SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. This refers to the practice of increasing both the quality and quantity of traffic to a website through organic search engine results. This is one of the most important tools for an online-based brand to widen its reach and be successful. However, there are several common mistakes that most brands make while doing SEO.

Definition: Before looking into the common mistakes that the brands make while doing SEO, it is important to understand what SEO is and does. So, SEO is the process by which out of the thousands and hundreds of contents that is available online at a given moment, the article or website in question stands out and is easily available to the user who is looking by the help of key terms.

SEO’s Importance: Having a proper search engine optimized content is crucial for any online business. If in the top search results the brand is not featured it loses out on the potential audience, subscribers and revenue.

Take for example a brand sells online crocheted animals. For the brand to be successful it needs to attract buyers to its website. Now, for the majority of online users, Google is their primary search engine. When a potential buyer searches online for saying toy animals or crocheted items if the website of the brand does not come up in the top five results, the brand will not be able to successfully attract its clients. Research statistics show that the top five results on Google has 67% of all the clicks and this is why search engine optimization is so important for brands.

SEO is different from local search engine optimization which is more focused on the optimization of a businesses’ presence and displays when searched for locally. SEO is more oriented towards national and international searches.

Black Hat SEO and White Hat SEO: Having stated the importance of the role of SEO in the functioning of a brand, it is now important to acknowledge that there are two approaches to the utilization of SEO technique. One of the approaches is the Black Hat SEO where the brand focuses only on optimization of the content for search engine results and there is no consideration of the human factor. Achieving high website ranks and making quick money is the sole aim of the brand in this case. Black Hat SEO often uses duplicate contents, invisible texts, redirections to other sites and has non-relevant content.

On the other hand, if the brand wants to establish itself for the long haul, and be a sustainable online business, then the focus is on the audience and the potential customers. To attract the customers by providing them with the best contentis the White Hat SEO approach. In this case, having content that is relevant, unique, along with links and references.

There also is the Gray Hat SEO approach, which employs methods from both the types.

Having seen the different approaches to SEO it is noticeable that there is high competition online to stand out in the search results on the different search platforms be it Google, Yahoo or Bing. Despite this, there are several common SEO mistakes that brandsmake while trying to do SEO.

• Adding Keywords to Google My Business name:

Adding keywords that are not part of the brand’s legal name is a direct violation of Google My Business Guidelines. It is just spam to add keywords to the company’s name.

• Not having a secure site:

Having a secure site is one of the positive ranking factors. Having a not secure warning when trying to open a website will have the opposite effect of scaring away customers than attracting them.

• Having a slow site load time:

According to statistics 53% of the websites are abandoned and left if the page does not load in fewer than 3 seconds.

• Asking people to click here:

The ever-present and annoying “click here” is a call to action that does not help in increasing the SEO, as the anchor text to boost the page is missing.

• Not using image alt tags:

It is necessary to have a balance of text, image, and video online. Optimizing the images on the text is one of the basic steps to make your brand more SEO friendly.

• Placing important text in images:

Search algorithms look for texts mostly and are unable to read the texts in the images. So to optimize the content of a website, emphasize on the text.

• Only focusing on on-site SEO:

On-site optimizations are not the only component for improving SEO rankings. Off-site content that is directing traffic towards the brands’ site is also an important aspect to pay attention to.

• Failure in providing a Google Map:

Many brands do not attach a Google Map showing their business location under the “Contact Us” section. This is another basic point to make the brand more user-friendly and legitimate and increase potential customers chance of finding the brand on a local search.

• Ignoring the pages that did not rank:

Focusing on newer pages instead of the previous pages that failed to make the rank on the first page of the search engine is wrong. It is better to make necessary modifications on those pages and amp them up to be ranked higher.

• Ignoring local search:

Be more aware of the location of the brand and the local client base. Pay more attention to region-specific keywords, and local address and landmarks that will help boost the site on other local networks and on the local search engine.

• Not using analytics to see the converts of traffic:

SEO is not all just about traffic but is also about conversion. Tracking the traffic and seeing the conversions on the keywords and phrases is a wonderful tool to check improvements and optimize the brand’s online image and site better.

