Search engine optimization is one of the best tools any business can leverage to reach as many people as possible. Sadly, most businesses fail to optimally utilize this tool to rank higher in online search results. Whether you use an SEO agency or handle your SEO in-house, it is mandatory to ensure your techniques are up to date and running as planned.

Although no strategy can be foolproof, it is important to ensure yours follows proven techniques that will guarantee gradual organic rankings on the search engine platforms.

To go further into this, this article will highlight the 7 most common SEO mistakes that might be derailing your performance and ways you could rectify them.

Poor Content

We have all heard of the phrase “Content is King,” but one thing that is often overlooked is that it is the good content that is really King.

Many people have fallen prey to insufficient content that does not really provide the solutions to the problems being searched by internet users. As a digital agency at DSPM Group, we have come across many sites that contain shallow content that does not provide any direction for the reader to follow.

This problem goes even further when the content available on the website is plagiarized. For your information, duplicated content does not rank, and having it on your site negatively affects your site’s image on Google. When your site is not trusted by the algorithm, it will not be shown on top of search results, which will waste your time and energy creating the content.

Solution

The main thing to tackle the problem of poor content is just to write high-quality content. Providing content, rich with knowledge and going in-depth on the specific subject in question will go a long way in ensuring you become reputable and trusted in your field.

Your content should also be authoritative in a way that shows unbiased, analytical facts that are both correct and insightful. This will enable people to stay on your page longer, indicating to Google that your content is good therefore increasing your ranking.

Slow Page Load Speeds

Generally speaking, no one likes to be kept waiting. This is also true in the internet age, where the attention span of a human is becoming less than that of a goldfish. It is reported that users are likely to click away if a site takes 5 seconds to load. Think about that.

Regardless of how enticing your content is or how much authority your site has, it will not be seen or even read if your page takes longer to load. This might be heartbreaking, but you must understand that faster is better in our current times, and there is no negotiating about that.

Solution

The first thing we advise site owners to do is to ensure that only the needed plugins are activated on their backend. The thing about plugins is that each time your site loads, it has to load their code as well, and if you have many of them, the longer the load will take.

Another thing is optimizing your images. Images are important, but they do not have to deny you ranking when integrated well into your site. There are a ton of free websites and plugins that help you shrink and optimize your images.

Not Optimizing For Mobile

Mobile is the future, and that future is now. A big problem that restricts sites from ranking is the lack of mobile optimization. For your site to enjoy Google rankings, especially at the top of search results, it must have an interface designed with mobile browsing in mind.

This should be a no-brainer at the time that mobile traffic has been at its highest, and having this in check will give you a boost in your SEO journey to the top.

Solution

Site owners should establish that the mobile responsiveness of their site is taken care of at the beginning of their website design.

If your site is older, you should take advantage of Google’s mobile-friendly test to ensure your site is mobile-friendly and fix it if following the suggested solutions.

Neglecting Keywords

This is one of the most common mistakes that we encounter in numerous case studies. Sites that do not explicitly indicate the keywords they want to rank for giving search engine problems ranking them.

Unlike keyword stuffing, sites with this problem do not give direction to both search engines and visitors, making it difficult to understand what the content conveys.

Solution

We recommend you use keyword finder tools and Google browser to find keywords relating to your industry or the topic you are targeting.

Then, these keywords should be used in moderation to ensure they encapsulate your content to provide the readable content that can be ranked for in Google.

Targeting Competitive Keywords

Following the previous mistake, many site owners compete for rankings by targeting keywords with great difficulty.

This is a bad idea, but it is doubtful to see any success in ranking for these keywords due to the high competition from authoritative sites that are leaders in the industry.

Solution

We advise site owners to ensure they diligently choose keywords they can easily outperform their competition. Looking at long-tail keywords that do not receive much attention from competition might be a good place to start and make an impact with stellar content.

No or Spammy Backlinks

For any site to rank, it must contain backlinks from sites with good domain scores or those considered authoritative in their industry. This problem is seen by sites that link to untrusted or dead websites leading to a fall in their SEO ranking.

Solution

You should write trustworthy content, which will enable even authority websites to want to associate with you, making your site incredibly suitable for higher rankings.

Not Integrating Google Analytics Results

A good thing about website analytics is that they help you see how people interact with your content. These results help you improve the parts that are performing poorly while getting insights into how to improve your strategy generally.

Solution

Ensure your website is integrated with Google analytics and create a plan to improve on the data collected.

Although SEO is a tedious process, having it in check will go a long way in ensuring your business ranks and reaches your intended audience easily.
Check out our website at https://dspmgroup.org/seo-strategy-5/ for keyword research, link building, among other key SEO services.

DSPM Group,
11501 Dublin Blvd. Suite 200
Dublin California 94568,
(925) 217-2286

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