SEO Mistakes to Avoid – Your Ranking at Risk

Last Updated on March 23, 2023 by Kuldeep Bisht

There are some worst common SEO mistakes that businesses are still doing. And, this blog post is to highlights all these biggest SEO mistakes that you can avoid in order to get a higher rank on Search Engines.

SEO is Important, straightforward, and challenging at the same time. Search engines keep changing their algorithms frequently. Using old SEO techniques will only take your time without generating desirable results. Black hat SEO might’ve fooled the old systems, but search engines are aggressively moving towards an AI or a more “human-like” model.

Try avoiding the following common SEO mistakes and improve your online ranking.

#1 – Article Marketing and Copying Digital Content

Article marketing was the primary SEO strategy in the last decade. The idea was to create a piece of content and after remodeling and a few minor adjustments submit multiple copies to different free article posting websites in exchange for backlinks. It used to work wonders for the SEOs, but the problem is, that it USED TO.

With the search engine algorithms getting smarter by the day, this technique is fading out rapidly. Their models quickly discover spammy and duplicate posts. Duplicate content can dramatically lower your website’s search ranking and search engines are not indexing your web pages.

However, this does not imply that writing for other websites to generate links is not a good idea. As a matter of fact, guest blogging is one of the most effective ways to make a money-making blog and an important space for your SEO. But your content must be unique, and your business surrounded by trusted authoritative websites. Some of the elements where you should never duplicate content:

• Product Description
• Syndicated content (comments, quotes)
• URLs- different URLs must point to unique pages
• Blogs/Website content

Use Copyscape to check copies of the content. If your content is indeed duplicate, use 301 redirect or “no follow” or “no index” to prevent a negative impact on your SEO.

Pro Tip: Always Follow 1:1:1 ratio (Publish 1 article on 1 HQ site with 1 backlink only.)

# 2 – Accepting Guest posts without examining

Many websites feature new writers by publishing niche-specific or genre-related content. Most of the time this content doesn’t go through a precise quality check before being posted, with the intention of getting “free content” but a very poorly written article can significantly disrupt your SEO efforts. While most of the big blogging sites have predefined standards for accepting posts but if you aim to publish guest articles on your website or blog make sure to list the following guidelines in your standards:

• Limited numbers of links – Most blogging activities are done to improve the SEO and backlinking of a website. Writers try to stuff the article with unnecessary and irrelevant links which needs to be avoided by limiting the number of links.
• Word count – A fixed word count (500 or 1000 words) will encourage quality articles on your website.
• Quality check– Is the article informative or is it just for promotion? Are there too many grammatical errors? Is the content easy to understand? Are the images high quality? Ask these questions before publishing Guest Articles on your website or blog.

Pro Tip: Also add links to high authority and informative articles on the web.

#3 – Stuffing Keywords

Stuffing pages with keywords or numbers result in a negative user experience and can harm your site’s ranking. Focus on creating useful, information-rich content that uses keywords appropriately and in context.

Here is what Google says about Keyword Stuffing.

Keywords are the terms that make your content discoverable and relate to the user’s search queries. It’s very important, but the problem starts when a specific phrase is used over and over again lacking any context with sheer hopes of better rankings.

For instance here is what stuffing looks like for the keyword SEO.

"SEO is important for the SEO of my website. SEO not only helps SEO by improving SEO but also SEOing my SEO of website’s SEO."

The excess use of Keyword “SEO” makes this whole text sounds unnatural and barely readable!

Google’s top concern is the UX, using keywords like above may increase the density, but it is only a minor part of Google’s search algorithm. On the other hand, if your content is not legible and engaging, the bounce rate will skyrocket and wreck your SEO.

Another technique marketers use to stuff keywords behind images and make them invisible by matching their color with the background. While it is deceptive in every way, it violates Google’s hidden text guidelines and can be punitive to a degree of complete overnight wipe-off from webspace.

#4 – Not Leveraging Universal Marketing Platforms

With a rapid boom of the Internet and its allied services, there are so many places to splurge your money at. Though the marketers usually focus on a single (or two) platforms. It is highly recommended to build a strong presence in every domain.

For instance, there is a company that focuses on building a strong following via Facebook. It builds an army of dedicated fans who keep liking, commenting, and sharing their content. It is a huge source of quality SEO but not using Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc distances their business from potential customers on other platforms and limits the generated traffic and number of links.

Huge Backlink support from a specific website doesn’t have a large impact on your SEO. On the other hand, a wide and diversely connected network writes fables of your success.

• Use SumoMe to share content widely on various platforms with a single click
• Use Buzzstream to find influencers related to your business. Ask them to boost your visibility by sharing or commenting.
• Use Mailchimp or similar marketing automation software to reach the inbox of readers effectively directly.
• Create a huge and active presence on major social media platforms.

#5 – Buying Links

Paid links used to be the most painless way of getting quality backlinks and that too in huge numbers, but with the smarter algorithm and updated link scheme this method has been blacklisted and is extremely punitive.

Here is what Google says about buying links.

Google keeps warning marketers who promise hundreds of links and a first page ranking in no time. It lists your business in the same category as a ‘bad neighborhood.’

Some companies claim to be never caught by Google, but remember that the algorithm keeps evolving. If they don’t find you today, guaranteed to catch you at some point in the future. Anand Subramnyam at Shoutmeloud did research on buying backlinks and how it dropped the overall SEO back in 2012! Just imagine how worse it could do in coming years hence!

Pro Tip: DO NOT BUY BACKLINKS from Fiverr or any other “recommended” sites.

Final Words

Never underestimate the impact of the worst SEO mistakes mentioned above. Search Engine Optimization is a long and tiring process, and webmasters always try to find a way around to achieve targets more quickly. But a smart business person should adopt ethical practices to stay active in a constantly changing landscape to prevent a disaster.

So, if you want to run long in the Search Engines then you should definitely avoid these common SEO mistakes.

How did you find this article? Are there any techniques that you’re using to get results faster? Let me know in the comments.