Ranking on Google is an ever-changing challenge. With Google’s algorithm going through frequent updates to refine and evolve how sites rank, staying on top of SEO trends can feel like running to stand still.
This means that even if you think you’re in the know about SEO dos and don’ts, you might be making some major mistakes that will harm how your site ranks.
You’re not alone. Many businesses of all sizes make mistakes when it comes to SEO — but these mistakes can be fixed. Here are five of the most common SEO mistakes businesses make and how to fix them.
1: You aren’t optimizing your site for mobile
Your site looks great and runs well on desktop but have you checked how it performs on mobile? Some 52.2% of all website traffic in the world comes from people’s phones, and more Google searches are made on phones than on desktops. It’s no wonder that search engines have begun penalizing sites that aren’t mobile-compatible.
If your website is not mobile-friendly, you will not rank high. It doesn’t matter how good your SEO is otherwise. In fact, you could lose up to 30% of your leads alone from a mobile-unfriendly site. It’s well worth taking another look at your website and making sure that it runs as well on mobile as it does on desktop. Your search engine results may depend on it.
2: You’ve chosen the wrong keywords
Ranking #1 on Google is all about choosing the right keywords. One of the biggest mistakes people make is trying to rank for very common, general keywords. For example, a clothing e-commerce store might try to rank for “dresses” or “clothes” — but trying to do this is a major mistake.
Your site is never going to rank on the first page for “dresses,” no matter how hard you work at your SEO. This is because “dresses” is an extremely generic keyword with results that will include businesses all over the world with a far bigger SEO budget than yours, general non-business sites, and even behemoths like Wikipedia. It’s far more effective to use long-tail keywords: longer, more specific keywords such as “buy dresses in Connecticut.” The longer and more specific the better. Your search volumes will go down, but the traffic your site does get will be much more relevant — and more likely to convert into real sales.
3: Your website has slow loading times
When it comes to ranking on Google, faster is better.
The longer your website takes to load, the more Google and other search engines will penalize it and the more it will drop in search engine results. You can check how long your website takes to load for yourself by using Google’s own PageSpeed Insights tool. Ideally, you want your site to load fully in three seconds or less. In fact, 40% of people will leave a site before it finishes loading if it takes longer than that.
Websites can take a long time to load for a variety of reasons, but one of the biggest culprits for slow loading times is large images. Resize your images as much as you can without compromising your site’s design, and you should see your loading times speed up significantly.
4: You’re overlooking your site’s link structure
Your website’s link structure is not just how your visitors get from page to page; it’s also how Google’s bots crawl your site to index it. If your site is suffering from a bad link structure, your search engine results will suffer.
Luckily, this has a relatively easy fix: reordering and resubmitting your XML sitemap to search engines will ensure that Google’s bots re-crawl your website and find your unlinked or deeply hidden pages, boosting your results. However, you should still look at your website’s menu and sidebars to make sure your human visitors aren’t getting lost in your site’s link structure either.
5: You’re ignoring your Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a crucial tool for understanding how your site’s audience is behaving, but many site owners neglect it — or don’t use it at all.
While the word “analytics” might sound intimidating, Google Analytics is designed to be easy to use and understand, with data laid out in graphics and charts that can be read intuitively. By regularly checking your Google Analytics data, you can see which search terms people are using to find your website, which pages are getting the most traffic, what your bounce rates look like, and which channels are giving you your best traffic. Google Analytics is a useful tool to help you decide which parts of your site might need a little tender loving care and which pages are bringing you your best results.
Conclusion
SEO is a complex and ever-changing field, but that doesn’t mean you can’t stay ahead of the curve. Are you making any of these common mistakes? And more importantly, are you willing to make the necessary changes to see long-term success? By avoiding these errors and following best practices, your site will rank higher and bring in more traffic.