5 Common SEO Mistakes

The practice of Search Engine Optimisation can be very confusing. As search engine algorithms are constantly being updated, what is acceptable one moment is unacceptable the next. Bad SEO practices can not only mean your website obtains mediocre search results, it can also mean your current search rankings are damaged. Here are five common mistakes to avoid when considering an SEO strategy.

1. Optimising only one area of the page: Although it is a mistake to use every and any SEO technique you find, it is also a bad idea to focus on optimising only one area of your website, such as meta tags or body texts. Keywords can be used in pretty much every area of a website. As long as it is practised in moderation, a comprehensive approach to SEO will make your web page seem as relevant as possible to search engines.
2. Keywords with no strategy: The keywords chosen for your SEO strategy must be chosen with care, and this is not as easy as it seems. Remember that keywords must be focussed towards the user's behaviour and not the website owner's. Successful SEO strategies target a small number of content-specific keywords to guide valuable traffic to the page.
3. Using link-exchange programs: Link exchange programs may seem like an incredibly easy way to create backlinks to your website and achieve SEO success but they may actually damage your website's reputation and listings. Having a page for irrelevant links on your website looks unprofessional and desperate. The only way to establish quality backlinks is to include quality content.
4. Hiding content in images: Although this practice was more popular in the past, it is still worth warning against. Using images for navigational links or the majority of page content will make your content largely invisible to search engines and is very SEO-hostile. Remember that text is still the main way search engine algorithms judge the websites they encounter, so including well written copy is the most important step to SEO success.
5. Ignoring traffic statistics in favour of ranking reports: Ranking reports provide valuable information on the SEO success of a particular phrase, but paying attention to only the ranking reports can mean that you are missing more revealing statistics elsewhere. The aim of SEO is to increase traffic to your website, so maintaining observations of traffic statistics is imperative. The use of traffic statistics is an effective way to monitor SEO success and develop new strategies.