Not having a keyword strategy
A good SEO strategy begins with effective keyword research, but many businesses overlook this. Without knowing what your target audience is typing into search engines, ranking for relevant keywords and building organic visibility is impossible. By doing comprehensive keyword research, you’ll be able to identify topics and long-tail queries your customers are searching online and tailor your content accordingly.
I am not using proper meta tags.
One of the critical elements of SEO is optimizing the meta tags of each page on your website. These include the title tag, description tag, and alt text (the text used to describe images). Meta tags tell search engine crawlers how to properly index each page so they can appear in relevant searches. Use targeted keywords in these elements and clear, concise descriptions of each page’s content.
Ignoring image optimization
Images often get overlooked when optimizing a website for search engines, but they can improve visibility for specific queries. This means giving image titles that are descriptive of their content and including keyword-rich captions and descriptions where possible.
We are not optimizing page structure.
Search engine crawlers need to quickly interpret the overall structure of pages to deliver them as relevant results for user queries. This includes ensuring pages are logically organized with headings, subsections, descriptive links, etc., so visitors can easily find them through direct searches or related searches within Google or Bing.
I am not using internal linking correctly.
Internal linking provides two significant benefits: providing users with an easy way to navigate related content pieces on your website and helping spread link juice (effectively “votes”) around a domain between different subpages. The key here is understanding which pages should be linked together – not all pages will necessarily make sense – while keeping anchor texts natural and descriptive rather than overusing “click here” anchor texts throughout a website’s navigation architecture.
Overusing exact match anchor text links
When used too frequently, exact match anchor text can do more harm than good by raising flags about potential shady link-building practices from search engine algorithms that scan the web for unnatural link profiles pointing towards websites. Use a partial match or brand name anchoring to avoid this ordinary mistake when going off-site.
We are not tracking results effectively.
The only way to truly understand if any changes made to a site yielded positive effects or adverse effects is by closely monitoring performance across various metrics, including traffic volume, session duration (how long people stay on a site), bounce rate (how quickly people leave after landing), conversion rate (the number of conversions/goals achieved per session) over time. This allows you to track progress before and after making changes so you always know exactly where improvements have been made (or should be modified further).
Making poor mobile UX choices
Smartphone users now account for more than half of all search traffic worldwide – yet many websites offer subpar experiences such as loading slowly, featuring ads that take up too much space, hiding menu links, forgetting touch targets, not capitalizing on location-based events feature in mobile apps & more that prevent sites from achieving optimal rankings & clickthrough rates from mobile devices.
Overlooking social signals
More and more search engine algorithms are beginning to incorporate some level of social signals into their results based on how often certain pieces of URLs are shared across social media networks like Facebook, Twitter & Instagram, etc. Putting effort toward creating sharable content could pay off, eventually pushing those URLs to higher SERPs, boosting organic visibility significantly without relying solely on traditional SEO tactics like link building or keyword optimization.
Neglecting local SEO opportunities
Finally, one area many companies overlook entirely is taking advantage of local SEO strategies targeting specific types of geographic-oriented query terms like “restaurants near me,” “carpet cleaning Bronx NY,” “tax professionals Phoenix AZ,”… etc. Leveraging geo-targeting tactics targeting websites may help businesses push above competitors engaged in similar activities in the same region, taking a more significant share of the organic market overall and dramatically increasing the bottom line returns process.
