Search engine optimization or SEO is a huge part of any online strategy. However, if you are looking for a company to partner with, or thinking about trying SEO on your own, there a few things you should always be on the lookout for. Here are the top common SEO mistakes you should avoid at all costs!
Keyword Stuffing
Back in the day when SEO was just starting to become a thing, many content writers thought that the best tactic would be stuffing as many keywords as possible. In reality, today’s online content should be much more subtle when it comes to keywords, choosing one or two phrases to incorporate into content, but also writing content that is generally good, is much preferred over writing content that is heavy on the keywords.
Misleading Keywords
Imagine how irritated you would be if you Googled something like “Best pizza restaurant in New York City,” but then the results you were getting were for things like “Best ramen in Chicago.” That is what using misleading keywords amounts to.
It’s putting keywords on your page that do not at all relate to your topic or business. This common SEO mistake should be avoided at all costs because it will only serve to annoy searchers and leave a bad impression.
Link Spamming
We’ve all seen it before when you go on a blog or a message board, and someone has commented on the content with a link to their own content. This is definitely a practice you should avoid since it not only looks desperate, but it can also result in repercussions from Google.
Link spamming could also include adding irrelevant links to your blog posts. For instance, let’s say you’re writing a blog post about how to sell a home during the holidays, and you include links to pages that have nothing to do with the topic and could be viewed as being spammy.
Page Swapping
When the content that shows up on the search engine results page (SERP) is different than the content that appears on the actual page, this is known as page swapping. It’s a deceptive tactic that goes against all of today’s SEO best practices. It’s in a similar vein to using misleading keywords and it will detract clients from viewing your page and will have a massive negative impact on the trustworthiness of your site. By keeping your web page up to date, you can avoid making this mistake.
Copy Content
Plagiarism is never ok. Especially when it comes to online content. Copied content will always raise red flags with search engines and will certainly result in your site being penalized. The best way to avoid this is never to copy and paste or if you do use someone else’s quote on your site, make sure the content is properly attributed and linked. However, do not use large chunks of copied content, only small, short quotes that are relevant to the point you are already trying to make.
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