Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has been the highlight for every company navigating the digital world today. Every organization wants to see its website rank high on search engines and cater to the needs of its audience. However, the competition is tight and you may have to go over and beyond to beat others in your industry. While you take extra steps to work on your website and implement proper changes, you must also be careful not to make certain mistakes. It’s not just about building a website but also ensuring you don’t do what might hurt your SEO strategy in the short or long run. This article highlights some website mistakes you should avoid in 2022. 

Poor Website Navigation

Have you ever stumbled on a website with poor navigation? How did that make you feel? If you’re finding it difficult to navigate a website, there’s a high chance that you will exit the website almost immediately. No one wants to stress over something just because they need simple info. Apply this same thinking process to your website and look at it from the user’s perspective. Is your site easy to navigate for the average internet user? This will decrease your bounce rate, which contributes greatly to your SEO. It also makes it easier for Google to crawl your site and help it rank. 

Slow Page Speed

The average human attention span has fallen from 12 seconds in 2000 to eight seconds today. This means you need to get the attention of your audience in under eight seconds and convince them to stay even longer on the site. On the internet, everyone seems to be moving at the speed of light. If your website takes forever to load, they will close it and move to the next best site. Google’s algorithm uses site speed as one of its indicators to rank pages, as visitors tend to spend less time on a site that responds slowly. Aim to have your page load time under three seconds for a better user experience. 

Insufficient and Poor Quality Content

Content is an important part of SEO; you could get everything right and ruin it with a poor content strategy. When it comes to content, you have to consider both quantity and quality but if you have to choose, always prioritize quality over quantity. Gone are the days when short-form content would fly; now, you have to consider long-form content. In a recent study conducted by SERPIQ, the first SERP generally contains a minimum of 2,416 words, with the tenth having about 2,032. See the illustration below. 

While most sites would suggest you write a minimum of 300-500 words, longer content tends to do more justice to the topic and ensure the reader is satisfied and has their questions answered. Google generally doesn’t look at the length of the article but usually, the factors that would help your content rank are made possible by long-form content. Write content as long as 1000 words or more and ensure it does justice to the topic. 

Keyword Stuffing Your Website

Keywords are great and are in fact encouraged for SEO purposes. While they form the crux of your site’s SEO, you must also ensure you don’t abuse them. Keyword stuffing refers to the practice of including many of your target keywords in page content to manipulate search rankings in Google search.

This is what it looks like:

Keyword stuffing at the detriment of your content quality can hurt your rankings. You need keywords but at the same time also need to include them organically in the content and for a moderate number of times. This not only allows for easy reading but also helps improve your SEO rank. 

Lack of Meta Descriptions and Title Tags

Meta descriptions and title tags play a role in SEO but many people fail to recognize this. After writing quality content, you also have to include meta descriptions and title tags before hitting the publish button. 

The title tag and meta description are what your searchers see that might influence whether or not they click on the link to read more on your content. Something as simple and tiny as this can change a lot in your SEO. While you form your title tag and meta description, ensure you also include your keywords. 

Poor Linking

Links are important in SEO strategy but at the same can ruin your SEO if not done properly. Consider internal links, external links, and backlinks. While all of these are important, you shouldn’t use just any link but rather a quality link relevant to the content. The links should also be spaced out, so your content can still look appealing to readers. This will also help improve click rate, as your readers know clearly the action you want to take. 

When choosing external links, always opt for high authority sites. These sites are recognized by Google to have authority in their field and by including them in your content, it shows you’re selling quality content to your audience. Choosing from a low-quality site can have little relevance to your SEO and might even hurt your SEO. 

How Can You Avoid Making These SEO Mistakes?

SEO is great for your website but in the quest to outrun your competitors and make the best of your site, you just might be doing something wrong. If you think your SEO hasn’t been improving, you may have to check to see if you’re making any of the mistakes mentioned here.

SEO, if done right, can change the game for your website in the long run. At Charisol, we have a community of talented software developers that leverage the “work without walls” culture to provide solutions for clients around the world. Our services span Software designing, App development, Digital Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Content Writing & Marketing, and Search Engine Optimisation. 

We will work hand-in-hand with you to ensure you get the best for your website. We will also help you create the perfect balance between technical and content SEO. 

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