SEO or Search Engine Optimization is an important part of any digital marketing strategy today. It helps to improve the ranking of a website in the search results of engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo. While SEO can be a very effective technique to increase traffic and visibility, it needs to be implemented carefully to avoid mistakes that can be costly or even penalize your site's rankings.
Here are 5 of the frequent SEO mistakes you should avoid
- Lack of Focus on Keywords - The foundation of any SEO campaign is identifying the right keywords and optimizing your content for them. If you don't do thorough keyword research and pick keywords that your audience is actually searching for, your SEO efforts will be wasted. Make sure to find a good mix of head terms, long tail keywords and keyword phrases to target.
- Stuffing Keywords - While keyword optimization is important, overdoing it can backfire. Don't just fill your content with forced repetitions of keywords. Use them naturally and in context. Search engines today can detect keyword stuffing and it will hurt your rankings.
- Duplicate Content - Having duplicate content on your site or republishing content from other sites can dilute your SEO power. Search engines want to show the best and most original content for a search query. Make sure all your content is unique and not copied from other places on the web.
- Lack of Mobile Optimization - With more and more searches happening on mobile devices today, it is crucial that your website is mobile-friendly. If your site takes too long to load on mobile or is difficult to navigate, search engines will rank it lower. Optimize your site for mobile devices and faster page load times.
- Not Building High Quality Backlinks - While link building is an SEO tactic that needs to be done carefully, having quality backlinks from authoritative sites still helps to boost your search rankings. Don't rely entirely on low quality link networks. Build a diverse portfolio of high quality backlinks from influencers and partner sites.
