Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is the science of adjusting and fine-tuning a website’s content and structure so that it can rank better on search engines for one or more keywords. The idea is simple. If your website ranks high on search engines such as Google, more people are likely to find you, contact you and eventually buy from you. So, it’s important to get this right. Yet, time and time again, I see people make silly SEO mistakes.
1. Block search engines: One of the most common sins is to block search engines from indexing your website. It happens more often than you think, mostly by mistake. Make sure your website is visible to search engines.
2. Too many keywords: Wouldn’t it be great if your website was ranked #1 on Google for anything even remotely related to your product or service? Well, this is a typical mistake businesses make when they first get started with SEO. They get greedy and try to rank for anything and everything. Don’t do that. Start small. Try to stick to 1 to 3 keywords per page.
3. Choosing wrong keywords: What you think people are searching for and what people are actually searching for, could be two different things. Choose your keywords carefully and strategically.
4. Over stuffing webpage with keywords: This is another classic mistake I come across all the time. Someone told the business owner; “if they repeat the keyword lots of times on their website, it will be ranked on top”. No, it doesn’t work like that. Don’t unnaturally try to fit in a keyword in every sentence or paragraph. Remember 100% of your customers are humans and it should make sense to your customers.
5. Too little text: Google-bots can’t look at images and admire how beautiful your website looks. Too little text can create problem with optimisation.
6. Keyword to Text/Copy Mismatch: Sometimes, I come across websites that are well presented and the website copy (text) reads well, but it doesn’t relate to the targeted keyword. Make sure the copy of your web page is related to your keywords.
7. Relying too much on SEO traffic: Traffic is one of the factors search engines consider for ranking. Generally speaking more traffic is better. Quality of traffic is equally important. Don’t just rely on organic traffic when you are trying to rank higher. Try to promote your website consistently on different mediums including Social Media to drive traffic. The list goes on, but these are the 7 mistakes I often come across. Hope this helps. Let me know if you require further details on SEO.
Sam Gupta is the managing director of Synapse Worldwide.
Sam would love to hear your thoughts on this advice column.
Tel: 1300 785 230
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.synapseworldwide.com
