To build your brand in 2021, search engine optimisation (SEO) will be critical. This is particularly true since social media’s value in generating traffic has diminished and Google has surpassed all other sources of referral traffic in 2017, accounting for 35% of all site visitors since then.
Luckily, it is possible to improve the ranking of your website in Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs) and move your website to the top of the search results through known optimisation techniques. This is necessary since the top search result receives much more clicks than the subsequent ones.
Several considerations should be kept in mind while optimising your website as these help keep SEO errors to a minimum. Otherwise, you run the risk of damaging your website’s professional reputation if you make any of these mistakes.
Below, you’ll find some of the most fatal SEO blunders that you should avoid committing in 2021.
11 Common SEO Errors to Avoid
1. Unsatisfied search intent
Search intent is, in essence, the motivation for searching. This goal must be met through your website and content, which must provide a solution to the problem. The importance of understanding what the searcher is thinking while they are looking for something cannot be overstated.
A user’s query has to be addressed on your website and it should be answered immediately. For instance, a user interested in knowing more about what SEO is will likely search “SEO” on Google. A user who looks for “SEO services”, on the other hand, is someone who wants to engage an SEO professional or organisation.
Both search terms have a distinct meaning but are equally relevant in their intended purposes. For example, if you’re targeting the term “SEO Services” but you’re not explaining what is SEO, your material may fall short of its intent since you will ultimately not meet the goal behind the search term.
Even if your website puts out excellent content, the folks who visit your website may not find it very valuable in the long run if it is not well-targeted. Although you have identified your target audience, all of your efforts may still be for nothing when you do not take into account their search intent.
2. Using outdated SEO tactics
SEO is evolving and changing in the same manner that the internet is evolving and changing. To maintain your position at the top of the search results pages, you must keep up with the latest updates and use new SEO strategies.
If you continue to use old SEO strategies, you may find yourself in the position of getting penalisd by Google. Those days of ranking high on search engines by using keyword stuffing, private blog networks, and other conventional approaches are long over.
Google is now more intelligent than it was before. It may now rank for keywords that you haven’t included in your content as well as those that have. Plus, Google recently implemented an algorithmic change (Google BERT), which allows the search engine to better comprehend content and user-queries.
Use the most up-to-date SEO strategies accessible to you when you want to be successful with search engine optimisation. Traditional strategies will not only punish your site, but they will also keep you from outranking rivals in search results.
3. Failing to keep oneself up to date
As previously said, search engine optimisation is a constantly evolving area, and you must keep up with every development. Remember, Google releases new updates on the regular. It is never impossible for your website to suffer dire consequences from being out of the loop. Keep tabs on any significant algorithm update and you will never lose much-needed traffic on your website.
4. Disregarding organised data and search functionality
To stand out from the crowd, structured data is vital, particularly when you reach the top of the first page of Google search results. With structured data, your search result ranking may wind up appearing even higher down the line, increasing the likelihood that it would be the first pick for your targeted users.
In a similar vein, you must work on strengthening the internal search functionality of your website. Visitors to your website must find it simple to access important content and the search tool may assist them in this endeavour.
Make an effort to include search into your website as well as to optimise your listings so that those who are searching for something specific can discover them in no time.
There are several sorts of structured data for different types of material that you may utilise on your website, with each having their own set of benefits:
- Review of a product (product review)
- How to content (guide materials)
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ content)
- Contact information (company address)
- Linkage to relevant knowledge (for contemporary news content)
- Timelines (for important events)
5. Ignoring the need for conversion optimisation
The ultimate objective of any organisation is to acquire consumers and to do so, you must first produce leads and then convert off them. Many firms, on the other hand, choose to ignore conversion optimisation and instead focus only on the top of the funnel.
However, it is vital to supply your leads with all they need to convert them into paying clients. Provide them with testimonials and case studies to convince them that you are the best choice to meet their particular needs.
Create a straightforward process for them to finish the transaction as well. If you ignore conversion optimisation, you might wind up losing a significant number of clients and, therefore, money.
It is the most effective low-cost technique for increasing your income that you should not neglect in 2021 and should be implemented immediately.
