It is time to reveal the top 10 SEO mistakes committed by websites worldwide. If you are complaining about your website not ranking high enough on the search engines, then have a good look at this list and make sure your website is not making any of these mistakes.
I’ve decided to divide this article into 2 sections: on page SEO and off pages SEO mistakes. As you read through this post, you will realise that the mistakes listed here are strongly based on what I’ve covered in my previous posts about SEO.
On Page SEO Mistakes
This section refers to SEO mistakes made on your actual website.
1. Not Targeting 1 Keyword Per Page
This is the most important facet of on page SEO yet so many people are either unaware of its importance or forget to do it. It’s 100 times easier to target just 1 keyword per page than to target 10 keywords per page. At the very maximum, you can try and target 2 keywords but you should really keep it to just one. If you focus your efforts on targeting 1 keyword per page, results will arrive much quicker. I can guarantee it.
2. No Keyword In URL
The URL of each page should have the keyword you are targeting for that page. If it doesn’t, then you are going to make it harder to get that page ranking for that target keyword. Fix up your URL if you have to because this is crucial to SEO success.
3. No Keyword In Title Tag
I cannot count the number of pages I’ve been webpages not have their target keyword in the title tag. Just in case you’re not aware, the title tag is what appears at the top of your browser when you’re on a webpage. This is the one mistake I see the most because it is so obvious when I visit a webpage. It’s amazing how many home pages of websites have the word “Home” in their title tags. You NEED to have the target keyword in your title tag because it will help you achieve SEO success much quicker. This is certainly one of the top 10 SEO mistakes out there today.
4. Bad Use Of Meta Description And Meta Keywords
The most common mistake regarding meta description is people not using it at all. Just in case you weren’t aware, the meta description is a short description which is used to describe your website in search engine result listings. You should good use of it to encourage people to visit your website when they find you on the search engines. Having your target keyword there can only help you.
Regarding meta keywords, the most common mistake is people adding a ton of keywords there. You should limit yourself to 5 to 8 keywords because if you put any more, the search engines will see that as keyword spamming and will end up punishing you.
5. Bad Keyword Density
Unfortunately, many people are still committing this grave SEO mistake. Some people go all out and mention their target keyword countless times on their webpage so that it ranks highly. It used to work in the early days of the Internet when search engines were relatively dumb but nowadays it’s bound to get you severely punished or even banned.
On the other hand, there are people who don’t mention their keyword enough throughout their webpages. This is also bad because the search engines have no idea what keyword your webpage is trying to rank highly for.
The goal should be a keyword density of 3% which is not too much and just enough for good SEO.
Off Page SEO Mistakes
This section refers to SEO mistakes made outside your website, but which hamper your website’s ability to rank highly on the search engines.
6. Bad Keyword Research
Keyword research is the basis for SEO success. If you target keywords which has relatively high competition, then your chances of ranking highly and getting traffic will be diminished in the short term. On the other hand, you should not simply target keywords because of low competition because there may not be enough people searching for that keyword. The key is finding a balance between the amount of searches and the number of websites that are competing to rank for that keyword. Use tools such as Google Keyword Tool can help you do that.
7. No Keyword In Anchor Text
Off page SEO is all about building backlinks aka links back to your website. However, in the process of doing that, many people forget to put their keyword in the anchor text of the backlink. For example, if the primary keyword of your website was “computer repairs”, then you want to computer repairs in your anchor text, just like in the following:
“Visit the best computer repairs service in town.”
Please note that the above is just an example.
This has got to be one of the most simple SEO mistakes committed by website owners today.
8. No Anchor Text Variety
While it’s great to use your target keyword in the anchor text of your backlinks, you must also mix and match with other keywords. In other words, if you have 100 links with the same keyword in your anchor text, then the search engines will get suspicious that a robot is at work and will punish your website. Because of this, you should find about another 5 related keywords and use them in your anchor text too. The more variety you have, the better your SEO results will be.
9. No Link Source Variety
There are plenty of ways to get backlinks, however, one of the top 10 SEO mistakes committed by people too often is by using only a minimal amount of link sources. For example, there are people who only use article marketing to get their backlinks. Others just use social media. The reality is that you should use a wide variety of sources to get your backlinks. This is because the more sources you use, the more natural the backlinks appear to the search engines, and the higher your website will rank.
10. No Natural Build Up Of Links
Building on the previous mistake, you have to make sure that the amount of backlinks your website gets takes place in a natural, human-like manner. For example, getting 300 links in 1 week is almost certainly going to make search engines suspicious about your website and they will punish you accordingly. However, if you get 300 links over the course of a month, then that will appear to be more natural and they will more than likely than not reward you.
Fix Them And Then Avoid Them
I suggest that you go through all of your websites and see whether they are committing the SEO mistakes covered in this post. After fixing them, it’s all a case of avoiding the top 10 SEO mistakes so that your websites get the rankings and traffic they need and deserve.