7 Terrible SEO Mistakes that are going to Lose You your Search Engine Rank
Bad habits in content development and website coding are nothing to laugh about. Knowingly and unknowingly, websites may be harming their search engine rank with these 7 terrible SEO mistakes.
Using invisible text
Hiding text on your page is known as ‘cloaking’ and is easily found by search engines like Google. Though this technique may have worked over a decade ago, it no longer functions as a viable search engine optimization strategy. Without question, you will fail if this is your strategy to increase your page’s word count and/or if you continue hiding links or keeping hidden text embedded in.
Repeating the same keyword over and over again
Keyword stuffing is a serious offence in the world of SEO and is heavily looked down upon by Google. If search engines like Google realize you’re trying to manipulate them by stuffing in as many keywords as possible, you’ll be penalized. Keywords should only be mentioned in your page title, meta description, and a few times in your page content. Don’t overuse them.
Paying your links
SEO is about creating unique, engaging, and relevant content. When accomplished, natural backlinks come. If you have to pay for links or domains to link to your page, you run the risk of being blacklisted by Google. Buying links is considered unethical in the world of SEO. If you end up losing your ranking, it can take a lot of time and money trying to get back to where you were.
Duplicate content
Since 2012, Google’s algorithms have been targeting and penalizing pages deemed to have ‘duplicate content’ or that is, sites with content that exists elsewhere on the Internet. If you are using substantial blocks of content from other sites or using the same text across multiple domains, we recommend stopping. Instead, focus on putting out content which can only be found on your page.
Technical coding issues
There exists several coding issues which can negatively impact your SEO, including several one may be unaware of. If there are technical issues on your site, fix them. These could include content not being updated regularly, links that go nowhere, slow page loading time, issues with mobile responsiveness, missing tags, improper redirects, and more.
Excessive linking
If you are fortunate enough to have built a high-authority domain, this can be a great resource in building up other sites. Be careful though. If you’re manipulating backlinks and suing them for your own site, this can appear bad to search engine algorithms. Though it makes sense to do this once or twice, be sure to earn your backlinks organically.
Clickbait headlines
If you’re using clickbait-esque titles to attract clicks, it might not work out so well. Clickbait headlines are known to receive a click and then, after ten seconds, it’s the usual for the visitor to move onto another website. That creates a terrible bounce rate, negatively impacting your search engine rank. Clickbait titles will have the opposite effect you want them to.
High quality SEO strategies are something that requires work to grow and maintain. For more information on best practices for SEO, Unlimited Exposure can help. We’ve helped build businesses’ online presence using time-tested SEO techniques, heightening search engine rank and keeping your brand on the right path to maximum revenues!
