SEO mistakes you must avoid

There is a lot of information about the SEO tips you should follow to improve your rankings and being found by search engines. You need content that appeals to these engines and your audience, which can be a challenging task to balance.

However, even if you are doing many things right, you may not rank highly on search engines. This is all down to mistakes you could be making alongside the positive steps you are making with your website. Sometimes in life we are only as strong as our flaws allow us to be and you will have heard the story about how a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

Mistakes will drag your website down

These are relevant points for your website when it comes to SEO. No matter how great your content is, and it probably is great, if you are making major mistakes, search engines will look at you and mark you down. You will then be left tearing your hair out how functional but hardly inspiring websites are ranking higher than you.

• If this is the case, it is likely that these sites are providing:
• Search engines with what they want
• Their audience with they want
• And having no errors or SEO mistakes on their site

Okay, don’t get mad, get even. Or even better, get better! Here are some of the most common SEO mistakes you must avoid ensuring search engines approve of what you have to offer.

Is your site optimised?

This is a very important feature and if you think your content is great, but you are ranking nowhere, this could be the issue. Search engines review your site and you want to make it as easy as possible for these sites to know what you offer and how you can be of assistance to people. Things to remember when optimising your site includes:

• Creating relevant page titles
• Using relevant data tags
• Use carefully selected keyword phrases in context
• Offer XML and HTML sitemaps

Do you network or connect to get links to your site?

Although there is debate about the importance of backlinks with respect to SEO, it is fair to say that they still have a role to play. This means you need links directing to your site and if you believe these links will come to you with good fortune or because people will automatically acknowledge your brilliance, good luck to you.

In order to be seen, trusted and linked, you will need to make contact with people, speak to them and show your value. This is your starting point in being a name or site that people approve of and trust, and this will help you to get links to your site.

With this in mind, you need to be sociable and make friends, so don’t just rely on your great content to win new fans.

Do you link internally?

One important feature that needs to be present on your site is internal links. You need to make sure that you are directing people around your website and ensuring that they find other items that are relevant for them. You will need to link to relevant and useful content but if you do, you should find that search engines look upon your site more favourably.

Is your content too short?

While there is an argument that your content should be as long as it needs to be, you want to breach the 400-word mark to make Google and other search engines take notice. This should be your starting point and if you can stay relevant while providing a lot more content, there is a great deal to be said for writing longer content.

You shouldn’t provide content for the sake of it, your content needs to be of value, but if you can, offer more. Also, if you are offering more content, make sure you break it up. Using images, video content, headings and other ways to give your audience a rest will help to ensure you provide great content without overwhelming your audience.

Do you have broken links?

Broken links are frustrating for your reader and they create a bad impression for search engines. Broken links are a big mistake for any firm and if you have broken links, you will be marked down. Thankfully there are tools which will review your links, so use one of these and then act when you need to.

In an ideal world, we would focus on the positives and provide you with ideas that allow you to press forward with your web presence. This is far from an ideal world though, and you need to make sure you minimise your mistakes. If you want to rank highly on search engines, minimise your mistakes and feel the benefits.