• Not optimizing the right keywords:

It is a big mistake to use global keywords for a brand that offers local services and vice versa. Similarly, it is also a mistake to use generic or broad keywords to attract traffic. Be specific.

• Not having unique title tags and meta descriptions:

Keeping the brands’ name as the title of every page on the site is one of the more common SEO mistakes. Each page should have its unique title and keywords.

• Using the same anchor text for every link:

Focus on the anchor texts. Having the same text for every anchor text decreases the brand’s credibility for the customer and also looks unprofessional. As a rule try not using the same keywords more than 50% of the time.

• Emphasis on link quantity over link quality:

Quality is more important than quantity. Add relevant and reliable links. Do not keep links to suspicious sites and insecure pages.

• Leaving old URL structures when redesigning a site:

While redesigning the website remember to redirect the traffic from the old website to the new one. This is a common SEO mistake that leads many brands to lose out on old customers and reduces the rank of the site.

• Poorly written content and no fresh content:

This is the biggest and most common SEO mistake that a brand makes while doing SEO. Using article spinners to save money is not going to help the sites’ SEO ranking. The content with plagiarized texts, bad grammar, spelling mistakes, and no structure not only looks bad but also drives away the customers. The content should be well written, informative, engaging, well-sized and unique. Good and fresh content is the backbone of any brand’s SEO ranks.

• Not using appropriate design for links:

Using popular templates and custom designs, makes the brand’s site look monotonous and mainstream. It does not call to attention the customers; it is not it engaging to interact with. Conversion rates of these sites are also low. Try to find a unique design suited for the brand and its products and services.

• Not assessing the website regularly:

Audit the website occasionally and aim to make it user-friendly and appealing to your client base. Check if all relevant information is available and if the website is up to date. Keep adapting the site to the needs of your customers.

• Treating SEO as a one-time task:

SEO is not a one-time task. Constant improvisations and updates are necessary to keep the brand on SEO ranks. Adding more relevant content, updating the data, increasing its products and services, answering customer queries, are all part of the process and needs to be done regularly. Also, SEO keeps changing trends and coming up with the right strategy and staying on top of the trend is vital for the brand.

These are some of the most common mistakes that brands make while doing SEO. But mistakes are lessons hidden in disguise, and one can always learn from these mistakes and improve their brands’ SEO.

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Let’s Debunk SEO Myths together! Time to unlearn the learned

Only thing which is constant in the world is ‘change’. This statement can be taken as good as any universal truth and there is no reason to believe that it won’t apply to the world of SEO or Search Engines. In the age, when internet was a teenager and Google was a toddler, Search engines had already came a long way ahead the way they were being used by both end users and SEOs.  That was the ‘Ice age’ with little rules, less power, zero penalties, malfunctioning weak search algorithms and desperate measures. Till date, SEO is plagued by many myths both for end users and marketers. We will try to resolve few of those SEO myths in this blog.

Google Panda and Google Penguin Algorithms

10 years back, you could have been forgiven if you didn’t know what ‘Panda’ and ‘Penguin’ are even if your kids knew that. If you are an SEO professional or a business owner looking to do your website’s SEO by yourself, you cannot debunk them even if you wished to. A sheer amount of time, money and efforts are being wasted by more than 90% of the professionals as they fail to keep them updated with latest Google panda and Google Penguin algorithms.

Let’s try to debunk some of these SEO myths together

SEO Myth #1: Site submission is the foundation

I can still see SEO professionals burning their lamp oil night after night in submitting their websites and links to Google, Yahoo and Bing. Though it doesn’t hamper your SEO effort and it might need a one-time effort for a newly made website, it’s not mandatory and Google, Yahoo and Bing are smart enough to index your website in their next crawling effort. Time is money, Honey!

SEO Myth #2: A good SEO is about chasing the rankings

SEO professionals might argue with me on this particular statement and would violently vote for ‘ranking’ being the prime motive behind their SEO efforts. I have seen clients spending thousands of dollars chasing keywords and rankings but this is not how SEO works. SEO is about providing relevant information to the user which enables him/her to eventually click and find more about what he/she is looking for. Although, a good amount of clicks is generated for first 3 positions in search results but you can still find a good amount of clicks and business being generated through search results for your website even if you are not in the top 3 position. There is so much of information clutter on internet that people won’t click on a website unless and until the information present over there is compelling enough.

