SEO Mistakes to Avoid in 2021

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Having an optimized website is imperative to your success in reaching your marketing and sales goals. While search engine algorithms can change anytime, it is crucial to keep your website updated. However, many business owners and marketers struggle to get their websites to appear on the first page of search engine results.

Search engine optimization requires a lot of dedication, time, and patience. While Google’s algorithms can change anytime, it is necessary to optimize a business’s website and consistently update it.

Let’s stay on top and cover some of the SEO mistakes to avoid in 2021:

SEO MISTAKE 1: CUTTING BACK ON YOUR WEBSITE BUDGET

As mentioned above, algorithms can change anytime. But what has to be kept consistent is a website that is fully optimized for searches. While you may know somebody who can quickly and cheaply build your website, you must ensure all the technical SEO aspects are in place, or else your site may be doomed. Metadata, web content, navigation, and page names are critical in ranking and inviting traffic to your website so make sure you have the budget set aside for website maintenance and upkeep.

SEO MISTAKE 2: TREATING OPTIMIZATION AS A ONE-OFF TASK

More often than not, small businesses treat SEO as a one-time thing, thinking that a week’s worth of technical optimizations and running a single site audit is all it takes to yield their websites never-ending good rankings.

Website owners should consistently audit their websites and expand to accommodate more content relevant to their products and services while also leveraging customer feedback. This should be seen as an ongoing necessity.

SEO MISTAKE 3: NOT RUNNING WEBSITE AUDITS

Industry publications suggest running mini technical audits every month and an in-depth technical audit quarterly or semi-quarterly.

A site audit shows your website’s performance from a search engine and the users’ view. It looks at search engine optimization, loading speed (adaptivity in computer and mobile), and content quality. In a nutshell, your audit shows how user-friendly (and Google-friendly!) your website is. An audit reveals ways you can improve your website. There are many tools available to automate these audits but it’s important to have someone assigned who can read the audit and make adjustments needed.

SEO MISTAKE 4: NOT CLAIMING YOUR GOOGLE MY BUSINESS LISTING

With Google placing importance on “near me” queries, claiming and managing your Google My Business listing is one opportunity to get noticed by potential clients in your area. However, this is also a crucial and easy step for national organizations to take as well.

A business profile on Google will help your business show up when searching for products like yours on Google Search and Google Maps.

SEO MISTAKE 5: NOT UTILIZING PAGE TITLES AND META DESCRIPTIONS

Page titles and meta descriptions are short HTML codes found on every web page, acting as a summary that users can use to decide whether the page listed in their search result contains relevant information, like reading a book’s back-cover blurb to see whether it is an interesting read.

And this is why you shouldn’t skimp when building your website! While adding meta descriptions and page titles are relatively straightforward, these are often overlooked when a small business owner is just starting with their website.

SEO MISTAKE 6: HYPER-FOCUSING ON ON-SITE SEO

SEO is not exclusively on-site (surprise, surprise!). There are off-site strategies you should also implement to improve search engine and user perception. Some off-site SEO strategies include getting links from reputable and trustworthy websites, shares of your website content, mentions of your business or brand – from sources outside of your website. It would help if you also allocated time to produce content that has links pointing to your website. Having healthy social media channels and engagement can be a big driver in producing off-site SEO results.

SEO MISTAKE 7: NOT USING ALT TEXTS

We often see images in web pages where texts are placed on the image. While that’s super #aesthetic, don’t forget to use the text where it matters – as alt texts.

Placing alt text on your images allows search engines to crawl and rank your website. It is a short HTML attribute of about 125 characters that describes your images briefly.

SEO MISTAKE 8: NOT ADDING CONTENT OFTEN ENOUGH

Sure, your website is now well-built, but are you providing any new and real value to your visitors? Posting regular blog articles on your website, covering highly relevant topics to your business, will help your website rank higher and potentially have more conversions.

SEO MISTAKE 9: OVERUSING KEYWORDS

With the pressure of adding content to rank comes the tendency to write content for the sake of optimization. Website owners often cram keywords into web pages to the point of seeming like they are trying too hard. Search engines and customers now recognize this.

Your focus should be to address your readers’ needs by crafting content as thoughtfully and as relevant as possible.

SEO MISTAKE 10: OVERLOOKING YOUR CUSTOMERS’ PAIN POINTS

Ever noticed the “People Also Ask” or “Related Searches” when searching something on Google? Ask yourself: What types of questions would a potential client or customer ask? And what answers do they need before they feel comfortable procuring my services or buying my products?

Adding special attention to this can improve search engine optimization and overall user experience, which is most conducive to your business’ success.

SEO is not rocket science (more like a marathon)! Considering the above tips will help you obtain effective SEO results. Just focus on what matters and avoid investing time into strategies that won’t yield results. Oh, and of course, if you need help executing any of the above strategies, send me a note and we can discuss further.