Search engine optimization is becoming very important when it comes to optimizing your website to drive traffic and increase profits. Optimizing your website can be a difficult and slow process, but it can lead to great things for your business if you know how to do it correctly. We have talked a lot in class about the ‘best practices’ for search engine optimization. Things like targeting the search intent of your customers, using keywords in header and title tags and throughout your website, using alt text underneath your images, building internal links, and many more are all great ways to optimize your website and drive traffic to your site.
Search engine optimization can come with many mistakes that could do the opposite of what you intend to do. I am going to describe 6 common SEO mistakes and how to avoid them. The first mistake is forgetting that the faster your site is, the higher that Google will rank it using their algorithm. Your site needs to load fast enough to keep up in search results, which can be done by changing image sizes and having fewer plugins installed (if your site is through WordPress). The second mistake is using the wrong keywords on your pages. The longer and more specific your keywords are, the better chance they have of ranking on Google. The third mistake is failing to invite people to your site. Optimizing your meta descriptions with a clear and precise description of what they are going to find on your site will help drive traffic.
The fourth mistake is not writing attractive content. Boring content won’t get picked up by Google, so it’s best to write great content that can help your page rank higher. The fifth mistake is failing to keep people on your site. You may get them there through your title tags or page descriptions but keeping them there takes engaging content and content that is specific to what your target customers are looking for. The sixth mistake is not taking mobile seriously. Almost everyone has a phone these days, so making your site look attractive on a mobile device can dramatically improve page ranking.
One Response
Hi! Great point that load times can cause users to leave their site. I’ve noticed that I myself am not very patient and will leave a site and try another link if a page takes more than a minute to load. I appreciate your suggestions for how to reduce load time on a site.