6. Ignoring the importance of branded anchor text
Anchor texts are critical for your SEO strategy and account for a significant portion of any link development approach. Even though you may get a large number of backlinks from reputable sites, the anchor text of these connections is incredibly significant.
You might utilise anchor sentences that are relevant to your websites or blogs, for example. However, by disregarding the branded anchor texts, you may find that you are unable to increase the authority of your brand.
Branded anchor texts may assist you in increasing your brand awareness, and as a consequence, your brand may begin to rank better in search results as a result.
Additionally, branded anchors seem more natural than anchor texts that include keywords. Research suggests that majority of the sites that witnessed an increase in their ranks as a result of Google’s June update had more sponsored anchor texts than other sites. As a result, you should concentrate on creating more branded anchor texts.
7. Focusing too much on text content
Most likely, you’ve heard that videos are the wave of the future.
Yes, this is correct! In fact, videos are the most effective method of learning and people prefer to watch videos more than any other kind of material. This is the most important reason for YouTube’s widespread appeal.
Not only that, you must have seen that videos showing up on Google SERPs. Google understands that videos are the wave of the future and that consumers like consuming this specific media. It is for this reason that they appear often on SERPs these days.
Furthermore, videos take less time to rank on Google than text material and engage consumers and users better.
Besides video content, podcasts are now starting to appear in SERPs. It’s a rising trend but it should not be surprising to find that these content types will one day be as effective as traditional text-based content.
8. Not putting enough emphasis on branding and brand searches
“Brands are the answers” and Google is a big fan of brand recognition.
SEO is growing more and more focused on brands daily. Now, SEO is much more than simply generating visitors. It has become necessary for brand exposure and development.
If you want to dominate the search engine optimisation game and establish your company as a trustworthy and successful brand, you must first concentrate on branding.
You should enhance the number of brand searches for your company. When more people start looking for your company on Google, it will naturally begin to place you at the top of the search results.
Using this method to expand your company and position yourself as an expert will be effective for a long time.
9. Coming unprepared for for mobile use
A little more than half of all Internet traffic is generated by mobile devices. If your website is not optimised for mobile devices, Google will consider it to be unfriendly to its searchers and will likely penalise you as a result.
Check to see that your website is mobile-friendly and that it is particularly developed for mobile devices before launching it. You’ll also be able to boost the visibility of your website by taking advantage of the burgeoning mobile traffic.
Google Search considers mobile-friendliness and page speed to be ranking criteria in its search results nowadays. So if you want your company to achieve SEO success, you shouldn’t disregard mobile users.
10. Setting vague SEO objectives
Before you begin working on SEO for your website, you must establish clear objectives. If you don’t know what you want to accomplish with your website’s SEO, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever be able to see it expand in traffic.
The trick is to first determine what you want from your website and SEO and then to develop a strategy for achieving those goals. It is impossible to achieve success with a random plan. Fortunately, this is an area where an expert SEO agency can help you.
11. Prioritising search engines over people
Develop your content and build your SEO strategy with the end-user in mind. Because, at the end of the day, you need human clients to complete the sale cycle and provide income to your company.
Remember, your company’s success depends on its clients, not on search engines. Search engines such as Google are just a vehicle for acquiring new clients.
By placing greater value on your customers, you increase the probability of your customers naturally promoting you and Google (or any other search engine) will reward you for your efforts by improving your rank on search results. Needless to say, you must strive to attain and maintain consumer satisfaction in delivering your services and goods.
Conclusion
You should make a deliberate effort to avoid making any of these fatal SEO blunders in 2021 now that you are aware of them. If you don’t build your website for mobile devices, have clear SEO objectives in mind, and concentrate on producing various types of content, you might find yourself in deep water.
To remain one step ahead of the competition, use new SEO strategies and keep yourself up to speed on the latest developments.
Thankfully, you don’t need to rack your brains to do these as you’ll get honest, qualified advice on SEO with us here at TopRankings. Because we’ve made SEO work for our agency, we’ll certainly do the same for yours.
