Search engine optimization depends on harnessing Google and other search engine algorithms to get your site’s content to rank high.
Well, it’s not that simple, but that’s the ultimate goal.
However, these algorithms aren’t easy to figure out, so it’s wise to hire professionals whose SEO expertise can make a difference. It’s valuable to mention that it’s easier to hire someone locally since you can communicate with them easier. For example, if your business is in Long Island, it’s much easier to hire an SEO company Long Island to provide you with excellent SEO strategies.
Before doing so, it’s important to know at least something about SEO, especially what you shouldn’t do regarding improving the quantity and quality of your site traffic from Google and other search engines.
Therefore, let’s see the top five don’ts of SEO you should never use.
Don’t Use Keyword Stuffing
Including relevant keywords throughout all your content and web pages is crucial for successful search engine optimization and increasing your chances of ranking high on Google and other search engines.
However, you mustn’t go too far with it since if you fill each paragraph with keyword after keyword, Google won’t like this at all, and these keywords won’t make any difference, no matter how well-written your content is. In fact, Google may even penalize your website because of doing this and may remove your page from its search engine results altogether. The reason is quite simple; it wants to rank only high-quality content and information for its users.
In essence, keyword stuffing is a definition of overusing keywords in order to try and obtain higher rankings, but it’s a black hat SEO strategy since it’s against Google’s guidelines. That’s why you need to avoid using it; instead, try to implement keywords into your content in an organic way if you want search engines to rank your site.
Don’t Ignore the Search Intent of Users
Another reason hiring a Long Island SEO expert is much better than implementing SEO tactics is that you want your keywords to be content relevant according to your company’s industry niche.
Still, it’s more than essential to avoid using content and keywords without considering what users are searching for on Google and other search engines. The reason is that user search intent can help you figure out what potential customers and visitors want to find when they do searches.
If a person Googles coffee machine Los Angeles, they are most certainly not searching for a website that can tell them who invented coffee machines. Quite the opposite, they are someone from Los Angeles who is looking to buy a coffee machine. Therefore, whenever your content writers write a piece of content, they have to make sure they are writing it to fit user intent for your target keyword and audience.
Don’t think you can outsmart Google since it always knows the real intent and will rank your content accordingly.
Don’t Use Misleading Linking
Hiring a Long Island SEO firm can help you immensely with using internal links on your website to keep visitors and customers much longer on your website.
If a visitor sees a link to something that looks interesting and exciting, they will most likely follow it and bring them to another page of your website, which will extend the time they spend searching on your site, increasing the chance to buy something.
However, if you use misleading linking, they won’t purchase anything, but even more importantly, they will most certainly go to one of your competitors’ sites and become their loyal customers instead of yours.
Let’s see a simple example – If you have a sentence like We offer the best coffee machines in Long Island, and you want to link to your coffee machine service page, you should use best coffee machines as your anchor text. Using Long Island, for instance, as an anchor text would be misleading. In addition, you shouldn’t use too many keywords as your anchor text because search engines will penalize that web page.
Don’t Allow Your Pages to Become Slow
Most users expect site pages to load in three seconds or less, so if any of your pages take a long loading time, your visitors will quickly leave your website. Moreover, that’s not the only problem since when many visitors do this, search engines will know that your content isn’t relevant; therefore, your web page will go down in search engine result rankings.
To rank high, you must ensure that none of your pages takes longer than three seconds to load. Three seconds may not mean anything for many other things, but when it comes to page speed, a page that takes longer than three seconds to load is an eternity.
Speeding up page loading time is possible by:
- Compressing and resizing your site images
- Caching your site pages
- Minifying your code as much as possible
- Limiting your redirects to a realistic number
- Improving the response time of your server
Even though site load time statistics show that the average site loading speed in 2022 is 10.3 seconds, you have to know that this is a worldwide statistic, including all sites. If you want to be in the company of the best websites ranking high, more than three seconds is too much.
Don’t Underestimate the Importance of A Responsive Design
Last on the list, but equally essential, is to remember that you shouldn’t underestimate the importance of a responsive design.
The reason is that you have to apply all your SEO techniques to a highly responsive desktop format but also make it mobile-friendly since most users today use mobile devices to search for information, services, and products. Therefore, Google prioritizes mobile format much more, and if your website isn’t optimized for mobile, it won’t rank high under any circumstances.
In essence, your website content must work equally well on mobile and desktop devices to rank high on Google and other search engines.
After reading these five SEO don’ts and how complex this is, you probably understand why hiring an SEO company is necessary!
