Source: carrefour-maires.com

All of this talk about search engine optimization and not a mention of content yet? You’re kidding, right?

A website without good content is like a house without a foundation. While it’s true that the foundation may not be the most glamorous part of the house, you can’t have a house without one, apart from that using the mobile SEO service providers in your area at impressive.com.au.

And while it’s true that there are plenty of technical aspects to SEO, at its core, SEO is about creating great user experiences and great content.

Think about it: if your users aren’t satisfied with your website, they won’t stay on your website. And if they don’t stay on your website, Google is going to notice. This means fewer page views for you and more visits for your competitors’ websites.

Like any other type of marketing, there are mistakes that companies make when they’re trying to optimize their sites for search engines (SEO). Here are the nine most common ones — and some tips for how to solve them.

1. Keyword Stuffing

Source: learn.g2.com

One of the most common SEO mistakes that businesses make is keyword stuffing, which backfires big time. A few years ago, webmasters used to stuff their website’s content with keywords as much as possible hoping that it would help them get higher rankings. There was a time when this was actually working, but it doesn’t anymore.

Keyword stuffing means using the same keyword over and over again in a block of text. For example, we use the phrase “SEO mistakes” 11 times in this section of content and it looks unnatural.

2. Not Doing Your Keyword Research

Source: searchengineland.com

The first step in any effective SEO strategy is identifying the right keywords to target.

A keyword is a word or phrase that a user will type into a search engine before being presented with organic search results.

For example, “How to start a blog” is a specific keyword that someone may use when searching for information on how to set up their own blog.

Choosing the right keywords is crucial because it allows you to fully understand what your audience wants from your website and whether there’s enough demand for your content or products. To put it simply, if you want people to find your website in Google’s search results, you need to know what they’re searching for!

Google’s Keyword Planner tool can help you identify relevant keywords based on your existing content and competitors’ websites.

3. Not having enough content on your site

Source: bluecorona.com

The first thing a search engine does when it comes to your site is crawl it. This is where a program goes through every page on your site, reading each one and indexing everything it finds. The more content you have on your site, the more opportunities you have to rank in searches and drive organic traffic.

4. Using duplicate content on multiple pages

Search engines want to see original content on each page of your website, not just one piece of copy used over and over again. If you’re using duplicate content throughout the site — especially near the top of the page — it tells search engines that the information isn’t necessary or useful.

5. Improper Optimization

Source: yourwebsitefirst.com

This is a broad category, but there are a few common culprits:

Not using keywords in the right way. Are you using your keywords in the right places? If someone searched for “Boston Red Sox” and your page only mentioned the keyword “Red Sox,” it’s not going to rank very well. Follow search engine guidelines for optimizing your pages with keywords.

Keyword stuffing or over-optimization. Using too many keywords on a page is called “keyword stuffing.” The opposite is also true: Not using enough keywords on a page is called “under-optimization.” Either extreme can hurt your ranking on search engines.

Your content should reflect how someone would naturally talk about your topic and use related words and phrases. Over-optimizing can also make you seem like you’re just trying to manipulate search engine rankings instead of providing useful information for visitors.

6. Ignoring Your Website Structure

Source: singlegrain.com

A website should be easy for users to navigate. If a user cannot find the information they need right away, they will go elsewhere. As such, good website structure is essential. You should make sure that all the pages on your website are linked together and that they are easy to find.

Having too many pages with too little content will cause confusion and may put off users who find it difficult to use. Linking between content is helpful as it allows users to find additional information on a subject they are interested in. If a user cannot find what they need quickly, they will simply move on to another site which has a more intuitive design.

7. Not Using Internal Links

Internal links allow users to navigate between different pages of your website without having to return to the homepage first each time. They also help search engines index your site better and make it easier for visitors to find the pages containing relevant content quickly and easily.

8. Not Knowing Your Audience

Source: business2community.com

You need to be aware of what your audience is looking for and how they are going to find you online. You also need to know what keywords they are searching for and why they should choose you over your competitors. The more you know about your audience, the more relevant content you can create and help them find the information that they are looking for online.

9. Not optimizing your product descriptions for search engines

If you have a product catalog that’s thousands or millions of items strong, it can be tempting to just copy and paste the manufacturer’s description into your own site. But this can be a huge mistake from an SEO perspective.

Because manufacturers’ product descriptions are often used by many other sites (including your competitors), they won’t contain unique keywords that help search engines understand what your products are about.