4 SEO Mistakes To Avoid - Semalt Expert
After many years of undertaking SEO, which includes both website diagnosis and SEO, I can clearly say that there is a common denominator for many websites on Google SEO. Unfortunately, this common denominator includes SEO errors. You have to understand, these are errors made in good faith or carelessly, they are easy to correct, but as with any problem, first, you have to identify it and know that it exists in order to solve it.
Below you will find an explanation of the four most common errors and right now it doesn't matter if you promote the site yourself or do it with the help of an external company to be first on Google. If you are promoting the site yourself you can use the article to test your site and make corrections. I already said that discovery is already 50% of the solution.
If you hired the services of an SEO company and there are still errors on your website (unfortunately, I see many business owners who have been working with an SEO company for a long time and their website remains full of errors like the ones I'm going to show you right away) it's time to stop communicating with them. They will generate you a location check report on Google and try to smear you and tell you "stories". Get rid of them and get another company that knows the job.
1. You thought you could market without content
If you thought that bringing traffic to the website is enough to fix errors on it, prepare the website to be Google friendly and build external links - you are wrong. It is imperative that your promotion plan also includes a strategy for content creation and distribution.
A lot of things have changed in SEO during the last few years and especially in the last year/two years. The content assumes increasing weight in the promotion of your site on Google and weights determining how high your site will be in Google's search results.
Any website promotion plan that does not include a content strategy both inside and outside the website is deficient and will end up not achieving the results you expect.
I am approached by business owners who have a website whose content is exactly the same content that was on the website the day it went live. They hired a website promotion company to build links for them from hundreds of indexes, bookmark sites, comments on blogs, and forums and are surprised that the website has deteriorated in results! The reason is that once, years ago, it was enough to promote a website even without content, but in the last year - not anymore! Content is a cornerstone in the strategy of promoting a site and bringing a lot of traffic to it.
SEO in Google depends on many factors, but the content is one of the most important, relevant content. Beyond that, the content should be updated. Customers and Google alike are looking for up-to-date, well-written content that will make them say: "Wow! There's nothing to look for in another source." This is the content that will help the site move forward on the Google results page.
2. Poor website structure
When building a website, you must take into account the promotion of the website on Google, one of the meanings of which is the structure of the content on it. Unfortunately, I see business owners who build websites that do not show that they have thought about website promotion and that is understandable. The website developer does not have the knowledge, tools and experience of an SEO expert. Therefore, the website structure is usually the simplest: home page, products/services, about, photo gallery, customers, contact us - seller!
Beyond that, a website is a marketing tool. Ask yourself: the website builder, - whoever it is: web developer, or web designer-, what does he/she understand, and what experience does he/she have in marketing? I'll leave the answer for you to think about, but then don't be surprised if your website doesn't attract customers and/or customers come but don't contact and don't buy. Is it possible that you have given the construction of the website to someone who is not suitable?!?
Your website should have structure, customers like order, and Google likes order.
Think about a textbook (not a novel) is it in order? for sure. There is a division into parts, and each part has chapters and each chapter has subtopics. Then why stay away, familiar with Wikipedia?
3. The site is not optimized for viewing on mobile or screens of different sizes
We used to build websites with a fixed width because they fit, today we don't anymore. There are so many screen sizes that a fixed-width website just doesn't look good on. And if what I said is not enough, here are some numbers from the field:
- Studies show that 61% of customers who surf on mobile, who visit websites that are not adapted for mobile - abandon and switch to surfing on competitors' websites.
- 89% of tourism/leisure-related searches start on mobile and move to another device.
- 90% of mobile searches lead to action: visiting a store, filling out a form, calling and half of them end in a purchase.
Google clarified this very well and on purpose I understand it in the original language: "Not having a mobile-friendly site helps your competitors" and also "Non-mobile friendly sites can hurt a company's reputation".
In other words, if you want customers browsing through mobiles, iPads, tablets and other devices of different sizes (the issue is the width of the screen), you must have a mobile site.
There are 3 options for creating a mobile site. Google knows all the possibilities but supports, encourages and pushes the responsive version (Responsive Design).
As a business owner, your website needs to pass the compatibility test for mobile devices. The test is free and at the end, you will get a score as to whether the site is mobile-friendly or not.
For most businesses, other than banks, insurance companies, car importers, etc., who have limited resources not only in setting up but also in maintaining the website and want a Google-friendly website as well as for customers surfing on a variety of devices, I recommend a responsive website.
4. Do not refer to Google Plus
If you want Google to show your business all over the internet, you need to build content using Google's tools. Google is not just a search engine. Google is YouTube, Google is Blogger, Google is maps, and Google is many other services: email, calendar, presentations, sponsored advertising, analytics, webmaster tools and much more, but above all of them there is a particularly important tool called Google Plus.
There are many reasons why you should be active on Google Plus, but the main reason, in my opinion, is that Google wants you to be active there. And if you want Google to promote your site, you must be there on Google Plus.
I'll say it one more time: a business owner who chooses not to be on Google Plus, for whatever reason, hurts his/her website's promotion on Google.
For those who still need convincing or want additional reinforcements, I will mention here two more reasons why you should be active on Google Plus:
SEO is becoming social
Search is how people find content. It used to be a matter of keywords or rather matching keywords to content. Google's complex algorithms tried to match the search words typed by the user to the contents listed on the various websites. But that is changing.
Social networks serve as a kind of quality filter for huge amounts of content. Therefore, Google built its social network so that it could hear what people are saying about the content, what is the conversation around it, who likes, who shares and other social signals that will say something about the quality of the content.
If you want your site to be found in Google search results, you must have an active Google Plus account.
The period of anonymity is over
The amount of content uploaded to the Internet every moment is enormous. Content is text (articles, posts, statuses, comments...), images, video, and sound files and the question is what is quality content?
If there is low-level and irrelevant content that has risen to the top of the search results because of manipulations of this and that by website promoters, then this is a violation of Google's brand.
In Google's war against poor-quality content, Google developed the concept of Authorship. Practically speaking, you open a Google Plus user profile and link it to every piece of content you write on the web, whether you write on your own site or on other sites. By doing this, you make it easier for Google to track the social signals relating to your content and help it determine how high-quality your content is.
In conclusion
In this article, I have listed four main mistakes that business owners should address. As a website owner, you need to have a top view, from a strategic point of view to ensure that your Google promotion activity is headed in the right direction.
There are many more SEO errors that need to be addressed by an SEO expert to fix things or guide you or your website development team on what to do.
My recommendation is to optimize your site for search engines, develop quality content and ensure that your quality content has natural and relevant links.