When it comes to SEO, you want to make sure you’re killing the game (and not your Google rankings). Whether you feel like you’re a seasoned SEO expert or a newbie, there are always little things to watch out for. Make sure you’re not making these top SEO mistakes—your rankings will thank you.
Mistake #1: Choosing the Wrong Keywords
One of the worst things you can do with your SEO strategy is choosing the wrong keywords to target. This is why you should always know your audience and the terms and phrases they’re typing into Google.
If you’re a Ford dealer in Cincinnati, you’ll want to know if your audience is searching for “Ford F-150 near me” or “Cincinnati Ford F-150.” Many people in the same geographical location have a similar way of searching for things.
More often than not, a specific search term will be more popular in any one area. You may find that Cincinnati Ford shoppers predominately search for “Ford F-150 near me;” and in that case, that’s the keyword phrase you want to target.
Mistake #2: Keyword Stuffing
Once you have the right keywords, don’t succumb to the desire to add them every which way to a page—this is considered “keyword stuffing,” and it’s bad news for your Google rankings.
Here’s an example of keyword stuffing: The power of the Chevrolet Camaro is nothing to ignore when looking at the details of this beautiful car. With 455 available horsepower and 455 lb.-ft available torque, you can take the Chevrolet Camaro far and fast. The Camaro is made to be athletic or sporty! The different Camaro models bring you exactly what you are looking for. The ZL1 model will get up to 655 horsepower and was made for speed. With the Chevrolet Camaro, you can get from 0-60 in 3.5 seconds. Come see our great selection of Chevy Camaro models today!
Not only does it not sound pleasant, but Google dings any content that has too many keywords stuffed inside it. To avoid this, use your chosen keyword/keyword phrase just a few times throughout the content (and once in the title, URL, and metadata) and you’ll be in the clear.
Mistake #3: Not Utilizing Analytics
If you don’t analyze your traffic, how will you ever know who’s looking at your site? You won’t be able to use the most effective targeted keywords or optimize your content without knowing the stats behind your website.
Your analytics should be both a guidepost and a marker to show you how you’re doing, so check them often! Not only will you be able to keep tabs on which pages attract the most traffic and know what your ideal audience is searching for, but you’ll also know which pages have a high or low bounce rate, how long viewers stayed on a page, whether a page went up or down in Google ranking, and more.
Get in the habit of checking your analytics (Google Analytics is a great place to start), and make sure to rely on a trusted SEO provider to help you sort through the info and dive in deeper (like our team of experts here at Dealer Authority)!
Mistake #4: Having Low Quality, Non-Optimized Content
“Quantity” over “Quality” may work in some situations, but content creation isn’t one of them.
To make the most out of your site, you’re going to need well-written content that contains the optimal amount of targeted keywords and quality links.
Using your chosen keyword or keyword phrase in the title and URL are great ways to optimize your content, as long as you haven’t stuffed too many keywords into the text.
Quality content also includes images. Images need to be optimized in two dimensions: size and SEO visibility. Using the right file formats and enabling image compression will help with size. SEO visibility comes from providing plenty of quality content, including using keyword-rich alt text for images.
Mistake #5: Poor Internal Linking
On every significant piece of content, you create, you must have internal links that lead to other relevant content. When creating internal links, try to avoid links with anchor text such as “click here” or “learn more”. This is an outdated practice, from when site owners knew little about links and how they worked.
You’ll also want to make sure there are no “bad links,” which mean broken links (leading to non-existing, “404-error” pages) and disreputable backlinks (coming from low-quality sites). Google takes all of these into consideration when ranking your pages, so make sure that your links are of quality and relevance to your content.
Mistake #6: Not Having Mobile-Friendly Pages
Having your pages optimized for mobile is becoming more and more important as mobile
devices become the default way people access the web. According to Hubspot:
- Google drives 96% of mobile search traffic
- Over 51% of smartphone users have discovered a new company or product while conducting a search on their smartphone (this percentage continues to grow!)
Make sure that your pages are optimized to fit on smaller screens and that they have a short loading time. Entering your page links into Google’s mobile-friendly test site will help you see which pages need tweaking. By avoiding these mistakes, your SEO is primed for Google ranking.
If you’d like to learn more about the do’s and don’t’s of SEO strategy, our experts here at Dealer Authority would love to give you the rundown. Give us a call today!