Whether you are optimizing your site alone or getting help from others, staying abreast of recent algorithm changes is a vital measure to take. You should be constantly overhauling your strategies and revising your campaigns to reflect new requirements. This is vital for avoiding costly penalties, but it will also help you to get better returns on your investments of money and time. Following are 5 SEO pitfalls that you still might be making, if you haven’t evolved your SEO.
1. On-Site Redundancies
Search engines have become far more critical of on-site content and the value that it supplies. If your attempts to target high-interest keywords and key phrases have resulted in articles that repeat the same ideas in new language, you are in danger of being penalized. Although each of your articles or posts might be unique, the information that they contain may not.
It is important to always set the standard ultra-high when it comes to the content that you are posting on your actual pages. This is something that never changes in the optimization process, but the value of good content continues to increase. The goal of algorithm changes is to beef up the information that is available online, rather than to ensure that there are substantial quantities of it. This means that your goal should always be to cover new topics in new and exciting ways. If you operate in an industry that requires you to rehash the same ideas, you should make sure that you are constantly adding new points, creating breathtaking titles and taking your readers somewhere that your site has never taken them before.
2. Building Too Many Links Too Fast
There has been a recent resurgence in the popularity of web directories. Efforts to make these entirely human-edited have eliminated much of the spam that once plagued their reputation. For site owners, this has made it all too easy to generate massive amount of links in a very short period of time. Unfortunately, link building of this type still has its consequences, especially if you are not attempting to build links organically as well.
The rate at which your links are built has also proven to be very significant. Search engines understand the average rate at which quality links are built. Thus, although high volumes of links could skyrocket you to the first page of listings, you will invariably lose this spot once your methods are noticed. In order to build a respectable link profile you will need to build twice as many organic links as links through web directories. The effort and time that it takes get this done will ensure that your links are established at an acceptable pace.
3. Placing Too Much Value On Links
Diversifying your strategies is vital for getting your site noticed. Although creating an impressive link profile is an essential part of the optimization process, there is certainly much more to consider. You should spend a lot of efforts creating tools that consumers can actually use. Now is the time to start creating video advertisements, informational videos and interactive blogs. You should be making regular social media updates and constantly uploading fresh images. With more balance in your optimization process, you can start climbing your way towards a better page rank.
4. Failing To Update Your Website
If you haven’t given your website a recent overhaul, now is definitely the time to do so. You must make an effort to keep you coding compliant up to date. You should also make a few aesthetic improvements in the process. Technology is moving at an unprecedented pace and visitor expectations are changing just as fast. This will additionally give you the opportunity to eliminate content that will not make the best impression on either site visitors or search engines. If you have recently posted articles that are superior to those from the past, but which mirror the same ideas, you should take that old content down. Not only will these upgrades help you to start ranking better with search engines, but they can also improve your conversion rate by making a better impression on site visitors.
5. Overuse Of Anchor Texts
The overuse of keywords in anchor texts has proven problematic as well. The ongoing obsession with keywords has led many people to overemphasize these in anchor text creation. In ideal circumstances, your high priority keywords will make up less than 30% of your anchor texts. The key is to throw in multiple variations and to use naked URLs and social qualifiers to fill these out. This is one of the easiest was to start ranking well with popular search terms and to avoid losing traffic due to algorithm updates.
Understanding that the Internet and the way it is being used are both in a state of continual flux, helps site owners to recognize the importance of flexible and constantly evolving optimization campaigns. If you are managing your own SEO, it is vital to remain abreast of important changes and to tweak your efforts so that they are reflective of these. When using professional optimization services, it is important to hire firms that are always up-to-date and which maintain a comprehensive understanding of how site design and overall online presentation impact SEO success.
Author Bio
Jason Smith is an online manager for Social Security Defenders – who are experienced social security disability attorney. Jason likes blogging about online strategies that are related to SEO, Content, PPC & Lead generation.
