SEO Mistakes to Avoid

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a great way to increase the traffic to your web page. Moreover, it increases the ranking and always keeps you on the first page of search engine. Usually, people only visit the first three pages to search for information. Thus, it is quite important to remain on top pages with correct SEO tactics. SEO is a field that has changed over the time. Every year Auckland SEO companies look ahead to new tactics and strategies to adopt and avoid. Here is a list of some bad SEO practices to be avoided in 2018;

1. Keyword stuffing

Keywords are important for any article or content you upload, however, overstuffing of keywords acts in negative.
When you upload your content on a web page, the search engine automatically detects the number of times keywords have been used. The algorithm automatically detects and gives you negative ranking if it finds excessive use of keywords.
Instead of stuffing with keywords, you must take the time to write well-rounded articles on the topic and apply subheadings throughout your content for easy browsing by spiders and visitors alike.

2. Not updating the pages

Google or any other search engine displays contents and web pages that are updated regularly and are user-friendly. Many times people forget to upgrade the website with fresh information that leads to negative ranking.
Not updating the pages or keeping the content complex is one of the bad SEO tactics for 2018. In 2017, some webmasters chose to release posts instead of pages in WordPress in order to gain the fresh content bonus. However, this is not advisable in the long term unless you know how to manage it properly.

3. Duplication

The common trend of article spinning by using rewriting apps to change the words has become popular. This method of duplication or article spinning is bad and leads to a lower ranking as the copy usually doesn’t flow right and Google can still read and compare the keywords between the other filler text to ascertain whether an article is original or not.

4. Spam comments

Comments and feedback are necessary to uplift the traffic of any web content. However, stuffing the page with spam comments and fake sites makes the webpage appear to be less authoritative.
It hurts the user experience for genuine users and reduces the quality of your web page. You need to make sure that your web page is helpful to the real visitors. The more they find your web page helpful, the more frequently they will visit your website.
As Auckland SEO experts, we can stop the onslaught on fake comments and prevent spam bots from attacking your site.

5. Exact match-anchor text

The anchor text is the text that goes on the front end of a clickable link. Clickable links aid in creating certain awareness on a particular topic. However, using the same anchor text as keywords leads to dispersing of ranking.
Google penalizes the optimizer by giving low ranks to pages that have over-optimized the anchor-text.

6. Buying unnatural links

Some SEO experts use unnatural links or artificial links to manipulate the rankings. They attach the links bought from spammers to the webpage potentially risking the credibility of the web page.
Although it gives a better ranking, in the beginning, it soon falls down when Google identifies the spam. Google sends out a warning to the site owner to alter the spam in a given time frame. Once the site is tagged as unnatural, the ranking deteriorates and the web page faces a temporary or permanent ban depending on the severity of the spam.

7. Ignoring Site Speed

Almost everything hinges on your site load times and your page experience as without the site loading or being engaged with, all other SEO is pointless. We make sure your site loads fast.

8. Ignoring Page Experience

So your site loads fast but as it loads it moves all over the screen (CLS). Ensure your website is mobile friendly and none of the critical CSS is being excluded. You want the user to flow easily through your website so internal and external links and a cohesive site structure is recommended.