Is your content great, but not search engine friendly? Today I am going to share with you some of the most common SEO mistakes made by bloggers and content marketers, 5 SEO mistakes that are easy to make in your blog and most of us overlook.
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The field of digital marketing has evolved significantly over the past two decades. And between Google's ever-changing algorithm and the deluge of misinformation pervasive in digital marketing, it's easy to lose sight of the basic practices we should be using in our SEO and content optimization strategies.
With each new algorithm update and technical shift in search, we get obsessed and ask how SEO techniques and practices will fit in with the new challenges, and we shift our focus to this. Although all of that has changed, the basic principles remain - and it's time to get back to basics.
?How to manage the SEO project
We all understand SEO secrets and best practices, so why do we often fail to take advantage of these tactics? Let's explore five common blogging mistakes you might be making.
SEO Mistakes Most Bloggers Make
The keyword structure is not optimized
Despite the rise of semantic search technology and machine learning technology, keyword research should still take priority when designing an inbound content marketing campaign. All content on the site should be linked to topics, categories and keywords based on your overall business goals.
If our content covers topics and not keywords, how do we know what users are really asking for? Without keyword research , how can you really know who your audience is and who you're writing to?
Keywords act as a bridge between user intent, informational content, and ordinary content. Keyword-optimized content helps to fundamentally rank individual web pages and increase impressions for targeted searches. This makes blog content that attracts customers and visitors.
For blogs on the site, the focus should remain on long keyword phrases that express the entirety of the content or services. Common examples include question phrases that begin with the how , what , when , where, and why .
Other keywords may include actionable phrases that are often searched for, such as “tips” and “ways” to improve certain processes.
Bloggers often fail to improve their site header, meta tags, and content with targeted keyword phrases. Keep in mind that certain keyword phrases are often written in bold within the meta description of the SERP listing , which can increase your CTR.
Keywords run deeper than you might expect, and failure to identify and assign appropriate keywords means content optimization (eg title, meta description and excerpt) fails. Many bloggers fail to take advantage of semantic SEO or similar keyword phrases with the same meaning.
Semantic SEO allows bloggers to create more comprehensive and readable content that can result in multiple keyword phrases, answer more user questions and qualify your content to be a featured snippet in search results (The following image shows you the featured snippet to learn more and how to make your site content It appears as such (see our article on featured snippets: optimization tips and how to identify and filter them for search engines).
Featured snippets became the only search results for many queries. If a user goes to Google.com and creates [what is the longest tree], Google returns a featured snippet, followed by thousands of organic search results. However, when the user performs the same query via Google Voice Search, Google responds with an audible version of the text in the featured snippet but (in many cases) no "blue links". Before diving deep into the featured snippets, let's score a minute...
On the other hand, over-optimized content can cross a dangerous line as well. Meaning stuffing your keywords and placing them with a high density, your content will be considered as spam. Keyword stuffing also hinders the readability of your content, resulting in poor user signals.
Following best SEO practices, it is still important to optimize all relevant site elements, such as URLs and meta tags, with targeted keywords that can rank pages individually and rank well in search engine results pages.
Aside from sending signals regarding content to the search engines that are the main focus of your content on the site, keywords also serve an important function in the structure of your site.
Inconsistent internal links
Internal linking is perhaps one of the most overlooked SEO mistakes in SEO, and internal link issues frequently occur on the websites of the same SEO agencies!
There are many proper internal linking functions for SEO
Define paths for users to navigate your website.
Allows deeply linked web pages to be crawled and increases crawl rate.
It defines the site structure and your most important web pages for search engines.
It distributes “links,” or authority and credibility, across your website.
The linked web pages are indexed by the keywords used in the anchor text of the hyperlink.
Ideally, you will need at least three to five internal links per published article, and a dropdown or navigation menu on your homepage to provide deep links to inaccessible web pages. Just because you post that content has been posted on your blog, it doesn't mean that Google or Bing can access it automatically.
Perform a thorough audit of internal links and score the web pages with the most validity. Simply insert the internal links of these pages into your other high-value internal pages to distribute the validity evenly across your site domain.
Many websites display featured posts in a dropdown list or on the home page to distribute authority to their blog posts. The blogger home page will be the most reliable. Limit the number of links between each blog post and your homepage to distribute and promote the link evenly across your domain.
Don't overlook the importance of a sitemap, either. This will ensure that all web pages are crawled and indexed correctly - assuming the URL structures are clean and optimized for keywords.
Finally, optimize all anchor texts to rank them, bring visitors to linked pumps, and raise their impressions. Make sure to use different text phrases for each link so that you can rank your web pages for multiple search queries.
Sterile and copied content
As we often say in digital marketing , it's important to write for readers, not search engines. Keep the content light and clear, don't try to demonstrate knowledge with excessive jargon, and write to general readers, so that anyone can understand what you're writing.
In most cases, the content on the site is not about publishing, but building awareness around the need. I always suggest putting practical advice into informative content to provide value.
Content marketing is as much a brand training process as it is a marketing tactic. Producing consistent content defines the ethics of your brand and creates your voice as an author. In turn, this qualifies you as an authority in your niche.
Don't sacrifice your site's credibility by posting sterile content
Take a comprehensive look at your blog. What will the reader do when they encounter your content? Keep in mind that the average attention span is eight seconds. Improve the site header structure and meta tags to encourage easy scanning, communication, and a clear, first-hand view of the target.
Leverage a strong title to pique the reader's interest, and nurture that interest with a strong introductory paragraph. Always include clear transition phrases, and consider using animated GIFs and videos to give users a mental break between long segments of paragraphs. These also help in increasing the average time a visitor/user spends on your site.
Make your content visually appealing by using white space correctly and inserting images after every 400 words or so. This content essentially cuts out and prevents information overload.
Finally, release the rich content. Many writers live by the rule that one third of the time it takes to write content and about two-thirds of the time it takes to create that content you should spend improving and reformulating that content.
Unoptimized photos and videos
Despite talking about sterile and non-optimized content, most bloggers still ignore photo and video optimization. Unoptimized image file formats and sizes are among the most common SEO errors that hurt load time that degrade your site's SEO performance.
All images on the site must be formatted as jpg. All vector images are in png format.
Always optimize the image alt text to place it in the rankings in your keyword-targeted image search. Alt text is what is displayed when the browser fails to actually render the image and tells search engines what your image is. (Also used to describe images for those with screen readers.)
When optimizing video files, host all your video files in one folder and create a video sitemap for search engines to index your videos. You should optimize the meta description of all video pages with target keywords for indexing. Make use of the call-to-action in the meta description and excerpt about the video.
Video marketing can distribute from multiple channels, as well as your blog. According to a recent survey by HubSpot, 43 percent of consumers want to watch more videos from content marketers