another important SEO factor and is becoming increasingly relevant for Google. The faster the load, the better the user response and, therefore, the more support from Google for its ranking.
You should also consider server response, including 404 errors (page not found) and any server response failures. When the server’s response to the client fails, the user loses trust in the website.
SEO crawling errors
9-Crawling errors: This is one of the most important points. Keeping crawling errors (400 errors, broken internal links, incorrect or unindexed pages, broken images…) on a website can be very harmful.
These errors can be avoided by reviewing the website for any broken or blocked elements. It is important to review the XML sitemap and the robots.txt file, and also fix orphan pages (those pages that do not have internal links pointing to them).
10. Too many 404 errors: Let’s take as an example a user searching on Google: “cheap gaming computers.” After spending a while reviewing the results on the first page, they find a meta description that matches what they are looking for. They click on it, and a 404 error appears because the content has been deleted.
This type of experience is very frustrating, especially nowadays when the Internet is full of content, so no website can afford to have 404 errors. These errors have a negative impact on page ranking, and the more of these errors there are, the worse the ranking will be.
A page with many 404 errors is sending signals to Google that they do not review or update their content. In short, they are telling the search engine that the website is abandoned, so Google will stop considering it when displaying results.
These errors are common when updating or deleting old or irrelevant content. However, it is always advisable to review these errors and set up redirects to keep navigation “clean.” If there are 404 errors that cannot be redirected, at least a custom 404 page should be created, including a call-to-action that redirects readers to other content.
SEO mistakes with keywords
Although changes to Google’s algorithm have reduced the importance of keywords, they are still a relevant ranking factor.
Keyword research is a vital part of any SEO strategy, as the website, its content, and the way it attracts the audience will be built on this research. If the chosen keywords are not correct, the page may not rank or may attract the wrong audience.
Good keyword research is not limited to choosing those with the highest traffic volume. It is necessary to understand how they work and which is most appropriate at each stage of the user’s buying decision process. Generic keywords can be used on information pages about the company or services. However, when creating sales content, other keywords that match the sales intent should be used.
Other mistakes could be not considering speed in SEO, or the number of words. It has also been confirmed that Wikipedia links do not affect SEO.
