SEO mistakes are very common and you need to know to avoid them. Search engine optimization (SEO) is all about optimizing your website and its content so that you can rank well in the Search engine. By optimizing your site and content, you can represent it well. Basically, there are three areas where we need to work from starting day one. These are:
- On-Page SEO
- Off-Page SEO
- Technical SEO
Each one is very important to rank better in search engines. Everyone wants to rank on the first page of search engines. In my opinion, SEO is all about improving user experience and satisfaction.
In this article, I am discussing the 11 most common SEO mistakes by beginners. If you want to know about how to improve SEO ranking then you can read this article also:
How to Improve SEO Ranking – 18 Important Tips to Optimize
1- Complicated and Lengthy Domain Name
Everyone wants to have a unique and different name for their site. But sometimes, we choose a very complicated and lengthy domain name, which may not be good for the user experience. Most expert bloggers will suggest you keep your Post’s URL short, simple, and relevant.
But how is it possible if your domain name itself is very complicated and long? And it may also be tough for your users to remember your domain name. Choosing a complicated domain name might look like one of the very small SEO mistakes but it may not suits you.
How to Choose the Best Domain Name for Your Website? 8 Tips
2- Using Poor Hosting
This is one of the most common SEO mistakes by some beginners. In starting phase of blogging, sometimes few bloggers use poor hosting which impacts them a long way. It may be due to a lack of knowledge, guidance, or any money problem.
But I would suggest, kindly using good hosting. The speed of your site and security matter a lot to your hosting company. Without good speed, it is very very tough to rank well on search engines.
Bluehost, SiteGround, and Kinsta are the name of some good hosting companies. Personally, I am using Bluehost and SiteGround for a few of my sites.
Hosting: 11 Tips to Select the Best WordPress Hosting Plan
3- No Focus on Content
Whether I talk about a few years ago or about today, Content is king. If your content is not good, it is not worth it at all. If your main focus is on designing your site and not on content. I would suggest you, do the reverse of it.
Designing and structure are important but you have to keep your main focus on your content.
If someone is writing low-quality content, maybe, by using some tricks, get some success for a short period of time. But for the long term, have to work on your content well.
You have to write your best masterpiece for your target audience. Search engines prefer content that is relevant and of good quality.
How to Write an Awesome Blog Post? 7 Tips for Beginners
4- Copy Content
Using copied content is one of the biggest SEO mistakes by beginners (some new bloggers). If you are one of those who are using copied content, I would recommend, you should avoid it and start writing your original content.
Using copied content may be harmful in many ways:
- It is not good from an SEO point of view. Google and other search engines will never prefer copied content.
- You can be sued for copying others’ content.
- You will not have your own writing identity.
If you are a blogger, I would recommend, you always prefer to write original content. It is beneficial for you and your brand.
5- No Social Activity
Social sharing and social activity for your blogging career are very important and you should utilize them. There are many platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.
You can utilize these social platforms, in smart ways to promote your blog and you can also generate traffic on your blog in some ways.
Google also understands the social signals and it may impact your SEO ranking if you are using social media well.
6- Using Copyrighted Materials
This is the most common mistake which usually some new bloggers do it knowingly or unknowingly. Using other’s copyrighted material like Images, videos, etc is not a good practice. And it may not help you to rank in search engines.
Even you might be sued by the owner for using copyrighted materials on your blog or site. Google prefers content that is unique and original.
You can use Canva or any other good site to create images, Infographics, etc.
7- Heavy Images
You should avoid using heavy images on your site. Normally, you should try to use light images as much as possible. Page loading speed matters a lot in SEO ranking and if you use heavy images on your site, it may take more time to load.
You should optimize all your images and should be in the right format. There are many plugins, you can download any good and secure plugin suitable for you to optimize your images.
8- Missing Alternative Text
Alternative text (Alt text)of your image is a very important factor. It is very important that you have mentioned the Alt text of all the images. If you have forgotten or have not mentioned it unknowingly, you should mention it.
This is also one of the most common SEO mistakes by beginners. You should not avoid Alt text. Whenever you upload any image mention the Alt text of the image.
9- The site is Not Mobile Friendly
If your site is not mobile-friendly, then it may be a big drawback for you. I guess you are aware that there is a huge population who are using mobiles. In this scenario, your site must be mobile-friendly.
This is a very important SEO point that your site is Optimized for mobile and it is mobile friendly.
10- Keyword Stuffing
Keyword stuffing is one of the most common SEO mistakes by beginners. Your ultimate goal should not be to get the Rank in the Google search engine. However, your goal should be user satisfaction.
You should write your post in a natural way. Keyword stuffing may hamper your ranking in search engines. Your post may also look boring.
11- No Consistency
Blogging is not something you write and publish your blog post sudden basis. I mean here there should be consistency in your post. You should publish your content on regular basis.
Whenever you publish content on regular basis, you may notice an improvement in ranking. It may be slow or fast, will depend on your site and content quality. If you stop publishing content for a few days or a month, you may notice your ranking is dropping.
Publishing good content on regular basis is a good sign. If your content is good and user like it then users may come back again to your site with the expectation of some new post.
If they do not find any new content, might be they get disappointed.
I am giving my example, Few months ago, I used to visit two sites related to the same field. But after some time I am visiting only one site because I get new posts on regular basis on this site.
And I visit the second site once in a while. Why? Because this site doesn’t publish content on regular basis.
Revisit your user on your site, directly or indirectly it also impacts the ranking of your site.
Conclusion
The same SEO strategy doesn’t work every time for every site. Every site should have its own SEO strategy. You should observe your site ranking on a time-to-time basis and you should note down which strategies and actions are better for your site.
You can’t understand Google and its algorithms completely. So, it better understands your site and which is working for your site.
Focus on Good content, Consistency, and Search engine optimization. Monitor your site on regular basis and work on it for the betterment of your ranking and better user experience.
