Since the advent of SEO, most website owners and developers have understood the importance and role it plays on their path to success. In the past, links were spread all over the place in order to attract enough people to visit their sites – even to sites that were not related to them. However, search engines such as Google and Bing have evolved to prevent this.
Keyword placement also turned out not to be as popular and effective as it used to be. What’s more, these tactics are now subject to penalties, which means that Google and Bing are likely to rank them very low.
The new SEO guidelines are more about getting engagement and authentic visits to your pages by being truly viral, being an influencer or thought leader in a particular niche, active on social media and engaging your audience, and more. At first it might be something like rocket science, but over time it might be a walk in the park.
Here are the top 5 reasons why SEO becomes ineffective:
- Ugly choice of keywords
- Unnecessary keywords
- Same content on different pages
- Broken links and clickbaits
- Meta descriptions and title tags
1. Ugly keyword selection
We didn’t say that keywords are no longer useful, rather they should be chosen and used correctly. Keywords are what search bots look for when indexing a website; they must accurately describe the content. Most importantly, it must match what the target audience is looking for. There are online tools that allow you to determine the intensity of your search for a keyword or keywords.
Keyword indexing
2. Unnecessary keywords
In addition to using irrelevant keywords, there is another problem associated with keywords: unnecessary keywords. This means you are filling in the blanks on your website with too many keywords and using the same keywords over and over again. Duplicate keywords can confuse search engine crawlers and mark your content as spam or copied. You can check out plugins that can detect how many times you’ve used a keyword so you can prevent this from happening.
3. Same content on different pages
Imagine a book where two pages contain the same content: how would you feel? Research shows that people will definitely notice similarities, which can eventually lead to confusion, well, boredom, and other negative effects. Search engines are designed to please and serve the people who use them, and they don’t want to show duplicate content. Be sure to post only original content. Use online tools to check for duplicates or plagiarism.
4. Broken links and clickbaits.
Now, who would want to click on a link and then see another website or see “uh, the content you’re looking for isn’t here, or a 404 page not found error?” We don’t, and we think you are, just like other people. Search engine crawlers also check the links on your content and also check if the link leads to authoritative websites. Be sure to check the links before posting. You can also audit your site at least once every 6 months to make sure the links still work.
5. Meta description and title tags
Essentially, meta descriptions are like an elevator presentation, where you have to describe your business, or in this case, your content, in as few words as possible, but as precise and accurate as possible. Be creative, but be simple.
SEO for Meta Description
SEO for Page Titles
Title tags are like tags: crawlers look for tags so they know where to look. Again and again, search robots are designed to find content that is relevant and useful to users. So use heading tags sparingly and purposefully. Also divide your content into subheadings accordingly and then tag them properly.
Now it’s up to you
With all these reasons in mind, conduct a thorough audit of your site and your SEO if you already have one. Or keep a checklist when you’re just starting out on your SEO marketing journey.