SEO Myth #3: More links and Link building is better for SEO

Did you hear that Google has dropped ‘Page Rank’ long back? Or Did you hear about spam score, domain authority and page authority or Someone might have told you that link building is no more about numbers. Perhaps, Time to go back to ‘SEO’ play school! A plain, simple advice would be to spend time and money both on quality content and quality links. 100 low quality links on spammy websites with low domain authority won’t serve the purpose as 1 good quality link on a website with high domain authority.

SEO Myth #4: Social Media optimization has no correlation with SEO

For years, I have seen sales and marketing team working in silos and company’s efforts getting derailed. Social media and SEOs bear a similar relationship. This might have been true few years back but now people wake up with Facebook, twitter & Instagram notifications.  The fact that people spend a good amount of time on Social media and do a lot of social search for content on channels like Facebook & YouTube, it has a huge impact on SEO. Time to wake up Guys! Social signals are must for a better SEO.

SEO Myth #5: On page Optimization is all about Title & Meta Tags

While most of the HTML Tags are very important and must be done for a good SEO, it doesn’t mean that on page SEO efforts are over with this. This is simply the tip of iceberg and a lot more needs to be done. Just keep doing the good work folks! Remember, you have to find better ways to help search engines present more information about your website.

SEO Myth #6: Keyword repetition is must for a good SEO

“I love this book, my grandparents also love this book, my friends love this book too, you all must love this book.” I guess that most of the school kids can write a better and contextual sentence than the previous one. I still find it difficult to understand why most of the adult and well learnt SEO professionals make this mistake time and over while including keywords in their content. Unnecessary repetition of keywords lowers the readability and interest of the readers. And you would say that who cares about readers, all we care about is how search engine comprehends them. Guys! NLP or Natural language processing along with relatedness is an integral part of search engines like Google, Yahoo & Bing. Time to Google about how NLP works! That might help you in creating a better content in the future. Perhaps, it won’t hurt if you can reduce the no. of ‘love’ and replace them with something related in the first sentence.

SEO Myth #7: Google asks for more Content, Homepage must be stuffed with content

On most of the websites, Homepage acts as a gateway. Customers spend very less time in scanning the entire homepage and you have very little time and fewer words and links to explain who you are and what do you do? Many a times, home pages are driven by call-to-action like form submission, login, download etc. A good copywriting along with a smooth navigation system would help customers finding in more information rather than too much of text purely for an SEO purpose

SEO Myth #8: NAP is sufficient for Local SEO

For most of the website owners, Local SEO is plain and simple. Include your NAP .i.e Name, Address and Phone in the website footer and wherever possible and it’s done. This is the basic little thing which you can do but most of the local SEO goes beyond that and is often underestimated yet very powerful in driving traffic, sales and business through your website.

SEO Myth #9: Usability and Speed doesn’t affect SEO

The devices on which we access internet and information has evolved over the time. And if somebody believes that these devices don’t impact SEO then they are still living in a dark age. More than 50% of the searches and internet access happen over mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. User behavior has changed and search has evolved as well. If your website is slow and sluggish, doesn’t have a smooth navigation and appropriate call-to-action, it would never achieve the goals with which it was built. It’s better to be late than never. You need to involve a developer and get usability issues fixed on your website before putting further efforts.

SEO Myth #10: Using Private Blog network or multiple domains to promote one domain

This has been the most popular practice in early days of search engines and Google. SEO professionals use to create a set of websites on random stuff with thin content and would put their efforts to optimize them separately and finally use them to optimize any of their own or third party websites. Similar was the case the with a Private Blog network, wherein links and content of clients were being promoted on different Blogs. It’s very easy for Google to track down which website belongs to whom and the links get devalued automatically. It’s better to build links naturally and let others connect with your content instead.

