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Top Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Mistakes for 2020

8/5/2020 | admin

When was the last time you performed an SEO audit on your business website?

Google is continually making changes to its algorithm, and there’s a good chance that your site may have fallen victim to a Google penalty—or two. While SEO may seem like rocket science to some, it’s far simpler than that. The Google algorithms are looking for websites that create good user experiences—they then reward that site with increased traffic or improved organic rankings. We want to share with you the top five SEO issues for 2020 that could be causing your site to perform poorly in the organic search results. If, after reading this blog post, you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us, and one of our friendly marketing consultants can help out.

Keyword Spam

SEOBack in the early days of SEO, many practitioners would continually repeat the main keyword they’re trying to rank for in the search results. The Google algorithm was in its infancy at this point in time, and this “trick” worked very well. However, from a “does this provide a good user experience?” perspective—it most certainly does not. When you read content that uses the same keyword over and over again, it seems unnatural and even downright silly.  Nowadays, using the same keyword multiple times is referred to as “keyword spam,” and Google frowns upon this antiquated tactic. So much so, that if your website has high levels of repeating keywords, Google could penalize a single page or your entire site. There are several free and paid online tools that you can use to de-duplicate the content on your website. This task is a manual one, and if you’re not handy with a thesaurus, you could always hire a professional copywriter to clean up the offending content on your website.

Broken Links

If you update your company website regularly, you most likely link out to other authoritative and useful websites. When was the last time you audited these outbound links? Broken links (links that lead to a dead webpage or website) are considered “low quality” by Google. Nobody wants to click a link only to find that it leads to a non-existent website. You can audit (and fix) the outbound links on your website by using a tool such as Xenu’s Link Sleuth or Screaming Frog SEO. They will crawl your site and individually test each outbound link. After the tool completes the crawl, it will provide you with a list of broken links that you or your IT department can easily fix.

Duplicate Content

Duplicate content is content that can be found elsewhere on the internet. Sometimes businesses will “cut and paste” a snippet of content they found somewhere online. Google considers this plagiarism and can penalize a website for it. To “de-dup” the content on your website, simply copy a short paragraph and enter it into a Google search. You’ll be able to instantly tell if someone posted the content somewhere else first.  Be careful, though. Sometimes unscrupulous website owners will copy your content, and then Google will erroneously give them first credit. If you run into a situation like this, it’s best to call in the professionals.

Not Looking at Your Analytics

The person managing your company website is most likely only concerned with keeping it live and working well. To that point—who is monitoring the analytics—the list of traffic that comes into your website? Assuming you have Google Analytics or a similar analytics program installed, it pays to check in on your analytics every few days. You might discover new keywords that will provide inspiration for creating a thought-compelling blog post that will attract lots of attention and traffic. 

Publishing Low-Quality (or Syndicated) Content

The Google algorithm is extremely smart. It can tell whether the content you post to your website and blog is high or low quality. Low-quality content consists of many spelling and grammar errors.  Syndicated content—content that someone else writes and sends out to multiple websites—is technically considered “duplicate content” and won’t rank very well in the organic search results. Take a few minutes to audit the content on your website. If you find low-quality content, it’s better to either rewrite it or delete it altogether. 

Marketing and SEO Help in New Bern

SEO isn’t rocket science—but it takes an expert to know how to make it work. If your company website isn’t performing well in the organic search results or you’d like to speak to an SEO expert, give AlphaGraphics of New Bern a call. At AlphaGraphics of New Bern, we’re much more than a print shop. We’re also marketing experts who you can count on to help you when it comes time to market your business. To learn more about how AlphaGraphics of New Bern can produce and design your next project, you may email us, request a quote, or call us at (252) 633-3199.

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