Having a Search Engine Optimisation strategy is a must for nearly every business. Research shows that 57% of businesses don’t have an SEO plan in place, leaving them at a disadvantage against competitors.
SEO helps to increase the searchability of a business’s website, helping to boost web traffic and customer conversion organically. However, a poorly executed search engine optimisation approach can impact a website’s Search Engine Result Page (SERP) ranking. To ensure an effective SEO campaign, businesses must perfect their SEO tactics to gain favourable results from search engines. Learn the common SEO pitfalls marketers must avoid to create a refined digital marketing approach.
Top SEO Mistakes To Look Out For
Optimising a business website for Google and other search engines is essential for small businesses, as 94.3% of Australian users leverage Google to make queries online. Similarly, 3.85% of individuals in Australia use Bing and 0.82% use Yahoo as their primary search engine.
Therefore, businesses must effectively meet the search engine criteria and avoid initiatives that can lower their SEO effectiveness. Marketers can take the following steps to prevent errors in their SEO strategy.
Never Neglect Google Analytics
Google Analytics is an online analytics service provided by Google that offers statistics and essential analytical tools for search engine optimisation. Using this tool can help marketers better understand the business’s website and check the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns.
Google Analytics collects valuable data about the number of visitors clicking on the website, their location, purchases made, previous searches, and more. As a result, it helps business owners predict customer behaviour and design a targeted marketing campaign.
The tool also provides information on which web pages are gaining more visitors while suggesting improvements to boost rankings.
By failing to leverage Google Analytics, businesses miss out on the opportunity to resolve problems that otherwise have easy fixes. For instance, the analytics tool can inform individuals about page loading speed, keyword targeting, and other vital information collected by websites. With this, businesses can correct presenting issues before search engines crawl their website.
Double Check The Google Analytics Code
Google Analytics code is a unique JavaScript code inserted in the website to allow data collection through the Google Analytics tool. When marketers embed incorrect code, it presents inaccurate data about:
Sessions: Visits and interactions taking place on the site
Page Views: Total number of viewed webpages of a particular website
Pages Session: Average number of pages viewed during a session
Session Duration: The average length of time users spend on a page
Bounce Rate: Single page visits that end without interacting with another webpage. It is calculated by dividing a single-page session by all sessions.
When Google Analytics is incorrectly installed, marketers cannot receive accurate data. Therefore, it is essential to double-check the code insertion in the site’s header. If the entered code is inaccurate, marketers can replace it by following these steps:
Access the Google Analytics account and click on the “Admin” option.
Next, open “Tracking Info” and select “Tracking Code” from the drop-down menu.
A tracking ID and code will be presented. Marketers can copy and paste this code into the site’s header to replace the incorrect code.
Create Anchor Text That Drives Action
Anchor text, or link text, in content copy provides context to search engines and urges users to take a particular action. Often, businesses use specific keywords as anchor text to improve their rankings. However, using the same terms for all the anchors can be detrimental to SEO, even if the link leads to different pages. Using the same anchor text every time can confuse users and the search engine, which will impact the website’s ranking. Google rapidly senses spam behaviour when a keyword is used too often as anchor text.
Therefore, analyse anchor text on the website and use a unique term for every link. Make sure the text urges the user to take action.
Stay Away From Keyword Stuffing
Keyword stuffing is an SEO practice that involves inserting a large number of keywords in a content piece to manipulate search engine rankings. Keyword-stuffed content is easily noticeable to readers because of the same repetitive words and phrases.
Even if a reader cannot detect keyword stuffing, web crawlers are more than capable due to Google’s advanced algorithm. This practice is forbidden in SEO, as repetitive words and phrases impact the text’s readability, providing a negative user experience.
Moreover, it is a penalised practice. If Google detects keyword stuffing on a site, its ranking will drop, decreasing the business’s visibility in the search results. As 75% of searchers do not scroll past the first search engine results page, businesses must develop rich content with relevant and high-ranking keywords to improve their site’s ranking.
Follow The 3 I’s Content Approach: Inform, Innovate, Impress
Search engines recommend websites that provide value to their users. Therefore, all content published on the website should follow the 3 I’s content approach:
Inform: Make sure the content educates the visitor.
Innovate: Use content that is 100% original.
Impress: Create high-quality content that retains user interest and engagement.
When businesses fail to follow this approach, they can damage their SERP rankings. Websites with minimal or duplicate content can suffer significantly from penalisation.
Thin content is text with little to no value for the reader. It negatively affects SEO performance through keyword cannibalisation (focusing on identical keywords on more than one webpage). Moreover, thin content does not attract backlinks, reducing the website’s potential to gain more credibility.
Similarly, duplicate content, which is text copy that is published on more than one website, can cause search engines to deem the source with the earlier publishing date as the original. All others are considered copied or duplicate content, causing these pages to not rank at all. Google can easily detect low-quality and duplicate content, making it imperative that marketers should only publish high-quality and original content.
To Recap
Search engine optimisation is crucial for businesses looking to reach their target audience and increase web traffic and customer conversion. However, making these SEO mistakes in 2023 can lower SERP ranking and damage conversion rates and brand authority.
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Claire Stevens is the founder of Crunchy Digital, a digital marketing agency for Australian businesses who need help to develop and decipher their digital marketing strategy. Crunchy Digital has helped hundreds of businesses benefit from services such as search engine optimisation, Google Ads, website development, Facebook and Instagram advertising and more. Claire and her passionate team aim to make marketing effective and understandable with a results-driven strategy to help their clients' businesses develop and grow.
