Companies that are operating online using websites, including e-commerce sites, are relying on search engine optimization (SEO) for the success of their businesses. SEO is a powerful and proven Internet marketing strategy that drives quality traffic to your website, which could convert to sales.
Optimizing your website is not that an easy task. With the influx of content that is generated and published online each second, the competition is stiff. One solution for this is applying the right optimization techniques to your website and contents. With this, your website could land in the first page of the Google search or any search engine.
However, some businesses have gone the wrong way in doing SEO, resulting in less traffic and low conversion rates. To give you ideas on how to achieve effective search engine optimization, we have listed the following common SEO mistakes that you should avoid:
1. Providing irrelevant content
A website that produces relevant content has a high chance of appearing in the first page on any given search on Google. With this, a site must come up with unique and relevant content on what it is promoting online.
As much as possible, do not produce cheap and unhelpful content because search engines have a way of filtering this. You must focus on topics that your targeted audience wants to read and are valuable to them.
2. Using the wrong keywords
Keywords are significant in optimizing your content. Unfortunately, a lot of websites use the wrong keywords. Aside from mastering your products and services, you also need to know and understand the keywords that your potential customers and clients use in their search on Google in order for them to find your business.
To get the right keywords, you must do a research first using tools such as Google Adwords Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Moz Keyword Explorer, and Google Trends. Use the same keywords in your web content to lead searchers to your website.
3. Not including relevant internal links
Internal links lead your website visitors to call-to-action pages and other related pages on your website. One mistake in optimization is that some fail to add related links.
Help your visitors to get the most out of your website. Do this by adding internal links to content that is related or supplemental to the current page they’re in. You’re not just giving value to them, but you’re also providing exposure to the other pages of your website. This is one good way of increasing traffic on your site, resulting in more potential clients.
4. Not optimizing images and videos
Unoptimized images and videos can slow down the loading time of your website. You have to optimize your pictures and videos by formatting them as .jpg files and vector images as .png files. You have to include the keywords as well to the alt text of your pictures.
Videos must be optimized for SEO, too. Host your video files in one folder and produce a video sitemap that could index your videos. Use also appropriate keywords for its meta descriptions. Do not forget to provide a call-to-action message.
5. Ignoring mobile
About 55% of online shopping time was done using a phone in 2013. The percentage is definitely higher at this time. One common SEO mistake is not making a website mobile friendly. Your site and content must be formatted and responsive for mobile use. As many are using their smartphones to open websites, mobile optimization will help you gain satisfied visitors and potential clients.
Proper and appropriate SEO is a great way to make your website responsive and highly visible on search engines. If you want your website to rank high on search engines and stand out from the rest of the competition, you need to know how to optimize your website. This includes avoiding the common SEO mistakes above to drive quantity and quality traffic to your site.
