Common SEO Mistakes
There are many common SEO mistakes that businesses make when it comes to search engine optimisation. Here in this article we will look at the BIGGEST SEO mistakes that you could make. Making these mistakes will cost you lots of lost money and time in your quest to be at the top of the search engine rankings.
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Common SEO Mistake Number 1
Is not having a clear goal for your SEO campaign. Lots of businesses do not fully realise the power of SEO to increase their bottom line profit. So they either ignore it or do not give it the attention it deserves.
If this is you then pay attention to this article because it will either save you a ton of money or make you a ton of money. Of course if you have no real interest in boosting your bottom line profit. Then click away now.
Search engine optimization will boost the online visibility of your business, which in turn will increase the visitors to your website. However, this should not be your end goal.
Sadly, very many SEO agencies push this as the end goal of search engine optimisation. It isn’t. We at WSEOY think that if this is your end goal you might as well keep any money you spend on this in your pocket or direct it elsewhere.
The reason I say this is very, very simple. A recent study found that around 95% of website visitors, click away from the site without any engagement whatsoever.
According to studies, the typical conversion rate of large e-business sites is about 5%. For less important sites and lesser known businesses, this figure is frequently much, much lower. This means that for every 100 website visitors to your website, a lot less than five will convert into buyers.
Traditional websites are failing.
Yet because of habit and ignorance businesses are spending a fortune sending visitors to websites that don’t work.
Is that you?
Today you need to send your visitors to what is known as a website funnel.
And here is why.
Businesses who handle their website visitors in the right way see a 450% increase in highly qualified prospects. And, these businesses that use a website funnel, see fifty per cent more sales at a thirty three per cent lower cost.
Would you like to see this happening on your website?
The first big SEO mistake you could make is to be focused only on website visitors. The focus of any SEO campaign needs to be on new business gained. This is your true ROI.
More information on website funnels is here.
Let’s look at the other two SEO mistakes to avoid.
SEO Avoidable Mistake Number 2
SEO is a fast-shifting business and what worked yesterday may not work as good today. It is very important to choose the right people to guide you on your SEO journey.
For example this is the advice given by one of the biggest SEO agencies. “The goal of search engine optimization is to increase the organic traffic to your website to improve your business success.”
In the light of SEO mistake number one.
Would you say this is good advice, bad advice or just misguided?
There is no doubt, that we are in a time when the Internet is an indispensable tool of communication. Internet advertising is worth more than $400 billion a year, and responsible for the huge profit of Google.
And it is a fact that the global Covid 19 pandemic has only accelerated the importance of internet visibility for businesses. This has in turn lead to an upsurge in businesses beginning to look at SEO more seriously.
Perhaps this is why you are reading this article.
This increased interest has attracted more and more SEO companies to start or be even more active.
Choose the right people
Mistake number two is that you could easily choose the wrong people to advise you on your best SEO tactics for present day circumstances.
It is important to choose the right people if you want a done for you solution or if you prefer do it yourself SEO. Because getting things wrong here will result in one of three outcomes.
1. You’ll waste money and time and see no tangible results.
2. You’ll spend time and money and see very little results.
3. All your effort and resources will result in your website being penalised by Google and demoted in the search engine rankings.
I wouldn’t have thought you would want any of these … would you?
Effective SEO is completely reliant on pleasing the major search engines, especially Google. Because Google is used for almost 80% of desktop searches and almost 90% of mobile searches. It services over 2 trillion searches a year.
Any alterations to Google’s search algorithm, changes the delivered top search results. So it is important that the advice you receive is in line with what google wants … Today!
Every year, Google makes more than three thousand six hundred changes to its algorithms, they are unpredictable. But need to be evaluated as to how they affect any SEO campaign.
SEO agencies are classified as white hat, black hat and grey hat. The black hat needs to be avoided at all costs as this almost always results in short term gain and devastating long term loss.
These are the first two mistakes in SEO. Now let’s look at the third.
Googles Market Share Last 10 Years - see below.
Deadly SEO Mistake Number 3
The third Search Engine Optimisation mistake is to quit too early.
SEO takes time!
Many Search Engine Optimisation practitioners generally say that you need to be thinking in terms of 12 to 26 weeks before seeing significant results. And this is generally accurate.
