6 SEO Mistakes That Could Hurt Your Website

Are you worried about how your website measures up in the world of search engine optimization (SEO)?

Are you seeing less and less traffic on your web pages? If so, you’re likely making some common mistakes when it comes to SEO. Here are six common SEO pitfalls and how to avoid them so that you can maximize visibility for your website in search engines.

Trying To Do It Yourself

The first mistake that you should avoid making, which is something that many first-time website owners make, is doing it yourself. When it comes to creating a website, almost anyone can do that, especially with the number of intuitive website builders available today that just allow you to select templates.

However, when it comes to search engine optimization, this is something entirely different and isn’t something that you can master without years of training or experience. If this is your first website, it is highly advised that you contact a professional SEO agency such as figmentagency.com to handle things for you, at least in the beginning. Not only will this help to jump-start your website and help you to begin gaining traffic immediately, but you also won’t waste money by having a website that no one is visiting.

Not Link Building

The second mistake on this list that you should avoid making, and one that will hurt your website in the long run, is not building links. Have you ever visited a website, read through an article, and seen a blue text that links to another website? That is called a backlink and is essential for the growth of your site.

Backlinks are links that point back to your site, and are one of the best ways, if not the best way, to gain authority for your site. Essentially, when you link to a site, this is a sign to search engines that you are a reliable source of information, which helps Google determine how to rank your site. When link building, you should always focus on linking to sites that have a better domain authority than your own, and above all, you should link farms.

Not Creating Content

Of all the mistakes that you could be making with your website, whether it is new or has been around for some time, not creating content is probably one of the biggest. If there is one thing that you can do to increase your website ranking, creating reliable and useful content is at the top of the list.

At the end of the day, search engines like Google are only really focused on one question; “can this and does this website answer the search queries of users?”, after all, that is the primary function of Google. If your site is creating high-quality content that is answering the search queries of users, you will rise in the rankings. With that being said, you should never create thin content, which is content specifically created just for links to be used within, since this type of content is easily identifiable by Google and doesn’t offer any value to Google users.

Not Focusing on Your Site

Much like not creating content for your site, not focusing on your site as a whole is another mistake that you should avoid making. What does this mean? Well, there are many things that you could be doing to improve your site, and more importantly, there are many things that you need to be doing to improve the ranking of your site.

For example, you need to ensure that the time it takes for your site to load is at least less than 4 seconds. This is because more than half of website visitors will leave if a site takes longer than 5 seconds to load. In addition to this, you need to have a structured site that is easy to use. Above all else, your site should be designed in such a way that it directs visitors where to go, and more importantly, where you want them to go.

Another thing to consider is your hosting; if you are using Magento for your website, choose only the most reliable Magento Hosting provider.

Not Doing Keyword Research

Finally, the last mistake that you should avoid making on this list as a website owner would be not doing keyword research. Keyword research is one of the most important things you will need to do if you want your site to get better rankings. You need to find out what keywords you are using for the pages on your site and how this compares with search traffic. You also need to ensure that the keywords you use are relevant to the content that is on your site. In addition to this, when you are creating content, you need to do keyword research to find out what people are searching for. As a new website, you should avoid trying to compete with the more established sites, since this is a fight you.