Back to Basics: Mistakes You May Be Making With Your SEO

Search Engine Optimization requires consistent work to help increase your organic rankings on Google, Bing and Yahoo. With the multiple tactics there are a few common mistakes you could be making if you’re doing your own search engine optimization.

Duplicate Titles or Descriptions – Titles and descriptions inform users, and search engines, about a specific page on your website. Title tags are 60 characters and are found across the top of your browser tab, as well as the first line on your organic search result. It is important that when creating titles that the main topic be at the beginning. The character limit of a description is longer, but still needs to be clear, concise and grab the attention of users as people will likely base which website they opt to select from for their search query based on your descriptions.

Avoiding Keyword Research Tools – This brainstorming session will give you an idea of what you should be focusing on for your website. Failure to spend time researching will likely result in your organic search results not performing as they should in relation to your direct competitors due to lack of effective keyword usage. A few of our favorite keyword research tools include Moz, Google AdWords and Google Analytics. For additional learning, check out our article on keyword research.

Not Optimizing Images and Links – Bots are unable to visually your image, but by using descriptive alt tags, you’re informing search engines what your image is and what it is about; the content surrounding the image also helps bots. A link’s title tag should inform what the page you’re linking to is about.

Keyword Stuffing – 15 years ago, adding keywords you wanted to rank for all of your website, links, images, etc., shot your organic ranking to the top of the results. Now, that falls under black hat SEO tactics and search engines can remove you from the results all together as a penalty. Your website’s content should be organic, relevant and unique to your business.

Non-Descriptive Links – Much like the image and link optimization, it is important for the link text to be descriptive of the page it is leading to. Avoid using terms such as “Click here” or “Learn more” and rather use the term you are referring to in relation to what you are linking to, i.e. “flower arrangements”.

By consistently adding relevant content, link building, evaluating and maintaining your website you could be on your way to an increase in your organic rankings in a legitimate way.