In the SEO market today, Boostability handles a wide variety of business verticals and websites. From acupuncture to industrial welding, we deal with it all. As we manage customers’ websites, we have to handle any past SEO efforts.
Consequently, we often come across old tactics that were useful at one point in time, but just don’t work with today’s best practices—and can actually lead to big penalties from Google. If you’re worried your website isn’t up to snuff, make sure you avoid the following five things.
Keyword Stuffing
The days of stuffing your pages full of keywords are long gone. Search engines are looking for natural and organic keyword inclusions to determine content and site relevancy today. Tweet This
This means we have to keep meta data and other page elements free from keyword cramming. If you have practiced keyword stuffing in the past, the result can be diminished or loss of ranking while losing ground in a competitive space. To avoid this, review your content from a neutral standpoint. Remove unnecessary or unnatural keyword inclusions, and make sure your content is relevant and easy to read.
Weak Site Content
Content is king in today’s SEO, with an emphasis on digestibility and usability. Tweet This Because of this, duplicate content is an immediate red flag for both users and search engines.
Check your content with tools like Copyscape to catch any external duplication from other websites, and make sure that each individual page has its own unique content.
Even similar content that is borderline duplication is a sign that you might be behind the times when it comes to SEO. Make sure that pages on your site are unique, instead of just copying other pages with small variations.
A good way to see if your content is truly up to par is asking, “What value or purpose does this page serve?” If that question stumps you, then it is likely the page isn’t providing anyone else any true value.
Bad User Experience
Maintaining user attention is becoming more and more important to search engines as rank indicators. Tweet This Metrics like time on site, bounce rate, and page views per visit have increased weight in your success in the SERPs.
This means you have to make sure your website is keeping user attention. Because of this, helping navigate customers through your site is crucial to your success on search engines. If your site doesn’t have a clear path for users to follow, then it is likely you won’t maintain the user’s attention (or your rankings) for very long.
An easy way to test site navigability is to start on your homepage and see where you would go naturally. Does anything grab your attention and guide you? If you don’t have a concise path of where to go, you may want to consider revamping your website’s user experience. A few easy ways to improve this would be adding clear calls to action, clean page layout, and easy navigation menus.
Lack of Company Branding
When it comes to organic traffic, branded searches are some of the best for your business,Tweet This purely because it means a user is looking for your company or organization. If your brand is developed enough, you should always show up at the top of search rankings. If you don’t show up for your business name, it could mean your scope is too broad or there is not enough content supporting your brand.
To test this, look at your website and see if you can determine what your brand does in less than 20 seconds. You can also ask someone else to review your site for 20 seconds and see what they believe your company does. If it isn’t obvious to you or them, you’ll want to tailor your site and your content more closely to your brand.
No Website Blog
Blogging is so much more than a site feature nowadays. It is a great way to broadcast your brand and content. Blogging can lead to natural linking, visitors, and of course exposure for your brand. Tweet ThisThis also is a great place for you to demonstrate your authority in your industry and engage your community.
If you aren’t blogging, you are falling further and further behind your competition. If you have a blog but don’t often produce content, make it a priority to get your SEO back on track.
What to do next?
These are just a few ways to see if your SEO strategy is outdated. Another general way to see if you are falling behind is by doing some searches and looking over the competition. This can help you get a sense for where you are ranking in your area as well as who else is showing up. From there, simply begin to ask questions.
- Why them?
- What do they offer?
- Would someone want me if they searched this?
- What does the competition have that I don’t?
- What can I do to improve?
After asking these questions use the answers to create actionable items to improve your SEO standing. These could be quick additions/revisions to your site, or more long-term strategies and investments. Just like anything else, it will pay off in the long run.
As always, keep on boosting!
Tell us…
What other things can you review to see if your SEO strategy is outdated?
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