With so much to focus on in Search Engine Optimization, it is easy to make a mistake. We’ve made a list of the top 10 SEO mistakes you should try to avoid when working on your SEO campaign.
As a SaaS SEO Agency, we focus a lot on tactics to increase rank but there are also a lot of tactics that should be avoided if you want to lose rank.
Why is SEO important and what does it entail?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing web pages and their content to be easily discoverable by users through search engines. This includes techniques such as keyword research, content optimization, link building, and web page analysis in order to improve a website’s rankings on search engine results pages.
Keyword research is the process of identifying search terms that are relevant to the content of a website or web page and analyzing how frequently these words and phrases are being searched in search engines. This information can then be used to achieve higher rankings on search engine results pages and drive more organic traffic to the site.
Content optimization is the process of making changes to a website or digital content with the intent of improving visibility and performance in search engine results. It includes tasks such as improving page speed, ensuring mobile compatibility, optimizing titles and descriptions, and utilizing keyword-rich content.
Link building is a process of creating incoming links to a website from other websites, in order to increase the website’s rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs). Link building is an essential part of modern-day SEO and can be implemented through various techniques.
Web page analysis is the process of examining a web page to identify elements such as content, images, and links, in order to better understand its usability and accessibility. It can also include analyzing the communication and navigation structure of a website.
1. Choosing Keywords Without Research
In order to effectively optimize the types of keywords in SEO for your site, you need to choose the appropriate keywords. Not only are they important because they are used throughout your content, they are also responsible for attracting search engine spiders. With the wrong keywords, you can miss valuable opportunities and gain traffic that won’t convert.
When it comes to SEO for SaaS companies, there are a lot of mistakes that can be made. From building the wrong links to using flash-based websites, these mistakes can hurt your rankings and visibility in search engine results. It is important to make sure you use keywords correctly, optimize title tags, focus on all search engines, create quality links naturally, understand your target
How to choose keywords:
Relevance
Google ranks content based on relevance and how well it answers the question, prompt, etc. being asked.
Authority
If Google deems your site and it’s content authoritative based on your use of keyword authority, SEO will improve. This is why utilizing an SEO tool like SEMRush is vital.
Volume
Ranking number one for a keyword can be great! But, what if no one actually searches that word? Then, none of your content will be seen. So, generating great content for high-ranking keywords is imperative.
How to narrow your keyword search.
2. Bad Content
If you have content that is unreadable or useless to the user, the keywords you choose won’t matter. Content is one of the most important elements to search optimization and with great content comes great conversion. Use it as a selling tool and make sure it provides the user with the information they are seeking.
While it’s important to keep SEO considerations in mind, it’s even more important to create quality content that engages readers and keeps them interested. To make sure your content stands out from the competition, focus on delivering value by providing useful insights that solve problems or answer questions readers may have about your topic.
3. Building The Wrong Links
Building links just to build links is not a great strategy when it comes to SEO. You need to build quality links that search engines will respect and use in their ranking system. Linking to directories is not enough and only provides low-quality links. You should try to link to a well-respected and trusted industry site that will be worth more to you than 100 links from directories.
A title tag is what will be displayed when someone sees the search results of your page in Google or another search engine. Unfortunately, not optimizing it for the search engine is a common mistake many companies make. This isn’t only important because it shows as the title of your site in the search results and helps with optimization.
4. Using A Flash Website
One of the main problems with flash-based websites is that it is not very friendly. Not only is it limiting to the users, but it also is unreadable to search engines. Search engine spiders can’t read your content if it is in flash and therefore they can’t index your site. If you must have a flash website please provide an HTML alternative.
Flash additionally has a history of security flaws and bugs and requires a Flash Player. Ultimately, its an outdated technique that does not work on Apple mobile devices and is, unfortunately, really inefficient. Mobile is so big now, its much better to invest time into growing and expanding your SaaS mobile site. This is why leaning on a SaaS SEO agency can prove vital to your development and expansion.
5. Flooding Your Content
You do need to include your keywords in your content, but you also need to ensure you don’t flood your content. This means that you place so many keywords throughout your content that it ends up being unreadable. Make sure you place your keywords logically throughout your content so it read naturally to search engines and your readers.
Qualities of a good keyword include word count, price or CPC, competition, and, arguably most importantly, search volume.
When you utilize keywords it’s imperative to consider search intent. This tells you where the user is in their journey and what they’re trying to achieve. Is it transactional, commercial, navigational, informational, etc? If they are looking to buy, how are you going to use keywords to your advantage to boost engagement and conversion rates, etc?
Google knows if your content is stuffed to the brim with keywords. Depending on the length of your content and what is included, your keyword should only really pop up when necessary. Google can also detect when your use of the keyword feels extremely unnatural or awkward. It is a really common SEO mistake for SaaS companies due to the competitive pressure of rising to the top.
6. There’s More Than One Search Engine
A mistake that many people make is that they only focus on Google. Google is a large search engine if not the largest, but it isn’t the only search engine being used by users. You need to prepare your site for all search engines to get the full benefit of SEO.
Utilizing a SaaS SEO agency and its expertise on vital tools your company could be using is a generally smart move for any team looking to be better versed in SEO. Additionally, you have the power to play around with a variety of tools to figure out what works best for you. Our SaaS SEO agency uses SEMRush, one of the industry standards. However, there is a myriad of tools to look into that have different offerings and opportunities for your SaaS company.
7. Don’t Pay For Links
After Google updated its algorithm to Penguin it became dangerous to pay for links. Search engines have started to expect you to create quality links naturally and paying for links is a violation. The best way to avoid this is to focus on creating great content and earning your links naturally.
This one is self-explanatory… we know you don’t need more!
Invest in creatives and strategists! Not links that won’t pay off.
8. Ignore Your Target Audience
When you optimize your site you need to make sure you keep your audience in mind. Use language that your audience uses and will understand, and make sure to define terms that aren’t commonly used.
Strategize around your target audience by brainstorming the countless personas that can be illustrated through your overarching target audience. There should be a piece of content and a type of customer journey or experience that appeals to every ideal user your team can think of.
9. Lack of Maintenance
The bottom line is, if you want to be successful in SEO, you must keep your site updated with fresh content and adjust your strategy as algorithms change.