The site is done, keyword strategy planned, content placed, and yet you fail to rank on the SERPs you want and if you are there certainly in non-competitive positions. Very often even the most spectacular sites, in fact, conceal common and trivial SEO errors that prevent them from quickly climbing the ranks and gaining ground on the competition. Errors very often dictated by distraction, haste (also in the web bad advice) or superficiality. Fortunately, these are not irreparable damage, as long as in addition to noticing them abruptly, we manage to be responsive in correcting them. In our SEO agency we also do these checks when analyzing a new client’s site, and we do not hide from you the fact that most often we make several corrections to projects theoretically already optimized by others.
Top 10 most common SEO mistakes
- Page titles that are too long:
the page title is the text that is displayed at the top of the browser window or browser tab, and it is also the title of the page shown in Google search results. You will say that it is a said and done thing, yet still many do not pay attention by continuing to create them longer than 60 characters (actually pixels are counted but checking characters is easier and faster), resulting in getting it “cut off” directly by spiders. - Keyword not stated in the Title:
avoid unnecessary descriptive words when making the title, focus mainly on the chosen keyword. One of the most important factors for search engine ranking is always how the page title matches the user’s search terms. - Meta description too long:
the meta description of your page is the text that appears below the page title in search results. The same rule applies to this as to the title as well. If too long it can be cut off, the recommended length is about 150 characters with a punctuation mark closing the period. - Should every page have a new keyword?
Every page within a Web site is an opportunity to be found in the vastness of the Internet. Therefore, planning different keywords for each individual page is the best solution to have a better chance of getting a better overall ranking in SERPs. To solve this problem, we need to develop a list of different keywords for each page, perhaps looking for correlates to our initially chosen keywords. Figure out what it offers, what is different from the others, and choose the one that can showcase what each individual page can offer. - When to renew the domain?
The longer a domain remains registered over time, the more “historical value” a site gains vis-à-vis search engines. With a domain registration for 2 or 3 years, one can reap good benefits in terms of SEO. The trust that Google assigns to a site is a very important value for the site’s ranking, and historicity cannot be bought in any way. - Proper use of HTML and CSS:
although we touch on a technical point, it remains of paramount importance. Having of HTML languages and style sheets correct and possibly validated by the W3C, can make a difference on the design of the site, its relative layout and from an SEO point of view. Never mess up code writing and always pay close attention to it. - The Alt tag, in images is critical:
search engines cannot really “read” images (or nearly so); they scan the text. Thanks to the ALT tag, they can associate images with descriptive text. This helps the engine ranking of the images themselves and also makes the page more optimized to the search query if we have indicated the keyword in the name and Alt. If you use a CMS com WordPress for example, this action takes less than 10 seconds, but many people still forget this. - Conversion form too long:
this is one of the biggest mistakes made when building a site. Asking for too much information in the conversion form can not only drive people away from your site (with related decrease in CTR) but is also detrimental to engine spiders. To solve this problem, you need to think about what minimum information is really needed. If all you need is a name and e-mail address, you need only ask for these. - Too much or too little text?
Search engines focus on text in a particular way, so it goes without saying how important this is. There is no fixed number of characters (although it is advisable to never stay under 350 words), the best “technique” to follow is to be as natural as possible. The content will be read by the engines, but don’t forget that you are doing this for the end user. The more information you put in, the more comprehensive and original you are, the more it will pay off in terms of indexing. - Traffic data never analyzed:
many people, once they have created their site (even done well perhaps), forget to constantly keep track of the traffic data it generates. To get the most out of your website, you need to analyze the results, adjusting your SEO strategy accordingly. To do this, all you need to do is to have Google Analytics ‘ tracking code added to your site and that’s it, you will have a wealth of data to work with.
With regard to SEO for ecommerce, on the other hand, the analysis is a bit more complex, and beyond these simple steps, attention must be paid to many other factors and technical errors. If you are interested in building an optimized ecommerce that tangibly shows the difference from your competitors, all you have to do is contact us.