Want Better Rankings In Google This Year? Avoid These 8 Common SEO Mistakes.

The changes that the New Year brings might seem unpredictable – from resolutions to commitments, we’re never sure of what’s next. One thing’s for sure, fundamental SEO practices still hold true for 2016. At Mod Girl Marketing, we help businesses stay relevant and competitive in search engines – despite any tricks that Google throws at us. We’ve identified the top 8 SEO mistakes that your business should avoid in 2016. You can thank us later.

1. Keyword Stuffing – This old practice is blatantly boring and incredibly obvious to readers – search engines have gotten smarter and aren’t falling for it any longer. Algorithm engineers have found that identifying a direct match between content and search queries doesn’t exactly mean keyword dense content is of value to the reader.
   
   Along with using the same phrases over and over, bulleting lists of keywords or phone numbers without sufficient context and listing cities that you’re trying to rank in is forbidden by Google Webmasters. Instead of falling into this old keyword trap and harming your site’s ranking, create natural-sounding prose and use keywords appropriately and in-context. Hiring an experienced copywriter is also a great first step in staying high on Google’s nice list.
   
   
2. No Keyword Research – No keyword research is very much the opposite of keyword stuffing. Just writing naturally without keyword direction is taking an ill-advised shot in the dark at ranking your page. SEO experts, like the ones we have at Mod Girl, understand that well-researched long-tail keywords read coherently, zero-in on audiences, and convert more visitors to customers.
3. Weak or Duplicate Content – Are your blog posts 300 words? At one time, that was completely okay. In 2016, not so much – your page should contain some content that tops 1,500 words, proper text formatting, optimized images, and video embeds. If not, search engines consider your website as low quality which might lead you to a lower place on the search results. Aside from being unethical and illegal, duplicate content from someone else is a risky tactic with little reward. If you’re using a block of text from another site, attribute and link to it – you’d want your content attributed to you, right? Furthermore, if you’re publishing guest posts on other sites, tweak some of the content to differ it from the original post.
4. Spammy backlinks – You’ve heard the phrase quality vs. quantity and when it comes to SEO, this phrase rings especially true. While one high quality backlink can help boost your website in the SERPs, several low-quality, spammy backlinks can do more harm than good.
   
   If you do have low-quality backlinks, I recommend you work on removing them. Very similar to cleaning your house after a massive flood, purging your site of spammy backlinks is a huge job. Most often, an SEO firm is your best bet for a substantial backlink cleanup. What’s totally doable is gradual backlink management. Not only will you see SEO results rise, you’ll also get rid of those pesky penalty and unnatural links notifications.
5.  No Links – In the world of SEO, “Backlinking” or “Link Building” has been around since the early days of Google. This a very simple, straightforward method for achieving authority and trust in the eyes of Google and Google users. In order for your website to rank #1 in Google for competitive terms, your website MUST have links to other high-quality, relevant websites. The term “earned backlinks” is relevant in 2016 and beyond. Essentially, it is the notion that if your content is exceptional, other people will share it and link to it from their websites. Of course there are traditional ways of creating your own backlinks by using social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. In addition, one could create multiple Web 2.0 properties using sites like Wordpress.com, Blogger.com and Weebly.com. There are also other methods such as utilizing press releases and strategic outreach campaigns. We could go on and on about link building! Bottom line - you need quality links.
   
   In order to boost the credibility of your content and to provide your readers with references, you should link to relevant, authority websites within your blog posts. Make sure you are only linking to relevant, high quality websites. If you have a lot of outbound links, consider adding the “nofollow” tag to your links.
   
   Internal linking is also crucial for maximum SEO success. Internal linking is the method of linking to the internal pages of your website from other pages.
   
   
6.  No Content Strategy – SEO strategy and content strategy should not be considered “separate.” Active blogs do a lot for your website including helping it rank for optimal keywords, getting indexed, maintaining visibility in searches, staying relevant on social media, generating inbound links, boosting click-through, and improving conversions. These things help to legitimize your brand and to communicate that your brand is a valuable contributor to the web. Because of this, maintaining a consistent blog presence is vital and keeping your internal web pages and metadata fresh and original is key.
   
   Having a general content game plan in your head is a good first step, but it isn’t enough. Nearly half of all B2B content marketers lack a written strategy. The most effective marketers have drafted a strategy, a mission statement, and hold regular virtual or in-person meetings with anyone creating or curating content.
7. Incomplete On-Page SEO – One of the last steps in SEO is fine-tuning your on-page elements. Some tips for SEO on-page elements are to use sparingly, but naturally relevant keywords; create fresh and quality content; use appropriate heading tags; optimize images; utilize internal links; and finally, to maintain consistency among brand messages. Filling out all title, description, and image tags in their entirety is a bit more technical, but will still prove positive results.
   
   
   Other on-page optimization tips include making URLs as descriptive and brief as possible with a target keyword; increasing your site speed because, if not, you might lose your visitor which leads to high bounce rates; using a logical number of unique pages on your site; canonicalizing URL structure; and ensuring that your site is multi-device friendly.
   
   
8. Not Utilizing Tools Available to You – Analytics and Google Webmaster tools make optimizing your website much easier. Best part - they are free! Google’s former head of search spam, Matt Cutts, explained to Search Engine Land that one of the biggest SEO mistakes people can make is, “Not using webmaster resources and learning about how Google works and what SEO is about.” We couldn’t agree more. If you’re not measuring your website’s data, then the best that you can hope for is a stroke of good fortune. These tools tell which website efforts are the most fruitful and which efforts fall short and need improved optimization. Conversion goals, weekly reports, and keyword monitoring are three things that you’ll need to regularly watch for when using these tools. At Mod Girl Marketing, we like to use premium Analytics tools such as Raven Tools and Hot Jar for exceptional reporting and advanced analytics data.

You don’t want prospects to pass your website by – modern SEO strategy is incredibly vital for attracting visitors to your page, and ultimately, for converting visitors to customers. With strategic techniques and the latest technology, the SEO professionals at Mod Girl Marketing can help you tackle all of your SEO needs from copywriting to video marketing and everything in between.

Check out the full post at: https://www.8waysin8days.com/seo-mistakes-2016/.

Want more marketing tips for 2016?

Download my latest free eBook and discover the power of Social + SEO:

8 Stupid Simple Social Media Tips to Boost Your SEO