SEO is a complicated and rather demanding beast and in order to successfully tame it, there are a number of “no-nos” that you need to be aware of. In this article, we’re going to highlight some of them for you. Here’s what you need to look out for…
1. Not having an SSL certificate on your website
In short, an SSL certificate is designed to authenticate your identity and enable encrypted connections. Without one, your website will be deemed as unsecure.
Why is this an issue?
Not only will Google value your website significantly less, but you’ll lose a significant amount of potential traffic.
- Many users won’t be able to find your website, period.
- The rest will get a warning about it being insecure and will likely abandon it for one of your competitors.
2. Your website titles / descriptions / website content has the words “Welcome” in them
It might seem like a non-issue, but having the words “Welcome to our Home Page” or something to that effect is incredibly wasteful. Not only is it ‘eye-roll worthy’ copy, but you’re throwing away valuable real estate on words that add zero value.
Instead, include your focus keywords in your meta titles, descriptions, and intro to your website content. Make every word count and be authentic!
3. Stuffing keywords
As mentioned above, keyword placement is very important! But that doesn’t mean that you should get carried away and start cramming your keywords into your content in order to meet a certain ‘quota’.
Your content must read naturally. Include the keywords well, notify Google and your users of what each web page is about, and then write with purpose.
4. Plagiarised content
Your competitors may well have summed up the products or services that you offer perfectly, but that doesn’t give you the right to copy & paste their content – or simply reword it slightly.
Plagiarised content will invariably result in penalisation.
If you truly want to make an impact with your internet marketing efforts, be unique and write your own content.
5. Your website isn’t mobile optimised
If you have a relatively old website that hasn’t been updated in some time, then there’s a very good chance that it hasn’t been optimised accordingly for mobile use.
This is a game-changer.
Why? Because 55.4% of internet users shop on their mobile phones. As such, if your website doesn’t accommodate them, you are missing out on a tonne of prospective business.
Google rewards businesses who go out of their way to provide the best possible on-page experience for their users. Make sure your website is up to standard.
6. Doing it all by yourself
As a business owner, going it alone and attempting to do all of your SEO by yourself is ill-advised. This is one of the biggest mistakes that small business owners make. Why? Because they invariably bite off more than they can chew and burn themselves out – all the while failing to achieve sustainable results.
The fact is, SEO is an incredibly complicated digital marketing method that takes multiple specialists in a variety of fields to successfully manage. As such, you are far better off hiring an SEO agency in Melbourne with 100+s of 5* reviews and case studies to support their capabilities – so that you can focus on doing what you do best.
Delegate!
