What Should You Avoid When Developing A Search-Optimized Website?
An important step when creating a website is to remember to optimize it for search engines. While calling in an SEO expert will always be the best way to ensure that your website is properly optimized, a great starting point would be to follow the tips in this blog!
Tip 1: Don't Keyword Stuff!
If you've started doing a bit of research about SEO, you've likely been told that you should use keywords. This is true! But a mistake a lot of business owners who are creating their own websites make is that they start using keywords too much.
What is too much? Well, if you used the same keyword phrase about five times in the same article... then you're keyword stuffing.
Remember that SEO is not just about trying to make Google and Yahoo and Bing happy, but also about making your website visitors happy. And repeating the same word or trying to fit keywords into places that they don't belong is not something that your visitors will appreciate. They will wonder why the content sounds so awkward, and will even consider it unprofessional - which doesn't reflect positively on the business.
NOTE: Google is actually taking a stand against websites that are keyword stuffing by lowering their rankings. So this has become something that websites should definitely avoid!
Tip 2: Don't Use Duplicate Content!
It might seem really easy to just copy and paste content that you used on another page and put it on a newer page - but this is a huge no-no when it comes to optimizing your site.
One reason is that it confuses search engines. They will see that two of your pages holds the same content and it will wonder which one should rank (or if either should rank). In other words, you will just be competing with yourself when you could have had both pages rank for different topics/keywords.
Another reason is that you're missing out on an opportunity to rank for different keywords! If you have two similar paragraphs on different pages, take the time to rephrase the content and use keywords that you didn't use the first time. This way you won't be penalized for having duplicate content and you get to rank for more than one keyword.
Tip 3: Don't Participate In Link Schemes
Link schemes are the practice of purchasing or exchanging links with other websites in order to artificially boost rankings.
Search engines are getting smarter and smarter, so you won't be surprised to know that they can tell when websites are participating in link schemes - and they don't like it. They consider this to be a manipulation tactic, so we recommend avoiding it entirely.
If you need assistance building backlinks, contact us.
Tip 4: Don't Forget Mobile!
As more and more searches are done on mobile devices, it is essential to make sure your website is optimized for mobile users in order to maintain a high ranking in the search engine results pages.
How to optimize for mobile depends on the website builder you are using, so make sure you review their mobile capabilities before you choose it as your builder! A lot of platforms are allowing users to create more responsive designs, but there are still a few out there that haven't made the update yet and we don't want you to choose one that limits you.
Tip 5: Don't Ignore User Experience
A lot of website owners do a bunch of SEO research and forget the most important aspect of website development: the users.
Let me stress how important they are: you can do everything right SEO-wise, but if users don't like the website experience, then your work will be for nothing.
The user will visit your website because Google or Yelp recommended it, see that it is hard to navigate or the content is low-quality, then leave. And if enough people leave abruptly, then the search engines will start to see that people don't like your website, and they will stop recommending it.
So make sure, when you're following the previous tips, that your website reminds easy to navigate and provides the users with what they're looking for.
Need Further Advice?
Hiring an SEO expert to work on your website is an essential step in ensuring your website's success. An SEO expert can help maximize your website's visibility, increase its ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs), and ensure that visitors get the best experience possible when visiting your website.
An experienced SEO expert will have a comprehensive understanding of the latest algorithms and best practices for optimizing your website to ensure you get the highest return on investment. Our experts at Empowered Digital Marketing have years of experience helping websites reach their full potential in organic search results, so book an appointment with us today to get started!
