Rules of Search Engine Optimization rapidly change and require close surveillance. Google changes its ranking algorithm unexpectedly, spicing up the competition. Major changes in the system create SEO trends that have a direct influence on the habits of digital marketing managers. But these habits can become outdated, therefore becoming nothing more than SEO mistakes.
It is quite important to know those mistakes and always avoid them in order to appear on the first Google search results page. Because according to the latest SEO statistics made by Backlinko, only 0.78% of Google users go to the 2nd search page. Even though appearing on the second page is already considered to be a fortune, you need to gain more to raise your brand awareness and attract leads.
So which are the most common SEO mistakes? What could be standing on your way to the first page? Read further to find out!!
Using Too Many Anchors
Formerly, using anchor links in content was a major SEO trend, but the times have changed. Now an inappropriate use of anchors may “kill” your search rating. Of course, not all the anchors are fatal to your ranking, that is why it is customary to separate them into two types: safe anchors and optimized anchors.
What does an optimized anchor stand for?
An optimized anchor is a keyword that you are trying to rank for used for a hyperlink. For example, let’s imagine that you have a travel agency website. In your content (made on another website) you use the optimized anchor “cheapest tour to Europe” link that helps readers to go to your website page. You could have greatly benefited your SEO by using many anchors like that if not for Google providing a new rule – “Link Schemes”.
The text reads:
What is a safe anchor?
The safe anchors can be separated into three kinds:
Naked Anchor
Naked Anchor is a hyperlink that uses a link URL itself as an anchor text. This kind of anchor is rarely used due to it usually being too crowded with symbols. It really looks ugly to leave a long URL on a web page.
Branded URLs
Branded URLs or branded links are the hyperlinks that use brand names or other kinds of branded text as text to attach links to. It is much better than the bare naked links as it doesn’t litter the web page space with unnecessary symbols.
Long Phrase
Long phrases that are used as an anchor text work well too. You may use the title of your article or your page name as an anchor text with a link to your website.
In addition, we just want to say – try to avoid optimized anchors. Make them safe. That’s the way to maximize your chances to be at the top of the Google search results page.
Low Uniqueness Level
In the stage of filling your website with content, you or your copywriter can make the biggest mistake ever that can ruin your search rating – copying the text of your competitors. In other words, creating content with a low uniqueness level.
You might ask why is it so looked upon? The Google bot analyzes all your text and compares it to similar content pieces. If the bot sees plagiarism, a website page with your article will have a lower Google rating. So, avoid this practice and save your website from being disregarded by Google.
Moreover, you shouldn’t forget that even if you don’t copy-paste content, Google may find the same or similar pieces anyway and accept it as rewritten. We recommend you to check your texts before publishing using such anti-plagiarism tools as Сopywritely, Unicheck in order to avoid being accused of copying content.
No Alt Text for Images
If you skip adding Alt Text to the images on your website, you are missing out on some lucrative ways to be found by Google.
Image Alt Text is an explanation of the visual, in some way, it’s a keyword for the image. For example, you have an image displaying SEO tips, so it will be better to write an Alt Text for this image like – “SEO Tips”, “Top – 7 SEO Tips”, etc. This way, your image will be shown in the Google Image Search of this keyword. People can find your image and go to your website by clicking on it.
Bad Backlinks
Paying “crowd linkbuilders” to increase the number of backlinks that refer to a website, is one of the cheapest ways to higher the rank in Google search. But, most newbie SEO marketing managers, decide that buying a whole bunch of links will do the hard work done and raise the Google search rank quickly.
It is true that links are good for your website, but the vast majority could be quite threatening. For the most part, backlink batches are made of bad links usually from irrelevant low-quality aggregator sites.
It is important to keep track of the backlinks to your site. Sometimes low-quality websites purposely link to you to drag your SEO down. Don’t panic in such cases, there are lots of tools that will help you monitor all kinds of backlinks to your website. Look for those that might hurt your domain and ask Google Support not to index it.
So remember that bad links will hurt your ranking, and always check your backlink profile. For example, we use Ahrefs to monitor backlinks to our website.
Writing Irrelevant Content
Your content has to always semantically match the meta title and description of a page. Your keywords are the direct way of exposing in Search Engines, therefore, it is essential to meet the expectations of a searching user. Irrelevant content is one of the main triggers for a rising bounce rate.
In simple words, bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who enter the site and then leave immediately rather than continuing to consume the page content or view other pages within the same site.
If you write irrelevant content, page visitors will quickly glance at it and leave without a second thought. Cases like that raise your bounce rate lowering your search ranking.
Try to write content that corresponds to the title and used keywords. It will engage users with your content. This way, in the case of truly quality content, people will share it, and even move down your sales funnel.
Conclusion
In this article, we’ve shared the 5 most common mistakes that damage your search rating in 2021. However, a well-established SEO campaign requires much deeper knowledge than just some of the commonly made mistakes.
To get to the top of the search results you should follow all SEO trends and gain experience working with the Google bot. It is hard to make it on your own without an expert. That’s why we are always open to help you with an SEO strategy that will ensure exposure in the search engines. Just contact us for a free consultation!