If you’re seeking better search results ranking, failing to focus on these six areas could be keeping the visibility of your website in the shadows. We’ve listed six SEO mistakes to avoid and provided recommendations on how to solve.

SEO Mistake: A slow website 

Have you ever checked the speed of your website?

There’s a simple tool that will uncover the secrets of your website page load speed. 

The time it takes to show any of your website pages is critical in keeping the visitor’s first phase of attention. If it takes 3-4 or more seconds to show fully, your visitor will most likely assume there is something wrong with your site and leave.

The Google Page Speed Insights tool will tell you the time it takes to load your site home page and the reasons for the delay. You can share this with your web developer, who can get started on improvements to your webpage speed.

SEO Mistake: Failing to optimize for the best keywords

The simplest way to describe this is to focus on “long-tail keywords.” As odd as this sounds, a long-tail keyword is simply a descriptive phrase that uniquely relates to your business.

 Here’s an example: Let’s say you have a website focused on pet food and wellness. A generic keyword might be pet food or dog food. A specific and more descriptive long-tail keyword that could be more effective might be “dog food for joint health.”

Writing content based on long-tail keywords can help to cut through the noise in your industry and go beyond generics. This can reduce your competition and increase the potential for higher rankings.

SEO Mistake: Forgetting about page titles and the meta description

The title of your page is critical, just as it is valid for a book. It’s one thing that may have the best chance of capturing the reader’s attention. In this case, we’re also attempting to catch Google’s attention. (there are many other factors in Google’s ranking)

The meta description summarizes the page content in a few hundred characters. This description appears on the search results page, along with the page title. 

You’ll find the page title and meta description inside your webpage editor. A compelling page title and meta description are critical to address before publishing the final version of your page(s).

SEO Mistake: Failing to create enough genuinely great content?

Writing great content for your website is both an art and a science. It’s different from writing a book or a journal article. 

High-quality web content starts with understanding search intent. What would the web searcher be looking for? What do they intend to find? Often, they query the web with questions like “What is the best …… for ….” or “How do I ……”. Fill in the blanks with elements based on your website’s mission and purpose; that will be the basis for fulfilling searchers’ intent.

Another essential part of great content is organizing the structure of your page so it’s readable and has a logical flow. By readable, it means that it’s ‘easy on the eyes,’ which means it’s easy for the eye to flow down the page. 

Avoid long sections of text. Insert more whitespace and images throughout the body. Highlight sections with bolded text and add headings. 

Readable structure and quality are essential ranking factors for Google and your reader. Yoast has an excellent guide to high-quality SEO copywriting.

SEO Mistake: Losing people who visit your site

Do you know how many people visit your site and leave immediately?

Or how long were there? Or how many pages did they see, and how much time was spent there?

These are some of the essential web metrics every site owner should know. Why? They indicate the types of interest searchers have based on the content they visit (and how often). 

The ‘ bounce rate ‘ is another valuable performance indicator in your Google Search Console. It tells you who visited and left within a short period and didn’t take any other action (click or page view).

Multiple pages discuss acceptable bounce rates, and we won’t go there.

Bounce rates will vary based on your site’s content and the type (e-commerce, blog, etc.) If you want to understand more, this article on good and bad bounce rates from Semrush can help. 

You aim to keep more people on your site. You do this through helpful content offering high value to the reader.

Additionally, your content should offer a conversion factor inside the content, commonly described as a CTA or call to action.

Examples include a resource guide, a checklist, a subscription, or a free trial.

SEO Mistake: Failing to optimize your site for mobile phones and tablets

Mobile use has skyrocketed in the last ten years, with more than half the planet using a mobile phone or tablet. Google considers this a top priority.

Your ranking and search visibility will suffer if your site doesn’t display content well on mobile devices.

To see how this works quickly, visit your site using your phone and tablet. Have others in your organization do the same. Are the menus readable? Are the font sizes on the pages legible or too small?

If you have visible issues, your web developer can make changes so your site’s visitor experience will adapt to the device type used to view your pages.

Need Help Increasing Your Organization’s Online Presence?

For more assistance with your SEO, email, or digital marketing campaigns, contact our team for a free consultation. 

We are happy to provide recommendations to improve your online business’s performance in our first free call.