{"id":141681,"date":"2020-08-24T10:00:36","date_gmt":"2020-08-24T10:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/?p=141681"},"modified":"2020-08-21T13:12:29","modified_gmt":"2020-08-21T13:12:29","slug":"three-seo-mistakes-that-can-impact-your-search-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2020\/08\/24\/three-seo-mistakes-that-can-impact-your-search-rankings\/","title":{"rendered":"Three SEO mistakes that can impact your search rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"well\">\n<h3><b>30-second summary:<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although Google\u2019s updates have downplayed the importance of keywords, they are still important in your SEO strategy. It\u2019s not enough to create content and stuff it with keywords to engage your target audience.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ignite Digital is reminding us of the importance of understanding how keywords work. It\u2019s not enough to pick the most popular keyword and add it throughout your text.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By not adding meta tags, you are reducing your chances of getting your content ranked and discovered through specific keywords.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A website owner that is having too many 404 errors is signalling Google that they are not frequently reviewing their website or that they have abandoned it. This wouldn\u2019t contribute to good ranking in SERPs.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Search engine optimization can help you boost your brand while increasing your site\u2019s traffic. Quality content that is relevant to your target audience can boost your authority to secure future SEO success.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, it\u2019s important to get the foundation right to avoid sabotaging your tactics.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ignite Digital, an experience-driven digital agency in all aspects of digital marketing, <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/resources\/top-5-seo-mistakes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">have written a report<\/a> with the SEO mistakes that we need to avoid.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are some of them:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Content created in partnership with<\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/ignitedigital.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ignite Digital.<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><b>SEO Mistake #1 &#8211; Not doing keyword research<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Every business wants to rank high in the search results. Using the right keywords can be the key to success.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That\u2019s what makes keyword research a vital part of your SEO strategy. It can help you discover the best keywords to rank for and increase your traffic. It can also bring new leads to your website and help your business increase sales.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although Google\u2019s updates have downplayed the importance of keywords, they are still important in your SEO strategy. It\u2019s not enough to simply create content and stuff it with keywords to engage your target audience.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The keyword research strategy is extremely important and can help you discover great opportunities for your business to stand out amongst competitors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ignite Digital is reminding us of the importance of understanding how keywords work. It\u2019s not enough to pick the most popular keyword and add it throughout your text.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Different types of keywords can serve different purposes. For example, you can use generic keywords to describe your business, your product, and your services. These are important for brand awareness.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can also use niche keywords to be more specific.<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2019\/11\/22\/long-tail-keywords-in-content-strategy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Long-tail keywords<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> may not necessarily attract the same traffic as the general keywords, but they can lead to better business prospects since the search intent is more specific.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>SEO Mistake #2 &#8211; Not adding title tag or meta description<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The goal of search engine optimization is to increase the organic traffic to your website to improve your business success. You want to rank as high as possible in the SERPs to appeal to new or returning customers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While you\u2019re working on producing content of great quality, there is a crucial step that you might be ignoring. Adding title tags and meta descriptions to your pages can help your SEO tactics become extremely successful..<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As you\u2019re aiming to increase your search rankings, all your pages should be optimized based on what search crawlers want to find. In this case, meta tags are providing all the necessary information for each page and what it should rank for.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A meta description can provide an overview of what the page is about while the title can also include the keyword that you are ranking for. An effective meta description can increase your click-through rates and thus, bring more visitors to your site.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s important to be clear and distinct as you only have 160 characters to describe your content and your business. Your meta description should appeal to your potential customers to convince them to click on your link.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By not adding meta tags, you are reducing your chances of getting your content ranked and discovered through specific keywords.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Start by experimenting with the different ways you can present your content in just 160 characters. Think like a user and what would grab your attention to visit a website.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>SEO Mistake #3 &#8211; Having too many 404 errors<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Imagine you\u2019re a user looking for \u201caffordable bikes\u201d as a search term. You\u2019re looking at a meta description that resonates with what you\u2019re looking for so you decide to visit the site. That\u2019s when you see \u201cError 404\u201d and no content at all.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many users face similar problems and they end up disappointed or frustrated by the user experience. The common message of \u2018page not found\u2019 can happen to all websites. However, there are many cases that it shows up way too often. As a business owner, you might not even know that a page is not working.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">404 errors can impact your website\u2019s ranking. The more errors you are having, the worse it becomes for your SEO strategy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s useful to know that Google is actually normalizing 404 errors. They are aware that things can change and that all websites can end up having such pages. However, it\u2019s important to be aware of them and work towards removing them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A website owner that is having too many 404 errors is signalling Google that they are not frequently reviewing their website or that they have abandoned it. This could negatively impact a good ranking in SERPs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the contrary, you can run 404 checks to locate pages that are not working anymore to ensure that they are redirected in the correct page.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019re still having a 404 error on your site, make sure that you are customizing it while including a call-to-action to improve the user experience.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>There are many SEO mistakes that we can make at some point when working on our search strategy. To find out more about the most popular SEO mistakes and how to avoid them, make sure you read <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/resources\/top-5-seo-mistakes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ignite Digital\u2019s report here<\/a>.<\/b><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New report by digital agency Ignite Digital, highlights some of the common SEO mistakes that can impact your brand&#8217;s search ranking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":141684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,27488],"tags":[1578,1217,100,113,188,22,366,32],"content_type":[],"class_list":["post-141681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seo","category-sponsored","tag-404-errors","tag-digital","tag-keywords","tag-marketing","tag-meta-tags","tag-seo","tag-seo-mistakes","tag-serps"],"acf":{"tad_independentcommercial":false,"tad_content_format":false},"post_info":{"name":"Tereza Litsa","title":"","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/shutterstock_389742559.png","category":"SEO","timeago":"5y"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141681"},{"taxonomy":"content_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content_type?post=141681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}