Bad SEO Habits to Stop in the New Year
The start of the new year is a great opportunity to drop bad SEO habits that have been hurting your website.
With the new year approaching, it’s time to make some resolutions for the next twelve months. While you may be making resolutions and goals for your life, why not also resolve to finally leave behind some bad SEO habits that are hurting your blog? Letting these habits go will significantly improve your blog’s impact in the new year.
Creating Pages with Similar Content
An example of this bad SEO habit is duplicating pages where every piece of content is the same except for the title. This leads to low-quality pages that can pull down the rest of your website!
Trying to Solve Ranking Problems with More Links
Links are a public endorsement and demonstrate that a website has valuable information. However, problems can occur when links are unnaturally gathered through link schemes, poor directories, purchasing links, or other “spam” tactics. Instead, focus on a user-focused link strategy.
Adding Marginal Content for SEO
You need content for SEO, but marginal, filler content is often added to websites for the sole purpose of “improving SEO.” However, this bad SEO habit will prevent you in the long run from gaining an audience. If you want to measure up to your competition, high-quality content is essential.
Skipping Headline Optimization
Forgetting to make your title both SEO-friendly and compelling can hurt your optimization results. Taking the time to optimize your title and headlines for keywords, will let readers know immediately that your website has the information they need.
Missing Technical Problems
Even if your SEO is great, if your website has underlying technical issues, your rankings could take a hit. The most common technical problems are:
- Improper redirects
- Slow page load time
- Mobile errors
- Duplicate content
- Unintentionally blocked pages
You can break this bad SEO habit by periodically doing an SEO audit on your website.
Forgetting to Optimize Images
Remember to optimize your image file name and alt attributes. Use keywords that are descriptive of the image, such as “organic-coffee-beans.jpg.” The alt attribute should not be keyword-stuffed but should be descriptive of the image.
Providing Subpar Reports
Because so much of what SEO specialists do is not tangible, it is critical to be as transparent as possible. This way, your clients understand the value of your work. Provide data on key performance indicators (KPIs) associated with your SEO efforts, and deliver them to your clients monthly.
Not Staying Current on SEO Best Practices
The worst bad SEO habit to have is failing to stay current on the SEO changes. Staying informed on best practices, algorithm changes, and webmaster guidelines is essential for SEO success. A good habit for 2020 is to start reading weekly SEO blogs to stay informed on industry news and expert advice.
Contact Adventure Web Interactive Today
For more tips on how to optimize your web content and drive more traffic to your Facebook page, follow our blog. Adventure Web Interactive offers expert marketing solutions, including blog and copywriting and social media management. Take the stress of planning, posting, and plotting off of your team and contact us online or by giving us a call at (410) 788-7007. To see more information about our team and services, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
