More Common SEO Mistakes to Avoid
Whether you are doing SEO for a small website or a huge brand, as a marketing expert, you need to be well informed about the common Search Engine Optimization mistakes. If you want your site on the first pages of search results so you can make more money resulting from higher traffic, the following are the mistakes you should definitely avoid:
Adding keyword phrases to your GMB listing’s business name
Every Austin SEO marketer is aware of the fact that keywords are vital elements used by internet users to find a particular product or brand. With that in mind, some people doing SEO often go over and beyond the set standards as far as adding keyword phrases. Notably, they add them to the business name in the GMB (Google My Business) listing thinking that Google will rank them better. Yes, keywords appearing in the business name may help boost rankings, but there is a catch here. The said phrases ought to be part of the legal name of the business; otherwise, it is a direct desecration of GMB guidelines.
It can also be interpreted that adding keywords to the business name in your GMB listing is typically operating like a spammer; something that sincere SEOs across the world and Google despise.
So what are you supposed to do? Well, we all know that it is very tempting to violate this rule in a bid to boost SEO ranking, but do not give in to this urge! The reason why you shouldn’t add keywords to Google My Business Listing is that the risk is not worth. This is because anyone else, including your competitors, can easily report you to Google. If Google marks you as a spammer then, without doubt, they can take severe action against your site’s listing.
Requesting visitors to “click here”
If you have been browsing a lot, there is no doubt you have seen many websites asking people to head their cursors to a “click here” button if you need to get more information! Including this generic CTA (call-to-action) as an anchor text is a complete waste of an opportune moment to boost your search engine optimization.
Click here doesn’t benefit your website directly. We are not saying that using anchor text on a site’s landing page is a bad idea, but the kind of text you use matters a lot. Use text that is not only relevant but also helpful to whoever is reading your website text. SEO best practices advise on using keywords in anchor text because search engines factor in the said text and the direction of the hyperlink. More importantly, avoid stuffing the landing pages with a cluster of keyword anchor text links as this may be perceived by search engines as spammy, and you know the consequences!
The last and the very important point to note are about the content prior to and after the anchor text or hyperlink. Since search engines consider these contents, ensure that the words around the “click here” button are related to the keywords.
Forgetting or ignoring to use image Alt Tags
We all know that the internet is more or less about images, video, and text. They are the exact spices that make up a business website, but let’s focus on images. SEO fundamentals require that images should be fully optimized and, if this is not the case, then you are missing out on great SEO strategies.
