By employing search engine optimization techniques, marketers can enhance their website rankings in Google SERPs to reach the top rankings. However, it requires not forgetting to avoid common SEO mistakes. If marketers can do these correctly, their search engine rankings and reputation won’t be hindered.
Below are the seven mistakes that you must prevent.
SEO Mistake #1: Optimizing your site for the wrong keywords
If you’re not careful, optimizing your site for the wrong keywords can cost you dearly in terms of search engine ranking. Here are some common mistakes people make when choosing keywords:
- Choosing keywords that are too general.
Broad keywords may get you a lot of traffic, but they won’t necessarily be high-quality traffic. And since quality is what counts when it comes to ranking, you could end up losing out to competitors who’ve chosen more specific keywords.
- Choosing keywords that are too niche.
On the other hand, choosing keywords that are too specific can limit your reach and prevent you from getting the traffic you want. The key is to find a balance between broad and specific keywords.
- Not doing enough research on keyword difficulty.
SEO Mistake #2: Putting too many keywords in the meta keywords tag
If you’re trying to improve your website’s search engine ranking, beware of making common mistakes that could cost you dearly. One such mistake is putting too many keywords in the meta keywords tag.
The meta keywords tag is one of the most important elements of SEO, yet it’s often misunderstood or misused. The meta keywords tag tells search engines what your website is about, and it should be used judiciously.
stuffing your meta keywords tag with too many keywords will not only result in lower search engine rankings but can also get you penalized by Google. So how many keywords should you use in your meta keywords tag?
As a general rule of thumb, try to keep your keyword density under 2%. This means that if your web page contains 100 words, no more than 2 of those words should be keywords.
SEO Mistake #3: Repeating the same keyword too many times
If you’re guilty of repeating the same keyword too many times on your website, then you’re likely costing yourself search rankings. This SEO mistake is an easy one to make, but it can have a big impact on your ability to rank well in search engines.
When you use the same keyword over and over again, it’s called “keyword stuffing” and it’s something that search engines penalize. That’s because it’s considered a form of spam, and it doesn’t provide any value to searchers. So, if you’re using the same keyword multiple times on your website, STOP! It’s not worth risking your search ranking.
SEO Mistake #4: Creating lots of similar doorway pages
One common SEO mistake is creating too many similar doorway pages. Doorway pages are designed to rank highly for specific keywords and phrases, but they can hurt your rankings if you have too many of them.
If you have a lot of doorway pages that are all very similar, it can look like you’re trying to game the system. This can result in a penalty from Google, which can hurt your search rankings.
So, what’s the right number of doorway pages? It depends on your website and your goals. If you have a large website with a lot of content, you might need more doorway pages than someone with a smaller website. Just make sure that each page is unique and offers value to users.
SEO Mistake #5: Using hidden text
If you’re not using white hat SEO techniques, you could be costing your website search rankings. One common blackhat technique is using hidden text, which is when the text on a web page is the same color as the background. This technique is used to stuff keywords onto a page to try and fool search engines into thinking the site is more relevant for those terms than it is.
However, search engines are getting better at spotting hidden text, and sites that use this technique may be penalized with lower rankings. If you want your site to rank well, focus on creating high-quality content that uses relevant keywords naturally.
SEO Mistake #6: Using page cloaking
If you’re not already familiar with SEO, page cloaking is the black hat practice of hiding content from search engines. This content is usually hidden behind a wall of links or other code that makes it difficult for Google to index.
While cloaking can be used to improve your search rankings, it’s generally considered a bad idea. That’s because it can result in your site being penalized by Google, which can cost you valuable search traffic.
There are a few different ways to cloak pages, but the most common is to use a script that detects the user-agent of the visitor and serves them different content based on that. For example, if the visitor is a Googlebot, they might be served a page with little content while human visitors would see a fully-fledged page.
SEO Mistake #7: Devoting too much time to search engine positioning
If your website isn’t ranking as high as you’d like in search engine results, you may be making one of several common SEO mistakes. One mistake that can cost you dearly is devoting too much time and energy to search engine positioning.
It’s important to have a good position in search engine results, but if you spend all your time worrying about it, you’re likely missing out on other aspects of SEO that are just as important. For example, if you focus all your attention on getting a top spot in Google, you may neglect other search engines like Bing and Yahoo!, which can also drive traffic to your site.
Additionally, spending too much time on search engine positioning can lead to keyword stuffing and other black hat SEO tactics that can harm your rankings.