However, every campaign is different as it depends on so many variables.
This question is one of the most challenging queries. Because, while each individual prospective client reasonably wants a specific time frame. It is impossible to be too specific because of items involved.
Time taken to see results
The time taken to see results depends on …
1. The keyword phrases chosen.
2. The competition for that keyword phrase.
3. The period between the Google robot searches.
Working out how long an SEO campaign will take involves first devising a personal SEO plan, agreeing this with you and then giving an estimate as to how fast you will see real results.
If you’re offering an obscure service such as ‘under water basket weaving’ or offering an obscure product such as ‘left handed cups for the visually impaired’. Your time frame will be very short.
This will also be the case for your business name as they are often by nature very unique.
However, if you are offering services and products that are very generic and you will be up against strong competition. This will take longer.
For example, an electrician seeking business in a small local town will face less competition than a solicitor seeking to get noticed in a large metropolitan area.
In a recent analysis it was found that less than 6% of all new website pages got to the top of Google’s search results within a year.
Some did because the followed good SEO advice, many ranked in the first 3 positions and in the top ten.
I’m afraid the answer to how long does SEO take to work?
Is … how long is a piece of string.
Because of this uncertain time frame and unscrupulous SEO companies advertising ridiculously short periods for SEO campaigns.
There are those businesses that give up just before they would see a great breakthrough.
Don’t be one of them.
Because this would then be a complete waste of your money and time. You would be better off not starting in the first place.
Hear is a story
In the bible there is a story or parable and it goes like this.
"Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, 'This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.'
"Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won't he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.
— Luke 14:25-33, NIV
So, when you decide to conduct an SEO campaign, be realist, accept the cost and the time frame, stick with the program and you will end up with bigger profit as you defeat your competitors.
These are the 3 BIGGEST mistakes in SEO that businesses make all the time. There are others as you will see throughout this website and the resources mentioned. But by avoiding the BIG 3 you will be on your way to true SEO success.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the common SEO mistakes?
Not having a successful SEO strategy.
Having the wrong content on your webpage.
Having a poorly optimised website.
Not having a proper endorsement strategy.
What should be avoided in SEO?
Having duplicated pages and content.
Placing too many adverts on your pages.
Having hidden text or hyperlinks on your pages.
What are the top three SEO strategies?
The top three strategies for the best SEO results are:-
Effective keyword phrase research.
Website optimisation.
Back linking SEO.
What is the best SEO score?
There isn’t a best SEO score as the search engine ranking is determined by evaluating multiple factors. These then are used to give a webpage it’s place in the search engine rankings.
The SEO Battle
It can be a battle to sustain the effectiveness of any website in the always changing realm of Search Engine Optimisation. However armed with the knowledge you will gain from this site. You can give yourself a significant edge of maximising your search engine position for relevant keyword phrases.
SEM Rush analysed over 250,000 websites in a wide range of subjects, including health, travel, sports and science, to uncover the most common SEO mistakes.
They looked at 310,161,067 webpages, 28,561,137,301 links and 6,910,489,415 images.
This is a few of the mistakes they found:-
HTTP and HTTPS status issues
Under-optimised meta tags
Duplicate content
Bad internal and external link optimisation
Things difficult for robot crawlers
Not optimised for mobile searches
Poor site speed and performance
Pages not crawled
There are many facets that can block your web-site from being placed high in the search engine rankings. As Google makes its decision about how highly to rank your pages based on how near you are to their ideal.
Good SEO done for you or done on a do it yourself basis will pre-empt major problems and steer you clear of any possible harm to your website and its search engine performance.
One of the items that stood out in the SEM Rush data was the quick win when increasing the webpage speed. It clearly showed that the time it takes for a webpage to be fully downloaded in a browser. Needs to be as short as possible, because the download speed directly affects the webpage rankings.
This is why it is wise to invest in a state of the art website that is blisteringly fast. You can get one for free here.
Committing any SEO mistake can keep your website back from being listed at the top of the search engine results.
This is why it is very important that you take the time to look at your SEO strategy and starting with your very own SEO plan.
Because when you get it right you will be rewarded with the best search engine visibility that will have a positive impact on your bottom line profit.
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