How to Avoid Easy & Honest SEO mistakes that could penalize your site?

SEO is one of the most important components of the digital marketing landscape on the internet today. Without the implementation of the right SEO techniques, your website will never gain the desired ranking on the popularity charts of the internet. Research suggests that Google receives over 65,000 searches every second! (source) With so much competition, it is important for you to implement the right SEO techniques and set yourself apart on the search engine results.

If you are planning on optimizing your website for the search engine, here are a few common mistakes to avoid today.

#1 Less/No Focus on Analytical Aspects

Most so-called experts for SEO on the internet can utilize the power of SEO only on the very basic levels. These experts must discover and implement advanced analytical techniques to get the maximum results out of SEO techniques.

#2 Focus on Only One Keyword

Most beginners make this one big mistake. Instead of choosing a set of strong keywords, they stick to just one keyword for their content. They fail to understand that the world of a search engine is highly dynamic and needs constant attention. Without its ability to adapt to the changing keywords, your content will automatically stop getting hits after some time.

You need to think ahead of the curve and plan for the future.

#3 Lack of Content Optimization

Your blog section now contains 1000 different posts? Great! You are doing good in terms of posting content regularly. Now you have to ask yourself, how many of those 1000 posts are really optimized? While a few posts have over a million views, the others have not secured a few hundred. Content optimization is the key to increasing readership over time.

You need to understand that blogs are like saplings. You cannot expect them to grow into full-fledged trees by watering them once. Instead, you need to pay attention to them for a long period. Optimize the content once every 10-15 days to make sure that they steadily climb up the popularity charts.

#4 Lack of Readability

The three most important characteristics of great content are:

• Good Focus on Keywords
• Excellent Readability
• Regular Optimization

People don’t have the time to read lengthy and chunky paragraphs. Novice content developers often make this mistake. They write lengthy posts in form of huge paragraphs. Seasoned content developers know how to focus on the readability aspects of the content. They create lists and subheadings to break down the content into smaller more readable fragments. Today, the audience likes to have a choice between going through the entire content or just skimming through the most important parts in a few seconds.

#4 Neglecting Needs of the Mobile Users

Research suggests that in 2018, 52.2% of total internet traffic comes from the mobiles across the globe. (Source) You can safely assume that if your content is not optimized for the mobile interface, you are losing out on a huge chunk of business today.

With the responsive and adaptive website themes, you can revamp your entire website for the mobile interface. Take Flipkart and Amazon for example. They have created dedicated website interfaces for the mobile platform so that the customers can view the products easily just like they would on the applications or desktop interface.

The best practices for creating a mobile interface involve mimicking the application interface for the mobile browser.

#5 Lack of Backlinks

Every SEO consultant knows the importance of backlinks on a website. Backlinks from a reliable source can help you create a strong impression on the internet. Without the proper backlinks, Google will not trust your website and push it back to lower rankings. The websites that appear on the first page of Google search results often have millions of backlinks from the most popular websites on the internet.

You can use tools like MOZ and SEMrush to conduct backlink analysis for your website. It is a good idea to conduct a side-by-side analysis of your website with the competition to find out their strengths and weaknesses.

#6 Weak URL Structure

A weak URL structure will immediately push your website down on the search results. If you have not converted your website from the HTTP to the HTTPs format, do it right away! The conversion process will take only a few minutes but increase the chances of good visitor count exponentially.

Google has launched a feature on its native browser, the Google Chrome, to partially block the HTTP websites. If you have a website in the HTTP format, Google Chrome will give you the warning to avoid going to this website. Most people will not click the advanced tab and proceed to your website with such warnings. Instead, they will close the tab and go with the website that offers the HTTPs format.

#7 No-Index Tags

Having a No-Index tag on your website is like having the Harry Potter cloak of invisibility for it. With this tag, you are essentially preventing the search engine to crawl through your website. If the search engine cannot crawl through the website, it won’t be able to look for keywords and other content optimization factors.

If you post high-quality content regularly and still do not get enough views, check for the website for a No-Index tag. It is highly possible that your content is invisible to the search engines.

#8 Plagiarized Content

Putting plagiarized content on your website is the fastest way to invite penalties from the search engine. Google hates duplicate content. Over the years, Google has implemented strong algorithms to detect plagiarized content in an instant.

Google will immediately push your website to a lower ranking once it detects plagiarism. You can use tools like Grammarly Premium to detect and control the amount of plagiarism in your content.

Maintain a safe distance away from these mistakes to avoid heavy penalties in the world of SEO. While the implementation of right strategies will get you views, avoiding the wrong ones will keep you in the safe zone.