Learning and using basic SEO tactics can help your pages rank. However, it’s not unusual to make mistakes, whether you’re working with SEO for the first time or are more experienced. SEO is a tool that helps you get more targeted traffic to your website and a way to climb the competitive ladder. But even though SEO is so effective in increasing your ranking, it can also have the opposite effect when you don’t use it properly.
Believe it or not, the smallest mistakes can have disastrous effects on your SEO campaign. Knowing you have hindered your chances of boosting your site traffic can be a tough pill to swallow, but there is some good news too – if you know the potential dangers in advance, you can avoid them and keep your platform safe, but you can also learn how to solve them quickly. With that being said, here are 13 biggest mistakes in on-site SEO and how you can fix them.
1. Issues with Meta Descriptions
Meta descriptions tell potential visitors what they can expect to see on a page. While the meta description doesn’t directly affect your page’s rank, it influences the clickthrough rate. The problem with meta descriptions is that many websites plagiarize meta descriptions while others have none. Pages without meta descriptions are less likely to convince people to click on your site.
Instead of leaving sites without a description or using duplicate meta descriptions, use audit tools to help you find and fix the problems. You can also use other sites in your niche as an inspiration, but don’t copy and paste – write your own unique descriptions.
2. External Links with Bad Quality
Websites use high-quality external links as a way to boost their rankings. But what happens when the links you insert are poor-quality ones? Your site’s ranking will suffer, of course. Just like the content you post on the page, the links you use must provide enough quality to show Google that you mean business.
Bad-quality links can be replaced with relevant, high-quality ones that match your niche. Analyze your links or scan them with special tools to ensure they do not contain text full of grammar mistakes or unnatural language that looks spammy – it will save you from a bad Google ranking.
3. Pages with Short Content
You may not be a fan of writing long content, but that is what Google wants to see. In fact, if your page has content shorter than 1,000 words, the search engine will immediately take note of it, and your score may suffer. This is partly because thin content doesn’t keep visitors on the page too long. Moreover, it shows that your articles don’t have enough depth.
Do your best to increase your content’s length. Make articles longer and add as much relevant information as possible. You will start seeing improvements in your rankings as you generate more leads.
4. No Alt Tags
Inserting images into your content is a sure way to improve your content marketing strategies. Visual content is popular today, and people are more willing to check out guides and articles that visually represent the text. But while that’s the case, many photos have no alt tags, and while they don’t necessarily affect your readers, they will have a negative impact on your Google ranking.
Alt tags let search engines know what pictures are about, giving images written descriptions. Search engines like Google then have the possibility to categorize them and see how they relate to your content. Even better, alt tags also come in handy for visually impaired users, as their screen readers can describe the images to them.
Unfortunately, a high number of sites do not use keywords for their internal images, which brings their rankings down. So, don’t forget to add alt tags to your photos to avoid getting dragged down in the search results.
5. Not Adding Internal Links
Did you know that internal links are also crucial for your Google rank? Inserting links from relevant, high-quality articles on your website lets search engines find you more easily. Not only that, but your site’s authority may also be influenced by the authority of the inserted link, moving you up in the search results. This is why not adding internal links is a mistake, as it can drag down your ranking.
When you create a new page on your site, see if it relates to some of your other articles and insert those links in keywords and phrases. They will do wonders for your score.
6. Not Paying Attention to LSI Keywords
Keywords represent one of the key aspects of SEO, but that doesn’t mean they’re the only things you should focus on. LSI keywords are just as important for your strategy because they describe the text. When you use them, Google and other search engines can understand and categorize your content and discover your actual audience.
After choosing your main keywords, create a list of LSI keywords and sprinkle them throughout your pages and articles. Google will detect them and establish whether or not your site is of higher authority.
7. Settling for Slow-Loading Pages
Slow-loading pages are a deterrent for potential viewers. The slower a site’s loading is, the more likely people are to click away from a page. In fact, a report has revealed that a page loading slower by even 100 milliseconds is enough to reduce the conversion rate. This is why pages that load too slowly are a no-no, and it’s your job to remedy the issue unless you want your site to have a bad performance.
When you notice slow loading times, try to optimize your pages and ensure they load quickly enough on desktop and mobile platforms.
8. Adding Too Many Links
Yes, that’s right – not only is it a mistake to add no links, but it’s also wrong to fill your articles with links. Too many links will look spammy and negatively affect your readers’ experience. Now, you may wonder, “How can I get linking right?” Using a link audit tool will tell you how to improve your linking situation and boost your ranking.
9. Using Duplicate Content
When it comes to certain topics, it’s hard to write unique content. With millions of online articles, uniqueness is quite tricky to find. Did you know there are numerous sites out there with duplicate content? The less original your content is, the more likely it is to lower your rankings. Moreover, Google may not always be able to tell the difference between the original and duplicate content. Still, you should always stick to original texts to avoid plagiarism and increase your ranking.
10. Using Nofollow Tags for Hiding Pages
You may not be aware that some websites use nofollow tags to hide certain pages. This is in order to hide customer-only sections or avoid problems related to duplicate content. While hiding pages is not an issue in itself, not everyone uses nofollow tags successfully, which can affect your SEO strategy.
So, if you want to hide content from a search engine, use the <metaname=”robots”content=”noindex,nofollow”> tag.
11. Forgetting to Update Your Website
Forgotten websites become outdated. Sure, your content may have performed well at some point, but that doesn’t mean it will continue to do so forever. This is why you should always remember to update your site and add new content when possible.
Check when your articles were added and update them with new details. Do this once a month with static pages and see where improvements are necessary. One of the easiest ways to do this is by having a FAQ page that you contribute to regularly.
12. Broken Images
Broken images are just as much of an issue as missing alt tags. They are similar to broken links – therefore, they can decrease your platform’s ranking on Google when detected. This is usually because they negatively influence the readers’ experience, so Google sees the content as less valuable. If any images are broken, replace them with functioning photos to avoid problems.
13. Focusing on On-Page SEO Only
On-page SEO is necessary for your success on Google rankings, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore off-page SEO. In fact, this is a mistake many websites make. When you can, use off-page SEO practices as well, such as guest posting, campaigning on social media, and more. Paired with on-page SEO, this method can immediately change the ranking of your platform for the better.
The Bottom Line
On-site SEO mistakes can negatively impact your ranking and cause your site to generate fewer conversions and less revenue. If you want to thrive in the online world, fixing these mistakes and boosting your SEO strategy is the right thing to do. Following the tips presented in our article will help you eliminate any issues.