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After Google rolled out its latest core algorithm update, many websites experienced a significant drop in their search engine rankings. Search engine optimization (SEO) efforts are changing, and if your website doesn't want to be left behind, you'll need to adjust your approach.
Over the past year, I've seen most websites lose rankings because they made the exact same SEO mistakes. In this article, I'll outline his 5 common SEO mistakes I've experienced in 2023 and explain how to avoid them.
Related: 5 Easy SEO Strategies to Improve Your Rankings
What is SEO? Why is it important?
SEO is the practice of optimizing a website and its content to improve search engine rankings. This includes a variety of approaches, from on-page optimization to fine-tuning technical details. The main goal of all these strategies is to secure a high position on search engine results pages.
In a nutshell, SEO is an essential part of your online success because it:
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Increase your online visibility
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Drive organic traffic
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prove one's authority
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Improved user experience
Even though search engines and SEO are constantly evolving, businesses don't always follow the best (or most up-to-date) SEO practices. Here are the 5 most common SEO mistakes I've seen in 2023 that can lower your search engine rankings.
1. Focus on the busy SEO work
SEO is a complex field, and many business owners don't know where to focus their efforts for the best results. So they end up trying different SEO strategies and approaches, but often end up overdoing it.
The truth is, there's no need to audit your website five or six times a year and obsess over every little detail. Instead, you want to focus your efforts on the most important movements: content creation and link building.
Your website content should be at the heart of your SEO strategy. This is what will rank her website higher by search engine algorithms, and what will be able to attract, engage, and convert website visitors into customers. Similarly, building backlinks shows that your website is trustworthy and authoritative, which improves your search engine rankings.
Focusing on content creation and link building will have the biggest impact on SEO success, especially if your website is new.
2. Low content velocity
Content velocity involves creating more content quickly. The logic is simple. You can't rank what you don't have. Therefore, the more content you have, the more likely you are to rank for relevant keywords.
However, many websites have slow content, which hurts their SEO potential. They focus on publishing one article per week, but that's usually not enough.
Let's say you want to publish four articles today. You should be able to write four ranking articles in about six months. Doubling his publication rate would give him 8 ranking articles, effectively doubling his SEO performance.
The main points are: The sooner you publish, the faster it will rank.
Related: 5 Essential SEO Strategies for Entrepreneurs to Increase Traffic
3. Do selfish link building
In 2023, everyone knows the importance of backlinks. This means that no one will give it to you for free. And why should you? Instead, most websites these days ask for compensation when providing backlinks.
problem? Paid link building is against Google's guidelines. Fortunately, there are ways to get around this and get backlinks for free. In your outreach emails, focus on what you can offer your prospects.
Here are three “offers” that have worked for me in the past.
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mutual link: If they provide you with a backlink, offer to link back to their website.
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Upcoming guest posts: Suggest a link to your website in a future guest post.
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Quality content: Deliver in-depth, keyword-optimized blog posts related to your field of expertise.
4. Rely on ad hoc keyword research
Some people take a very ad hoc approach to keyword research. They do this every week, randomly selecting a keyword and creating content based on it. The problem with this approach is that you never get a comprehensive view of your area of ​​expertise.
As a result, you don't know if the keywords you're choosing are the best ones because you don't have a frame of reference. To fix this, you need to cast a wider net and find as many keywords as possible. Think of 200-300 keywords that will provide you with enough content material for the next few years.
From there, you can see which keywords bring the most value. You can compare keyword intent, search volume, and difficulty ranking to find the best option. The more comprehensive your keyword research is in the early stages, the better your SEO results will be in the long run.
Related: 5 common keyword research mistakes and how to avoid them
5. Building low-quality backlinks
When it comes to link building, quality is more important than quantity. High-quality backlinks can significantly improve your rankings and help your website reach the first page of search results.
On the other hand, low-quality backlinks cause problems. At best, it won't affect your ranking. In the worst case scenario, your site will be penalized and your rankings will drop. So how do you know which backlinks are good?
You can assess the quality of your backlinks by:
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Check quality indicators (DA, DR)
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Analyze website SEO performance (monthly traffic)
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Ensure topical relevance
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Trust rating (Is the site legit?)
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Avoiding backlink farms
Remember, one high-quality backlink is worth more than 10 low-quality backlinks.
To maintain your website's search engine rankings in 2023, it's important to avoid these five common SEO mistakes.
SEO strategies for success by focusing on content creation, maintaining content velocity, avoiding selfish link building, conducting comprehensive keyword research, and prioritizing quality backlinks. can be set up.