Search Engine Optimization is more than just a list of actions you need to perform so your content would rank higher in search results. With each Google update as well as social and economical disturbance the way we look for information changes. Furthermore, numerous tutorials and outdated practices cause negative performance results. Therefore, we have created a list of common SEO mistakes you should keep an eye out for and fix as soon as you notice any of them.
SEO reports and errors
The best way to manage your website performance and deal with potential problems is through regular SEO reports. This is not a one-time job, you should analyze your content every once in a while, to make sure all is good. While you can develop reports manually, it’s better to choose a white label SEO report tool because they provide current performance stats, a list of errors you need to fix, and a method to deal with each issue.
Nowadays, website analysis software can deliver all sorts of data, which might be difficult to understand and won’t contribute to your goal. On the other hand, a well-crafted white label report leaves you with actionable data and the means to deal with eventual SEO mistakes.
Technical errors
Any update on your website or server could result in technical SEO error that has a direct influence on bounce rate, indexing, and SERP potential. The most common examples of technical errors include Status Codes and canonical tag errors.
Whenever a user clicks on a link to a page that’s moved or deleted, there’s a 404-status code error appearing on the screen. Less often, there’s an issue on the server side which results in a 5xx HTTP status code error. Therefore, pay attention when updating your content or redirecting your page to another URL, because both search engine crawlers and human visitors lose interest in websites with these types of issues.
There are many ways to type in your home page URL; anything from https://mywebsite.com to mywebsite.com, or www.mywebsite.com. Even though these URLs lead to the same page, Google and other search engines see them as different pages, which makes them think you have a lot of duplicate content. Placing a rel canonical tag within a single instance of your homepage or any other page tells website crawlers your preferred version of the page. This way you won’t get into trouble of being marked as a website that hordes duplicate content.
Common SEO Mistakes To Fix: Crawlability errors
When it comes to crawlability errors that influence your SEO performance. The most common issues arise due to redirect chains and 3xx status codes. This also conveys a message that there’s an issue with a resource you directed to an alternate address.
Redirect chains can cause a crawler to stop looking for content when there are too many redirect instructions. Between the source and the target URL. Also, 3xx status codes imply issues with URL redirecting, causing your page to be excerpted from the search engine results page.
Another crawlability error worth mentioning is the existence of “nofollow” tags for URLs used within the content. These tags tell search engines not to follow these links which excludes them from indexing. Removing “nofollow” tags fixes this problem. There’s an interesting Sitechecker infographic that displays the influence of each error type on overall SEO performance.
On-page errors
In terms of On-Page SEO mistakes, you might encounter. Besides the common content size and filetype mistakes that might lead. To slow load speed and other performance issues, the major problems are by meta tags and poor linking strategy.
A title tag tells the audience what’s the focus of your content. Meta descriptions supply a more detailed explanation of the page so users would have a glimpse of what awaits them. Poor title tag or meta description, as well as their absence, are critical errors you should fix at once.
Internal links lead to a different page on your website, allowing visitors to spend more time on your domain. The most common issues with internal links appear when the page you link to delete. Or the URL changes for some reason.
External links are important because they lead to authority websites that contribute to the authenticity of your information. It’s not unusual to have an external link within your content that’s not active anymore. Because the authors removed that page or the website is not active anymore. Also, make sure to update external links, especially if they lead to statistics.
Common SEO Mistakes To Fix: Conclusion
These were some of the mistakes you should pay attention to in order to maintain a high SEO ranking. Using SEO tools helps facilitate the task and allows you to seamlessly analyze your website regularly. Keep in mind website performance benchmark so you could understand which techniques work to your benefit.
