Top 7 SEO Mistakes to Avoid

When you’re writing and publishing content as a part of your digital marketing strategy, you need to invest the effort and energy into making it great. Optimizing for search engines is the basic skill you need to have under your belt. And, while many content writers and digital marketers feel like they know SEO, there are still common mistakes a lot of them keep making.

If you want to avoid using these common SEO mistakes, you need to understand what they are. We’ve put together a list of 7 most common SEO mistakes that you should avoid making by all means.

Let’s dig a little deeper and see what’s it all about.

1. Skipping Keyword Research

Keyword research is the basics of SEO. You may think you know which keywords to use and where, but it’s impossible to know so without a keyword research tool.

It’s absolutely necessary that you:

• use one or two keyword research tools such as SEMrush or Google Keyword Planner
• research the keyword your competitors are using
• never stop researching

Without these tools, you’re just second-guessing and that won’t take you very far.

2. Going For the Broadest Keyword

When doing keyword research, you’ll find tons of great keywords. The real question is, which one to go for.

The mistake you want to avoid is going for the broadest global keyword of your niche. Here’s why:

• serious digital marketing agencies are fighting to rank highest for that keyword
• it may not be that closely related to your content
• this might misguide potential readers and customers

So, if you’re writing a blog post titled “How To Choose the Perfect Highlighter For Your Skin Tone” you want to avoid going for the keyword “makeup advice”.

It’s too broad and ambiguous.

Instead, go for something more specific like:

• the best highlighters
• choosing a highlighter
• highlighter for your skin

This will give you more space to fight for the highest ranking and guide the specific target audience to your content. Combine this with the best Chrome extensions for higher rankings and you’ll be making a huge success.

3. Keyword Stuffing & Cannibalization

Once you choose the right keywords you need to know how to use them. There are two very wrong, but often used practices that you need to avoid.

Let’s break them down:

• keyword stuffing
  Using a ton of keywords in a single piece of content will ruin content quality, mark it as spammy, and damage your SEO.
• keyword cannibalization

Targeting the same keyword across different posts on a single website will weaken your attempts to rank high for that keyword. Instead, use all your efforts in a single post.

It’s a common misconception that these two practices can trick the algorithms and get you a better ranking. Avoid them and you’ll make better results.

4. Forgetting Local Searches

Optimizing your content for local SEO can skyrocket your rankings and bring you more conversions.

You should go ahead and:

• use local-specific keywords in your post titles, meta descriptions, and image titles
• include your contact information such as the address and phone number on all your pages
• register on Google Places, Yelp, and similar websites

You’ll be aiming for a more specific audience and reaching their attention easily.

5. Repetitive Page Titles & Meta Description

Uniqueness is one of the key elements of having a strong SEO strategy. If you’re just copying what your competitors are doing, you won’t get very far.

This is why you must create content that is unique and different from the rest:

• come up with unique topics to cover
• use specific titles
• invest in writing attention-grabbing meta-descriptions

A great title should be:

• descriptive and explain what the article is about
• maximally 60 characters long
• attractive and intriguing
• including a keyword

That’s the right recipe for a meta description as well, only it should be maximally 160 characters long.

The two combined will make a great impact on your target audience and help you win them over.

6. Wrong Use of Internal Links

The first mistake you can make when using internal links is to not use internal links.

You must place links to other pages on your website or useful and valuable resources your readers can check out.

It will also signal to Google algorithms what your page is about, how to rank it, and how to understand it.

Make sure that you:

• use branded anchor text instead of “click here” or “check this out”
• make the anchor text non-damaging for the quality of the content
• try using a keyword as the anchor text
• link to important, reliable, and valuable pages

Link building is always going to be an SEO content marketing trend. This is the best recipe for a successful internal linking strategy so make sure you use it properly.

7. Ignoring Content Quality

SEO is about optimizing your content and making it just right for your target audience. Still, there’s more to it than just calculations and data analysis.

In fact, you mustn’t forget about the importance of content quality and accuracy.

If you allow a single spelling, grammar, or vocabulary mistake to slip its way into your content, your audience will be disappointed and might not come back for more.

To avoid being regarded as sloppy and unreliable, make sure you proofread and edit everything befre you publish. This list of tools and services can help you out with that:

Studyker – When you have great ideas but aren’t sure you can shape them into words properly, this online service can edit your ideas for you and produce a publish-ready piece of content.
Grammarly – If you want to proofread on your own, but a need a bit of help, use this tool. It will tell you what to fix and how.
Write Scout – If you prefer a professional to proofread your content, send it to this service and they’ll do it for you.
Hemingway – This writing tool will find and highlight all the weak spots of your content. Then, it will tell you how to make it better.
Writing Judge – If editing is not your strong side, let the team of professional writers from this service do it for you.
Thesaurus – When you know what you want to say, but are missing the right words, search for them in this online writing tool.
Classy Essay – If you need someone to take a look at your content, and suggest improvements, you can send it to this writing service and get their professional opinion.
Grammar Checker By EssayOnTime – If your paper needs a touch of perfectness, use our online editor! It’s free, easy-to-use, and available whenever you need it. We have created an ultimate grammar checker to let you submit flawless papers even if your English is not perfect. With its help, you will find and correct all the errors that have sneaked into your work. Now you don’t have to think about grammar and style when doing your tasks – just let your ideas flow! And this fantastic online app will take care of everything else. Just upload the document or copy your content into the app’s page, start processing, and wait for a minute. Not only this app detects mistakes in your writings, but it also gives the correct versions of phrases and words! This way, you will have a chance to learn and grasp the rules of grammar better. Use this app and forget about awkward word order, misspelled words, missed commas, or wrong grammar constructions.

Final Thoughts

You have to make sure your SEO strategy is to the point. Gather the right information and never stop learning about improvement.

The list above tells you what practices and mistakes to avoid. Make sure you read carefully, never make the same mistakes again, and keep improving your SEO.

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Diana Adjadj is a digital marketing expert and a freelance writer. She combines her experience in the field of online marketing with her passion for writing to create top notch articles and share her knowledge with others. She also works as a writer at Top Essay Writing and Be Graded.