SEO can be a long and tedious venture for a website. Many factors go into SEO both on-page and off-page. All too often, mistakes can be made in the process.
Mistake #1 : Targeting the wrong keywords.
I have worked for many companies that have set their target keyword expectations way too high. This is one of the biggest mistakes I frequently encounter. People tend to optimize for terms that are too generic. If you are a relatively small business that wants to rank for the word Acne, you may be aiming too high. You should try to be more specific, especially if you are a local business. For example, it’s better to add the area in which your company is located to the keyword.
Try to optimize for longer and more specific the keywords as this may increase your chances of ranking for this keyword. You may get less traffic but it will be more targeted traffic.
Mistake #2: Not Having Good Content.
I am sure you have heard that phrase over and over again. CONTENT IS KING. Well it is. One major thing to keep in mind when writing is content. Google is not your audience. Your potential customers and clients are. You need to write content for them not Google. Make sure the content is clear, original and targets 300 words.
Mistake #3: Make sure your call to action is clear.
Once people get to your site what are they supposed to do? Fill out an application? Call a phone number? What is the goal.? Many pages that I have worked on never even had a phone number on the page. Some did not even have a contact name or email address on the webpage. How is the consumer to know what they have to do if you are not making it clear for them? Make sure that every page has one call to action so that it is clear what the potential client has to do and where they have to go. Using things like bright colors, bold text or larger font to use for the call to action can help.
Mistake #4: Not optimizing for site speed.
Google looks for site speed, bottom line. If your website loads faster than some of the competition then you have an advantage. Many people forget this when designing a website.
Mistake #5: URL Structure.
One of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to optimizing a website is URL structure. I have seen many websites have poor URL structure and kills their website. Once this is fixed…BAM… it is magic and the site starts to receive traffic. So by making sure the URL structure is correct you can avoid duplicate content issues and many other issues that can lead your website from getting any traffic.
