5 Common SEO Mistakes to Avoid At All Costs

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Search engine optimization is constantly changing, but many fundamentals remain the same.

To maximize your search engine visibility, three things need to come together:

  • On-Page SEO: the design and structure of pages and the technical signals they send.
  • Off-Page SEO: promotional activities that garner valid backlinks and social engagement.
  • Content Strategy: an overall vision for providing helpful, informative Web content.

Content is the key to fostering trust with Web visitors, including leads and customers. But even though content adds the most value to the user experience, no one plank of SEO stands alone.

Many of the top mistakes in SEO come from avoiding, ignoring, or simply not knowing about one of its three core elements. Sadly, just one big mistake can cost a site its search rankings.

Always be on the lookout for these top five SEO mistakes:

1) Forgetting to Do Your On-Page SEO

Unless you start with good on-page SEO, your off-page SEO will fall flat.

On-site SEO has many different components, and it’s easy to overlook them unless you start with a strong plan in mind. Keyword research, page titles, and meta tags all need to be in order. Target keywords should be selected on a per-page basis and used consistently throughout the site.

5 Common SEO Mistakes to Avoid At All Costs2) Not Having a Linkbuilding Plan in Place …

Backlinks are the most powerful element of your off-site SEO strategy. You should establish a plan to seek out new links from established, authoritative sites within your niche on a monthly basis. If you don’t, your rankings are sure to slip as your existing link portfolio erodes over time.

3) … Or Having a Really Bad One in Place

Quality is a factor when it comes to links, and some are so bad they can get your site penalized. Specifically, you should never buy backlinks from any source. If you notice suspicious links in your Web analytics, you can eliminate them by using Google Link Disavow.

4) Neglecting to Post Quality Web Content

Web content will attract organic traffic to your site, naturally boosting your SEO clout. With more content, you’ll exert influence over more keywords, and appear in more searches even for queries where you are not ranked #1. Plus, content will drive your site’s conversion goals.

5) Not Verifying Your Performance

Unless you have Web analytics software in place, you are only guessing about the ROI of your SEO efforts. Google Analytics is one free option that will help you track the sources of traffic, see which search keywords win visitors, and highlight your most popular Web content.

SEO results take time, but they are worth it. Keep these essentials in mind and you can guide your site to the search success it deserves.