As a beginner, figuring out SEO can be a daunting task, so we have put together 5 most common SEO mistakes to avoid. As a marketing discipline, it requires some time and ‘trial and error’ before you start to see some positive results. Every good digital marketer will tell you that SEO is an integral part of gaining an online presence, which is why it’s important to get right as soon as possible.
These common SEO mistakes shouldn’t go unnoticed, they can impact or delay the optimisation of your SEO plan. So let’s get started with the most common SEO mistakes and how to avoid them.
Choosing keywords without researching your target audience
Choosing the wrong keywords is one of the most common SEO mistakes a beginner can make. The key to avoiding this is to understand your target audience, their online behaviour and the trends they are searching for. Think of SEO as the voice of the customer when they google search. What questions would they type? How would they ask them? What is the intent behind the search? Choose keywords based on how you expect your customers to behave.
Skipping the Title Tags & Meta Descriptions
SEO isn’t just about getting the right keywords into your content and adding backlinks, you’ll also need to produce searchable Title Tags and Meta Descriptions. If not, it’ll be more difficult for search engines to position your site near the top of the page. The same goes for Schemas – if you don’t provide a detailed description of your web page, your site will get lost in the sea of searches. Skipping this step is one of the biggest and most common SEO mistake you can make. Take the time to fill out Title Tags, Meta Descriptions and Schemas whenever you upload new content to your website. Keep headlines and copy brief and descriptive – tell the searcher and Google what your page is about.
Producing the wrong type of content
Google has become more sophisticated in distinguishing between high quality and low-quality content. High-quality content is designed to provide valuable information to the user. Marketers often make the mistake of creating content with the main intent of ranking for a particular keyword. In doing this, they may end up losing focus on the context and value for the user. Avoid this problem by writing content that genuinely corresponds to the questions or needs of your target audience.
Forgetting to optimise websites for mobile devices
Google now recognises the value of mobile-friendly websites and uses it as one of the criteria for ranking searches. Many marketers lose out in ranking by not making their websites mobile-friendly. Optimise your website by increasing the load speed, readability and usability on mobile devices.
Using internal links incorrectly
Many beginner SEO marketers misuse internal links within their content. Use only a few links and make sure they are relevant to the anchor text, otherwise it will negatively affect your search engine ranking. Choose your links wisely and carefully when creating content.
Conclusion
There we have it! We hope you found these tips helpful, check out our other SEO Blog posts here
