Your website’s search engine optimization (SEO) can make or break your business in the digital market. This can determine whether your content will become accessible to potential customers looking for your products and services.

Not knowing the basics of SEO is similar to running a business without market research or promotions. You may be putting your business online, but your target market may not find it or even be aware of your brand. On the other hand, effective SEO can get more website traffic, a wider audience, and potentially more sales or leads.

This article will run you through some of the worst SEO mistakes that can ruin your online business.

1 – Stuffing Keywords into a Page

As keywords are the words that search engines and users look for when searching for content, it may be tempting to use as many keywords as possible. You may think that using more keywords can help you appear on more search results pages. However, this only does the opposite. 

The practice of overstuffing a page with keywords is so common on the internet that Google, Bing, and other search engines recognize and label such pages as spam. Instead of appearing on more searches, your page may be hidden as it is considered irrelevant.

Instead of keyword stuffing, you should use keywords naturally and organically. This is because the goal of SEO is to create high-quality content that ranks well on search engines, not to stuff keywords.

2 – Not Thinking about Your Users

As an online entrepreneur, you have to remember that you’re not doing SEO for search engines but for your users. You may have the most highly ranked website in the world, but if people don’t find it engaging or valuable, that ranking is worthless.

You need to write content that is relevant to your readers or site visitors. Doing so will help you get your message across to the people who need to know about your business.

You can then improve your SEO to help get this content to your readers. Interested readers are likely to come back to your site or share your content with friends and family.

3 – A Lack of Mobile Optimization

As a business owner, you may want to ensure that your site is optimized for mobile devices. Those who use smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices make up a growing number of users in Internet searches.

If your site doesn’t have usability on smartphones, you can be sure that users will abandon your site in favor of one that’s mobile-friendly. Also, users may not bother with your site if your pages don’t adapt to the screen size of their device.

4 – Generic Anchor Text

Anchor text is the text that’s visible on a blue or underlined link. You can use this text to point to other pages on your site or external pages on the Web. This text can be used in headings or the text of your blog posts.

If you just use “click here” or “this” as your anchor text, you’re not doing your SEO any favors. These generic anchor texts are vague and don’t tell your visitors anything about the link they are clicking. They are not likely to click these links.

Instead, you should use anchor text related to your topic or describe the page they will be directed to if they click the link.

Conclusion

For an online business, SEO can make or break your site. Avoiding these common SEO mistakes can help you avoid the pitfalls that other sites have fallen into. Remember to create relevant content for your readers, think about your users, and focus on mobile optimization.

Does this seem like too much work or too complicated for you? It helps to have a reliable SEO agency to help you sort out your site’s SEO.

If you’re looking for an SEO agency in Tulsa, Hashty Techie LLC Design can be your reliable partner in online growth. Schedule your free consultation today!