3 SEO Mistakes You Might be Making

1. Failing to make your site crawlable.

If your site isn’t crawlable, then Google’s bots can’t index your pages and rank your site in user searches. “If you have your site locked up where people can’t find it all that easily, that’s a big problem,” Cutts says. He advises, “Click around on your website; make sure you can reach the pages on your website by clicking on regular links, ideally in a text browser. But really, just try to surf around and make sure you haven’t hidden the good content away somewhere where it’s really hard to find.” If people can’t find it, Google’s bots might not find it either.

2. Using the wrong words.

Cutts points out that anyone creating content must understand the importance of semantics in search. “Think about what the user is going to type, and then use those words,” he says. For example, he continues, “Don’t just say mount Everest elevation. You want to say, “How high is mount Everest?” When you have an exact match for what the user is typing into the search box, that is going to move your page closer to the top of the search results.

3. Going overboard on link building.

Our San Diego SEO company has been deliberate about promoting link building, because it is a big factor in the Google algorithm. But Cutts warns against focusing too much on link building, because it can make you forget all about creating good content – which matters even more than links.

“I wouldn’t put too much of a tunnel vision focus on just links,” he says. “I would try to think instead about what I can do to market my website to make it more well known within my community, or more broadly, without only thinking about search engines.” His reflections are an offshoot of the modern SEO principle to live by: write for people, not for search engines. People, not robots, will knowingly digest your content,comment on it and be inspired to take action.

Now that you know which SEO mistakes are dominating the landscape right now, you can avoid making them – and hopefully, start to see your rankings improve. To speak with an SEO company that understands how to avoid these common SEO pitfalls, contact the San Diego SEO team at Crest Media.