The 5 Capital Sins of SEO

Search Engine Optimization has been one of the most effective ways of increasing traffic and gaining exposure to your site. When it started out back in the day, it was primitive at best and it ranked websites based on nothing more than a basic algorithm that simply gauged a website’s ranking based on the presence of content.

This obviously meant that savvy website owners opted to create content just for the sake of creating content. The users were at a loss because the search engine would produce results that weren’t relevant to the consumer.

Today is a different story. Modern SEO is more focused on how web content is more relevant (or more valuable) to internet users. Search engines rank websites that contain information that users are searching for. This new ranking system is governed by a special algorithm that ranks websites based on keyword intent and long tail word searches.

Now, old SEO techniques are obsolete and are even deemed bad practices that Google penalizes by either lowering your website ranking drastically or worse, Google may even opt not to index your website to begin with. So, how do you avoid this?

Simple. Stick to Google’s guidelines and avoid doing the following:

Keyword Stuffing

This is a practice wherein keywords are crammed into a site in an attempt to manipulate the rankings of the website. Because search engines gauge your website based on readability and value, the less natural your content sounds, the more likely that you’re going to get penalized for it. As far as SEO is concerned, keyword stuffing is treated more as a preconceived crime than an honest mistake.

Misleading Title Tags

Title tags are meant to provide a brief summary of the webpage that it’s linked to. If a title tag is written with the intent to deceive rather than to summarize, then you’re doing it wrong. The algorithm can detect such practices and again, your website will suffer in the long run.

Content Duplication

The point of having multiple search results is so that the user is able to acquire as much knowledge as possible. Now, what’s the point of getting multiple search results if they all echo the same tune? This is why plagiarism is heavily discouraged. Not only does it mar the image of the website that contains copied content, but it’s also theft of intellectual property. Just don’t.

Not Using Analytics

Analytics are one of the best ways to track your site’s progress in terms of traffic. This tool allows you to see which content is connecting with your audience. This information allows you to determine what type of content does your audience want and you can base your succeeding content on this data.

Non-mobile-friendly Websites

There’s a modern trend that people are now more likely to access the internet via their mobile devices rather than a full-sized desktop or laptop. Google recognizes this and therefore penalizes websites that aren’t mobile-friendly. This makes a lot of sense, judging that the number of mobile users now far exceeds that of computer users.
In fact, one of the future trends that SEO seems to be headed toward is mobile-first indexing.

Now, you don’t always have to worry about avoiding these mistakes. Sometimes, you can let somebody else do that for you. BestSEOCompanies.com is a great place to browse for some of the most credible SEO companies on the internet. These professionals know exactly what and what not to do when it comes to SEO.