SEO novices often make mistakes because they are still not conversant with fundamental SEO practices or maybe because they are not able to properly understand them. SEO is a dynamic landscape. In this fast-changing scenario, what had worked a few months or years back would not work today. It is, therefore, of pivotal importance to stay abreast of the latest developments in the field. Without adequate link authority, Google would not attach too much value to your site.
If despite all your dedicated content marketing endeavors, you are unable to secure higher #SERP rankings, then you may be committing one or more of the following glaring #SEO mistakes. Click To TweetOf course, there are always professionals in the game, such as the Red Search SEO company in Sydney agency that can set up a strategy in a heartbeat, but if you prefer to handle it yourself, here are the mistakes to avoid at all costs:
Mistake: Focusing on Likes & Not Links
Your social media marketing stratagem is totally out of sync if you are failing to incorporate SEO goals and aspirations into it. Remember that if you wish to propel your business forward, your focus must not be on retweets, shares, plus-ones, and likes, instead pay attention to links. Your primary objective for all your social campaigns should be enticing influential and impressive bloggers to consider linking to your site.
Mistake: Placing Your Content All Wrong
Splendid content necessitates a home precisely where most links would be enticed to go to your main website. There must be links leading directly to your website and not via an intermediary site having plenty of links to some other people’s sites.
Hence a social media platform such as Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, or even Facebook seems to be not an ideal platform for your content since external links would be followed. Moreover, even a third-party website such as BuzzFeed or Huffington Post may not be ideal as you may assume, because you would need to comply with all their existing editorial guidelines and a host of competing links incorporated on their page.
It would be a massive win for you if you published a listicle on BuzzFeed. However, it would not be a major triumph from the perspective of SEO, as BuzzFeed would not be allowing any links to be dropped to your website.
Online marketers who are thinking of building their link authority, the most strategic place for hosting their link-worthy content would be on their website. You may hire reputed and trustworthy SEO services to help you achieve your marketing goals.
Mistake: Not Utilizing ‘Optional Excerpts’ for Minimizing Duplicate Content
As per https://searchengineland.com, in WordPress, we understand that the optional excerpt is found on specifically the ‘Write Post’ form and is where you could consider defining alternate copy for displaying everywhere apart from the permalink page. This would make the content of the post unique to that permalink page, mitigating the potential of losing your SERP rankings because of duplicate content since the post would be incorporated on several pages in its entirety, including archives-by-category pages and date pages.
Mistake: Not Targeting the Right Audience
Targeting the right audience could be a pretty overwhelming task, but your efforts could go haywire if your content marketing stratagem is targeted pin-pointedly to only your ideal customer. From the perspective of SEO, the most crucial audience should not be your customers, but the linkerati that implies the online influencers. We understand that the influencers have the maximum authority, as far as Google is concerned. You could leverage your campaign by targeting all those who could be linking back to your site from crucial, trustworthy, and authoritative sites. If you are generating content only for your customers, you would surely miss the bus.
However, relevance is undoubtedly a crucial factor. Suppose you get a link from a high-profile player in the game designing community, but you sell sportswear and yoga clothes. This link would not work for you. If you are targeting precisely the linkerati, you must focus on generating content that people are eager to link to.
Just by creating content that is useful, helpful, or even educational, you can’t win. You must necessarily create remarkable genuine content that is worth spreading.
Mistake: Being Task-Oriented Only
Many SEO practitioners seem to be activity-focused, and they are obsessed with the idea that simply because it is an SEO best practice, it must be an integral part of their SEO to-do list. Instead, you could have certain activities in your to-do list that are not given top priority. Meta descriptions would be fitting into that category. They would not impact your SEO rankings; therefore, they do not have to be prioritized along with title tags.
It is best to be outcome-oriented. You must focus on a goal and try to achieve it systematically. Once you have achieved an objective, move ahead, and create another new goal. Work with your team to achieve that goal instead of focusing your attention on the rest of the SEO to-do list. It is best to be goal-oriented.
Mistake: Not Seeking Assistance from a Power User
Power users are the secret weapon in a link builder’s arsenal. Power users are supposed to be bloggers, journalists, social media mavens, or top celebrities with a massive fan following on social networking sites, hence, massive reach. The boost in your business that power users could provide is truly game-changing. It is not necessary to maintain an army of power users. You simply could do with a single power user.
It could be challenging to recruit such a power user. However, when you do identify a power user, he could provide the first push that puts the snowball effect into motion that is required for going viral. You better be mentally prepared to shell out some money. You need to pay the power user in terms of favors or cash. Remember, nothing comes free in life. If you have no clue as to how to identify a power user, get in touch with your SEO or SMM consultant.
Conclusion
Everybody seems to be susceptible to mistakes in what they do. One of the most effective ways of rectifying such mistakes is to understand the SEO best practices. You must be flexible in your attitude and remember to step back once in a while for evaluating if you are putting in your best efforts for scaling your client’s business.