Conclusion:

I know that I have shared my opinion about what doesn’t work with SEO anymore. But if you read through the lines, you will surely get to know what exactly needs to be fixed and what can be done for the betterment of your website. There are bad guys out there, but there are certainly many good & knowledgeable guys ready to help you out. Now that you know what separates bad guys from good guys in SEO, you can definitely make it work for your business.

Skillzlearn is a Gurgaon (delhi ncr) based training institute offering course in Digital Marketing and Data Analytics through classroom program and online instructor led program. Attend free demo session on Digital Marketing or free demo session on Data Analytics. You can call us on +91-8800226570 or mail me on vivek@skillzlearn.com

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Search Engine Optimization

So you have just finished setting up your new website and have made your business pages on Facebook, Twitter, Google + and every other social media platform you could think of. You seem to have done all the basics right and now want to have a commendable internet visibility.

Wouldn’t it be amazing to ensure that every time anyone googles anything related to your business or industry, yours is one of the first results, that too free of cost?

Read on to find out the steps that will help you achieve that coveted ranking. Remember, you DO NOT need to perform all the steps. Some may not even be applicable to you. From those that do, only do as many as you can.

Set up Gmail Have filters for your new site, or configure a new email address

• Install Google Analytics
• Install Google Search Console
• Install Bing Webmaster Tools
• If you’re using WordPress, install Google Analytics by Yoast and Yoast SEO.
• Check Google’s Search Console for 404 / 500 errors, duplicate content, missing titles and other technical errors that Google has found.
• Keep checking the messages Google sends
• Check for more errors using browseo Pay special attention to 302 redirects that should be 301 redirects.
• Use Screaming Frog to find broken links, errors, and crawl problems
• Use Google’s Keyword Planner. Here, make sure you consider searcher intent and difficulty, pick 1 keyword per page, and preferably start with lower-volume keywords first.
• Check link profiles of competitors. Understand the anchor text they are using, and how and where they use their links. Take help from the SEO Toolbox, ahrefs, Link Diagnosis, Open Site Explorer, or Majestic
• Incorporate a primary keyword into your page URL
• Ensure your title tags are 65 characters or less as anything over this will be truncated in results
• Ensure your meta description tags are 155 characters or less. Like title tags, any spillover will be truncated in results
• Think about your H1 tag – its usage, the presence of your keyword in the tag, its placement with respect to any other (H2, H3, H4..) tags, number of H1 tags
• Ensure you have an abundance of search engine-friendly content on your site. Having at least 100 words of text would give the engines enough opportunities to understand your topic. Anything below 100 might skip you from certain searches. Absolutely refrain from putting inconsequential text.
• Use synonyms in your copy.
• Put apt descriptive ALT tags and filenames on your images as search engines use these to read images
• Link to your internal pages in an SEO-friendly way and describe the linked page well enough for the users and search engine to know what the page is about
• Do not use anchor text in your global navigation. Place in-content links instead.
• Perform off-page optimization and build inks. Use ClickMinded Link Building Strategy Guide to get started.
• Use 301 redirects, canonical tags or use Google Webmaster Tools to fix any duplicate content that might be indexing and penalizing your site
• Use absolute URLs in your code? Some CMS platforms give you the option. Use absolute URLs instead of relative ones.
• Check your site speed with Google PageSpeed Tools
• Create an XML sitemap and submit it to Google and Bing Webmaster Tools? Use XML-Sitemaps.com or the Google XML Sitemaps WordPress Plugin.
• Create a Robots.txt file and submit it in Google and Bing Webmaster Tools
• Claim your business / website username on other major networks for reputation management reasons. This is to ensure your account name belongs only to you. This will also lead to you “owning” all the results on the first page of a search for your brand if you’re a new website or company.
• Check if your website is mobile friendly. Use BrowserStack for that
• Once you have set up your social media accounts, add Authorship Markup to your site. Authorship markup search snippet images are gone, but you may still want to add it to your site. Use the Authorship Markup Walkthrough.
• Use an SEO Audit Toolto double-check everything once you’re live
• Review all of the free SEO tools at your disposal before completing this audit. If you don’t understand some of the high-level concepts, review the Beginner’s Guide to SEO.

Once you have checked the steps that apply to your page, you should see the results soon!

Wish you the best!

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