5 SEO Mistakes That Are Affecting Your Content Performance
Quick fixes for your content woes
Maximizing your ranking potential by using Google’s complex search algorithm is a must in the increasingly competitive world of content marketing. An SEO specialist or search engine optimization agency in Dubai must constantly battle with tweaks and shifting algorithm patterns. The workload can ultimately lead to SEO mistakes that will negatively affect your ranking performance. In this article, we’ll discuss common mistakes and how to fix them.
Targeting Keywords Based on Volume
‘If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?’
This popular philosophical thought can be applied to effective, or ineffective, content marketing. Producing a ‘great’ piece of content is all well and good but what if no one’s seeing it? Does it really exist? Plugging your content with high-volume keywords might seem like a good idea but you’ll end up losing out on meaningful engagement. Think of it like this, when people enter keywords into a search engine and they’re not matching your high-volume keywords, your content won’t appear in their search results.
The Solution: a simple Google search using your target keywords will give you a good idea of what your audience are typing into their search engines. You can frame your content plan from there to increase your chance of gaining potential visitors via SEO in Dubai.
Excessive Keyword Use
Sometimes, less is more…
We understand it’s easy to get carried away with the specific targeting of keywords that appear continuously in your niche. However this can result in content dilution, as you’ll not only be competing with your competitors in SERPs, but also with yourself…! Not ideal. Creating multiple pieces of content that target the same keyword will only have adverse effects.
The Solution: make use of Google Analytics to determine which of your posts have the most engagement from organic traffic and which of your content pieces closely matches the relevant search query. After determining your most optimized piece of content, it’s time to prune. Removing your content is always tough, especially putting in hours of valuable time and effort. But in this case, it’s best to remove old or outdated content – no matter how difficult. Other tactics include the re-optimization or combination of several content pieces to target different keywords, streamlining your content strategy.
Disregard for Link Structure
Your website’s internal linking structure is important to inform both users and bots of the content of each page and which pages are most important (your home page will typically be your highest-ranking page). A lack of structure can cause confusion as Google crawlers won’t be able to determine what your individual pages contain, adversely affecting your ranking.
The Solution: invest in the development and maintenance of your website’s keyword map. This simple solution, which can easily be done in a spreadsheet, will be the foundation for your internal linking. The map can act as your own reference tool, allowing you to quickly check what anchor text should be used to link your target pages. After completing your keyword map, you should conduct an audit of your site to rein in any rogue pages without any links and optimize any existing links to better fit the anchor text.
Lack of Mobile Optimization
Mobile users make up a massive demographic, one that continues to rise at an annual rate. According to Statista, over half (52.2%) of website traffic was served to mobile phones in 2018. A negative mobile experience will send users running in search of another, more optimized website. Websites that aren’t prepared for this will see an increase in bounce rate and a decrease in organic search traffic. These are important ranking factors that need to be constantly monitored and considered.
The Solution: conduct an audit of your mobile site keeping the following metrics in mind: mobile speed, mobile experience, bounce rate and pages per session. After gaining the required data, you’ll be able to conduct A/B testing to find out how to improve your mobile website performance.
Impatience!
SEO promotion is a long and arduous process. The ever-changing needs of the consumer and Google’s constantly evolving algorithm mean a lot of work is required. Keeping the site’s content relevant, updating meta tags, and setting up internal site linking and backlinks is a full-time job. However, the results suggest that the end justifies the means. SEO promotion ultimately provides reliable results and the work is definitely worth it.
The Solution: don’t give up. This process is a marathon, not a sprint. Expecting immediate results is the biggest motivation killer as you’ll inevitably end up disappointed. Keep expectations in check and results will eventually begin to manifest.
Wrap Up
Don’t be discouraged if you make an SEO-related mistake. Although the process of optimizing your website is multifaceted, consisting of multiple sections and subsections, the margin for error is relatively small. However, taking this into account, you can rest easier knowing that the process of mending any errors is ultimately very forgiving. It’s not all doom and gloom!
