We all know Search Engine Optimization or SEO plays a major role in ranking a post higher in search engines like Google. Still, we make some sort of mistakes while doing SEO. Such mistakes can affect the ranking of your blog and may result in a low outcome in the short and long run. Stated here 7 Common SEO Mistakes you should avoid while optimizing your blog and posts.
Common SEO Mistakes to Avoid
- SEO Mistakes with Buying Links
This is the old method but is still practiced by many bloggers and webmasters and is considered one of the biggest SEO mistakes after Google Panda and Penguin updates. They buy links from link firms and link exchange programs to boost their backlinks which is slowly killing their SEO.
Normally such programs create hundreds of thousands of links in a single day which looks quite unnatural to search engines. Moreover, you do not have any clear idea where the links are going- whether all of them are going to authority sites or many of them going to spammy sites as well.
SEO is not a quick-success method. You need to be patient, practice white hat SEO, and avoid black hat whenever possible to get good results in the long run.
- Poor CMS and Themes
CMS is a very important thing when you start a blog. Not all CMS are SEO friendly and not all of them support even basic SEO features. If you are in blogging, then WordPress is the best CMS so far with millions of sites developed with it. We also see many themes in WordPress not even support SEO features or are not SEO-friendly. You should check such functionality while even buying premium themes.
- Poor Anchor Text
Many bloggers use poor anchor text which is one of the most common SEO mistakes and doesn’t bring any real benefit in terms of SEO. We frequently see such mistakes in using anchor texts like “click here” or “more”. Moreover, if a URL is linked with the same anchor text again and again, it doesn’t look natural- so anchor text variation is a must whenever possible.
- Concentrating on PageRank only
PageRank is an important factor in getting value and trust in Google; hence the higher the PageRank is, the better the chance to rank your posts high in search engines (But is it 100% true??). For this many bloggers make common mistakes to go after to increase PageRank, however, you should keep in mind that PageRank is not the only factor to rank high in search engines. Google considers more than 200 factors to rank a post high in searches. So you should concentrate on quality content, authority building, increasing trust and social signals, and building quality backlinks; as a result, PageRank will increase eventually.
- Free Hosted Blogs
Free-hosted blogs are good only when you are blogging as a hobby and do not have any aim to earn from it. But when you are blogging professionally to earn some handsome income and build an online presence, the self-hosted blog is a must. I have seen many people who started with a free-hosted blog continue it for a couple of years and then migrate to a self-hosted blog. But migration is not always SEO friendly threatening the chance of losing PageRank and reputation.
When you start a new blog, make your plan, organize your ideas and thoughts, and sketch a blueprint of what you want to achieve from blogging.
- SEO Mistakes in Keyword Stuffing
Many bloggers make common mistakes in SEO by stuffing keywords with the hope of gaining a high ranking in Google. But manipulation practice with search engines like Google is not a good idea. Keyword stuffing should be avoided, while proper keyword placement practice at appropriate places like Title, Meta desc, URL, and 1 to 2% keyword density in the content body should be regularized.
- Common SEO Mistakes While Choosing Wrong Keywords
This is probably the most common mistake in SEO in choosing the keyword that people are not searching for!! Some keywords are seasonal like “black Friday” which comes once a year and the search trend seems so high that time, while too low at the balance of the year. Some keywords also get popularity over the months or years while others lose popularity in the same trend. For example, ‘Google Panda’ or ‘Google Penguin’ seemed to get a high search trend when it first evolved and will lose its search popularity after a year or two when new Google updates are released by this time.
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