SEO Mistakes That Prevent You from Getting Traffic

12 Common SEO Mistakes That Prevent You from Getting Traffic to Your Site

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SEO Mistakes: You have designed or had a website designed for your business and you are satisfied with it. However, few customers seem to join you through this one. Plus, by doing some research yourself on Google, on the type of products and services you offer in your targeted cities, you do not appear in the first results. Here are the 12 errors that may prevent your site from performing and attracting customers.

Mistakes to avoid for better SEO

1 – Do not optimize by keywords AND by lexical fields

Each page of your website must contain enough keywords and relevant lexical fields to allow search engines (especially Google) to find it and make it appear on the first page during searches. For example, a contractor may use Pose hardwood floors as key words and cheap wood floors in Estrie as a lexical field to include.

2 – Do not make an exploration report

There are several tools on the market to detect if your website contains source code errors that could affect its indexing and prevent it from being accessible on the Internet. By the way, even Google has its own tool in this regard: Google Search Console.

3 – Do not have a blog

Having a blog on your website is crucial to add informative articles that will answer the various questions of your potential customers. In addition, by incorporating keywords and relevant lexical fields within these articles, you increase your chances that they will be viewed by your target customers.

On a regular basis, you can add a feature article on different topics related to your products and services. You can also publish articles on a respected blog and very frequent to gain credibility in another site than yours.

On the other hand, Google will be filled by the arrival of new content on your site. So it’s win-win for you and your potential customers.

4 – Do not have a corporate Facebook page

Having a corporate Facebook page is essential, since it is something of an extension of your website. This allows you not only to maintain the relationship you have with your customers, but also to generate conversation and stay abreast of the needs of your customers. Are you a massage therapist?

So why not show your daily availability, special offers and educate your audience on the various massage techniques you use? Are you the head of a law firm or health center? Feel free to use Facebook to disseminate information on the various issues or issues your clients might be wondering about. The more active and close to your subscribers, the more you will be able to build trust and gather relevant information about what consumers want.

On the other hand, it is necessary to remain on the lookout for the last changes of the algorithm of Facebook in order to benefit from a good visibility on this platform. Also take advantage of this social network to share your blog posts. Kill two birds with one stone!

5 – Do not optimize your donated metas

Each page has its URL, meta title, meta description and titles H1, H2 and H3. If these tags are not keyword optimized and do not contain the right number of characters (including spaces), your SEO will lose feathers.

The title H1, for example, is essential to SEO because the algorithm of Google gives it great importance. This title should contain the name of the product or service referred to in the page, as well as the main city targeted.

6 – Do not measure the technical performance of your site

If your web pages take too long to load, users will go elsewhere. Many tools, including Google’s Page Speed ​​Insight , are available to measure the loading speed. If your site is not hosted on a high-performance server, it will not perform well itself. You can also cache your CSS files (store them on your hard drive) to prevent browsers from  querying the server for each call. The waiting time will be reduced, as well as the network traffic.

7 – Do not make relevant internal and external links

The presence of links is important to get a good SEO. Put them in the texts of your website, but also in your blog posts. These links can lead to statistics from serious studies, to a company you are collaborating with, or to a popular and relevant blog post. You must also have external links that point to your website commonly called link building . In this way, you benefit from the authority of the domain name of the external site.

8 – Do not check the security of your site

Sites whose URL starts with HTTP instead of HTTPS ( Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) are considered dangerous to use. They are not referenced by Google. When Internet users and consumers are on the Internet, they expect and demand that they benefit from an online experience that is not only secure but also confidential.

The HTTPS protocol protects the data of your potential customers when they access your site. In addition, since July 2018, Google requires all websites to be secure otherwise your potential customers may see a gray page when you arrive on your website that tells them that it is not secure and asks them if they really want to continue their navigation. Not very reassuring for Internet users!

9 – Do not have a Google My Business account

Another interesting tool to better position yourself in the search results is undoubtedly the platform of Google My Business (or Google My Business). By joining this platform, you will be able to position your site in local searches (for example: dentist Sorel, roofers Verdun ) and appear in the first results on Google and on Google Maps.

10 – Do not optimize your photo descriptions and Alt tags

Adding photos is important because Google’s algorithms linger a lot on the descriptions under the photos. So add keywords in these, for example: Defogging windows in Laval under a photo of residence with clear windows. The Alt tag of this photo (which will be integrated by the programmer) will be entitled: services demisting windows Laval.

11 – Do not create pages for each keyword

Do you have multiple services or products? Do not make the mistake of creating a single service page in which you list these. Create a page for each of the services and products you offer, and use the product or service name as your primary keyword. In this way, you give yourself more chances to stand out in the search engines for keywords that are important to your business.

12 – Do not do SEO audit

An SEO audit can examine each of your web pages and identify the elements to change to improve their SEO. This report also helps determine what needs to be done to improve the user browsing experience. The specificities of SEO for local SMEs can be complicated, but very essential for your visibility on the web.

SEO Specialists

What was the norm in SEO a few years ago is no longer the norm now. Google is constantly refining its SEO methods and favors web pages with well-structured, abundant and quality content. Doing business with professional copywriters as well as with content marketers has become essential.