What people get wrong with SEO

The goal of search engine optimization (SEO) is to generate organic traffic. A user types in keywords that are related to your site, and they are directed to a landing page, a product page or another location on that site. This is “free” traffic in the sense that you didn’t have to run any advertisements or pay to be at the top of the search results. Your website is simply a good match and the search engine – likely Google – has identified that it may be beneficial to the user. You still have to make the sale and create conversions, but SEO is the vehicle that you use to start this process and get more eyes on your website.

Unfortunately, people make many different mistakes with SEO. The ramifications can be serious. You may have a low overall ranking, a high bounce rate or a low conversion rate. Let’s take a look at some mistakes that you want to avoid.

Keyword errors

First and foremost, there are many mistakes you can make with your keywords. For one thing, if you just choose words that rank highly or that see numerous daily searches, but that don’t really relate to your products or your business, you’re going to get the wrong traffic. Users won’t be interested and they will quickly leave your site, leading to the high bounce rate.

Another error is simply spamming keywords on your site. This tells the search engine that you are trying to manipulate the results. Keywords are certainly a necessary part of the process that guide users to your site, but using too many of them can actually negatively affect your ranking.

Low quality on-site content

Another important thing to keep in mind is that Google wants to make sure the user benefits in some way from your site. It answers their questions, gives them important information or shows them the products and services they’re looking for. If you have low-quality content that doesn’t accomplish these goals, you’re going to rank lower, even when you’re using all of the right keywords. It’s important to use high-quality content on a consistent basis to build up your search ranking.

Unoriginal content

Finally, you never want to use duplicate content that you got from another site, even if it’s a government organization or an informational website and not a direct competitor. This is why you have to be very careful with things like AI-generated content, which may just be pulled from a different website, leading to allegations of plagiarism.

It can help to use links to authoritative sites that provide a benefit to the reader. But you still need to write your own content with your own keywords in order for it to be effective.

Here at Content Customs, we can help you avoid these mistakes and maximize the effectiveness of your SEO efforts. Call today to learn more.