While performing SEO, you may think that you have got it all right. However, a few things go unnoticed, causing some serious errors! Let’s look at how to prevent these tiny SEO mistakes in the future.

You’ll have to put a large amount of effort into doing what you do the best with very little or zero outcome! Honestly, Search Engine Optimization is quite a complex task. Some SEO Mistakes we need to know and need to avoid that SEO Mistakes. Even mastering the basics can be challenging and you might pull your hair out at the end of a day.

Apart from performing some advanced SEO tricks, you can’t forget some of the basics: keywords, off-page optimization, and meta tags. This can become overwhelming since you get to see the results in real-time. Therefore, if things don’t look good, they aren’t good.

Let’s look at 9 harmful SEO mistakes:

Even if you have a great deal of experience in this field, it doesn’t guarantee that you won’t make any mistakes. So it becomes super essential to take note of the some of the things that could go wrong and save yourself from getting bashed at work.

1: Not Using Google Search Console and/or Google Analytics

Google Search Console and Google Analytics are two important tools for your website’s progress. If you aren’t using these tools, you are really missing out on some cool features that will enable your business to make a prominent mark.

Google Search Console helps in improving a website easily. It tells you about who is linking to your site while denoting technical errors as well. On the other hand, Google Analytics gives you the data you require to understand how your site is performing. It lets you know about the traffic and how quickly your readers bounce to other websites. Both tools help you determine how your website can do better and make it successful.

The reason some professionals don’t use Google Search Console and/or Google Analytics is because there are other options that have more to offer. However, they do not give results like these two for the price of free.

 

2. Leaving a Noindex/Nofollow Command on the Site While Launching

While you are still developing your website, it becomes essential to prevent it from appearing in a Google search result page. It can easily be neglected by adding a noindex meta tag to your website’s header code.

When the Googlebot recognizes this tag it immediately drops the page from the search results. This step is also useful if you want more control over specific pages or the whole website as it is. However, keep this thing in mind – you need to remove this tag once you are about to launch your website.

Another significant thing that could go wrong is putting a noindex meta tag to the site’s header code and then blocking it with a robot.txt command. Well, becoming more mindful of what you are doing is the key pointer in leading your website towards success.

 

3. Ignoring the Importance of External/Internal Links

To make your content look more rational and authentic, you need to link it with some high-quality, authoritative links. This instills trust in the readers and makes them believe that your site can provide information without compromising on the quality.

External linking also gives a green signal to Google and notes that your site can be trusted while looking for information. It is because this step is specified in Google’s search quality evaluator guidelines.

Just how external linking is essential for the growth of a website, internal linking also contributes equally. Here are a few reasons why internal linking is essential to boost your site’s position in the Search Engine Result Page.

• It makes it simple for Googlebot to crawl your website.
• Internal linking helps to bring together important pages.
• It also drives traffic to other parts of the site.

 

4. Optimizing Wrong Keywords

It’s no surprising to know that an SEO professional can easily make this mistake.

Keywords are undoubtedly one of the most crucial elements of Search Engine Optimization. However, professionals sometimes ignore it since they do not indulge in rigorous keyword research. They end up using the wrong keywords from the business perspective.

It is vital to take out some time to focus on full-fledged keyword research. Think from a customer’s perspective and try to understand what people will search for while looking when typing in their Google search.

 

5. Not Optimizing the Content for Search Intent

Just how optimizing the wrong keywords can cater to less traffic on your website, failing to optimize for user intent can prove to be devastating for your website.

Luckily, Google has the ability to deliver what your target audience is looking for, which makes optimizing the content for search very easy.

A potential customer’s journey comprises the following steps, which are categorized by Google.

• “Do” searches: It comprises searches like “buy earphones online.”
• “Know” and “know simple” searches: It happens when a customer searches for detailed information like “best earphones 2020.”
• “Go” searches: These consist of searches like “best earphone shops near me.”

This step helps you provide your customers with the right content just when they need it.

 

6. Not Focused on Improving the Content

If you aren’t aware of Google’s freshness algorithm, what are you even doing? Well, if your content isn’t fresh, you might encounter a drop in page rankings and traffic. While the stale content is to be blamed for the drop, you need to stay updated on the back-end changes.

Talking about stale content, it is content:

• That becomes outdated due to market changes or new statistics.
• That is incorrect due to updated information.
• That is irrelevant due to changes in keyword optimization.
• That is not valued due to changes in the algorithm.

Content needs to be re-evaluated every now and then. You cannot just put it on your website and forget about it. Links break and files go missing, so you need to keep everything under check. When you remove old content and update it with new information, Google rewards you with a better SERP ranking.

In addition to this, it becomes vital to produce link-worthy content. It means that your content should be used as an external link by other websites as well. Publish infographics and tutorials that are useful to the general public. It will help you gain a lot of indirect traffic, leading to a better rank on the Search Engine Result Page.

 

7. Linking SEO with Traffic

SEO helps to drive significant traffic to the website, but that’s not the only thing it is supposed to do. You may wonder why your SEO strategy isn’t helping you drive traffic even after hours of working on it. Conversion is as important as driving traffic.

If the readers aren’t purchasing anything or aren’t clicking on the subscribe button, what is the point of high traffic? Valuing quality over quantity is super important. High traffic without conversions means that you are only attracting irrelevant customers who have nothing to do with your product or service.

 

8. Not Paying Enough Attention to Your SEO Strategy

While launching your website, your SEO strategies were functioning and helping your website gain huge traffic. Google ranked your website on its Search Engine Result Page at a top position. However, your focus shifted to something else, and you completely forgot to keep a check on your search engine optimization strategies. The result? A failing website!

Most SEO professionals would agree that SEO isn’t like a switch. The moment you turn it on, it won’t light up the room right away and once the light is on, it takes some effort to keep it that way. Your rank will slowly start going down, and you will fail to keep your position on the search page.

 

9. Not Checking the Code in Validator

You may have realized that a website consists of code. The better this code is, the higher the rank earned by the website in the SERP. A neat and clean code allows the crawlers to scan and index the scan in an efficient manner. It ensures that not even a single page is left behind, which proves great for high traffic.

Therefore, it becomes essential to check the code to promote and optimize a website for better ranking and traffic.

 

The Takeaway

You need to plan, implement, and maintain some important SEO strategies in order to remain at the top of the SERP. However, at some point, these strategies may drive you crazy, which gives room to mistakes.

Yes, you heard me! These mistakes can not only harm your position in the Search Engine Result Page but can also prove to be very unlucky for your business.

Mentioned-above are the nine SEO mistakes that could take seconds to ruin your work, which has taken you hours to complete! No matter how simple these mistakes may look, they might slip right in front of your eyes. Therefore, you need to be very efficient and careful while working on your business!