To position a project in Google, it is necessary to have a good SEO strategy that takes into account all factors, both On Page and Off Page SEO. The problem that many users encounter is that it is very difficult to keep up to date with the latest SEO trends. constant updates of Google’s algorithmso they end up making some common mistakes that hurt their rankings.
Understanding the most common mistakes will help to improve the positioning of a website
It is important to understand what they are the most common SEO mistakesto make them easy to identify and fix. To help those users who are reviewing the SEO strategy of their website, some of them are shown below:
Main SEO errors that hinder positioning
1-Ignoring search intent: Users perform searches for different purposes. For example, a user making a query is looking for information and, as such, Google displays informative results, along with the snippet “other user queries”. In the case of “buy…” style searches, the search engine launches purchase results.
It is important that, when performing a keyword search, the user’s search intentions are clear. To be successful in this type of search, the user must always keep in mind his users and ask himself: “what are my users looking for?
2-Time of stay and bounce rate: The user experience will become, from 2021, an important SEO factor. However, it is often forgotten in favor of other more technical aspects.
When asking yourself what users are looking for, you should review each page and see if its content really answers that question. Many times, the headline can be misleading or the information presented is not entirely adequate. The page must offer an answer to the user’s question, otherwise, the user will jump to another page, lowering the time spent and increasing the bounce rate.
3- Not optimizing images: Images are part of the structure of the website and, therefore, their optimization must be taken into account. A common mistake is to forget to set the Alt tag or to upload an image that is too heavy. It is important to fill all the information spaces in the images, as these tags will help to position the content in Google.
Other very important SEO mistakes
4-Meta tags and meta descriptions: The goal of SEO is that your site and its contents appear as high as possible in the search results pages. Many professionals focus their efforts on content creation, with good keyword research and the creation of content calendars that cover all stations of the sales funnel, but they forget to optimize the Title tags and meta descriptions.
The meta description provides a summary of everything the reader will encounter when they click on your content, while the title will contain the keywords and be engaging. When both are optimized, they improve the click-through rate, bringing more visitors to your page.
The meta description should be no longer than 160 characters and should provide a clear description of your content and your company. Contrary to what some people think, the meta description should be written for your target audience and not for Google’s robot, since in a couple of lines it should convince a potential customer to click on the link.
5-Duplicate content: Duplicate content can cause positioning problems. If the user finds duplicate paragraphs, duplicate title tags or duplicate URLs, you should fix it. Otherwise, you may lose rankings in Google.
In the case of having two identical URLs, it is possible to do a 301 redirect or add the “rel=”canonical”” tag to the main URL.
6-Problems with internal links: Internal links are a way to improve the user experience and keep the reader longer on the page. They should always provide value, so it is important that the pages of a website have a good internal linking strategy.
You also can’t forget these SEO mistakes
7-Problems with linkbuilding: In addition to internal links, external links and those links that the website receives must be taken care of. The links should always be natural and of quality, reviewing the link profile and eliminating those of low quality whenever possible.
As for the links, the anchor text must be taken care of, they should not be over-optimized, since adding too many keywords in the anchor text can lead to penalties from Google.
In the case of the links that you receive, it will always be better to have a good link, coming from a page close to the theme and with a lot of traffic, than to have many links of poor quality from minor or dubious web pages.
8-Speed of load and response of the server: The loading speed of a page is another important SEO factor that is becoming increasingly important for Google. The faster the loading speed, the better the user response and, therefore, the better Google’s support for your positioning.
Server response must also be taken into account, this includes 404 (page not found) type errors and any server response failure. When the server response to the client fails, the user loses confidence in the website.
SEO crawl errors
9-Crawl errors: This is one of the most important points. Keeping crawling errors (400 errors, broken internal links, incorrect or uncrawled pages, broken images…) on a web page can be very detrimental.
These errors can be avoided by checking the web page for any broken or blocked elements. It is important to check the XML sitemap and the robots.txt file, orphaned pages (those pages that do not have internal links pointing to them) should also be fixed.
10. Too many 404 errors: Let’s take as an example a user who is searching in Google: “cheap gaming computers”. After spending some time going through the results on the first page, he finds a meta description that matches what he is looking for. He clicks on it and, a 404 error appears and the content has been removed.
These types of experiences are very frustrating, especially nowadays when the Internet is full of content, so no website can afford to have 404 errors. These errors have a negative impact on the positioning of the page and the more of these errors it contains, the worse the positioning will be.
A page with many 404 errors is sending signals to Google that they do not review the content, nor update it. In short, they are telling the search engine that the web page is abandoned, so Google will stop taking it into account when displaying messages.
These errors are common, when updating or deleting old or irrelevant content. However, it is always a good idea to review these errors and perform redirects to keep the navigation “clean”. If there are 404 errors that cannot be redirected, at least create a custom 404 page, including a call-to-action that redirects readers to other content.
SEO errors with keywords
Although changes in Google’s algorithm have been downplaying the importance of keywords, they are still a relevant positioning factor.
The study of keywords is a vital part of any SEO strategy, since this study will build the web page, its contents and will also be responsible for directing the public to the page. If the words chosen are not the right ones, the page may not be positioned or may attract the wrong audience.
A good keyword study is not limited to choosing the keywords with the highest traffic volume. It is necessary to understand how they work and which is the most appropriate at each stage of the user’s buying decision process. Generic keywords can be used in information pages about companies or services. However, when creating sales content, other keywords should be used to accompany the sales intent.
Other mistakes could be not taking speed into account in SEO, or the number of words. It has also been confirmed that Wikipedia links do not affect SEO. Check out these 12 Chrome extensions that help SEO.
