50 Common [worst] SEO Mistakes to avoid in 2022

Search Engine Optimization or SEO (Read more at wikipedia) is a fast-changing industry and the webmasters need to cope with these changes and keep themselves upgraded. If they do not do so and keep on making mistakes, it will, in turn, hamper the concerned website’s rankings in the Search Engine results page.

Let’s have a look at what are the biggest mistakes in the field of SEO:-

HTML errors that are not focused by webmaster, web designer or web developer

1- You aren’t performing the task of internal linking. Link building is a crucial part of On-page optimization and should be used with proper care.

2- You might be indulged in Keyword Stuffing which leads to a poor website copy and makes it look too bad. You will be kicked off by the search engines in turn.

3- You might be using broken links. Broken links are those hyperlinks that do not point to any destination and earn a bad reputation for a website’s ranking in Google search results.

4- You do not own a mobile site design for multiple screens. Google is now considering giving ranks to those websites which are mobile friendly websites.

5- If you are using only images for headings and menus, then it is a big blunder. This is because H1, H2 tags which form a major part of SEO, will look horrible in case only images are used.

6- You might be using irrelevant Anchor Text Links. You must create a cleverly phrased anchor text link so that Google can crawl your website easily.

7-You might be lacking in communication with web developers which in turn leads to the bad optimized website. While designing the website, the developers contribute a lot through creating the web codes and therefore both designer and developer must discuss together before reaching to a common conclusion.

8- You are having a poor site structure. This means that while designing the website, the developer has not integrated SEO practices in the website structure thereby not providing a way for Google to crawl the website easily.

Not inserting Meta Information in all pages

9- You might not use a unique title tag and description. A good title of around 65 characters and description of around 160 characters should be made using the keywords so that search engines can crawl the website easily.

10- You might be ignoring the title tag. If you are leaving the title tag empty without placing the keyword, then it will not prove good in optimization. Putting the keywords in your title tag will show up as page title in the search results page.

11-You are giving excessive concentration on Meta Tags. Although meta tags do hold important place in SEO process but solely depending on the same will not prove much.

12- You are involved in keyword repetition in the website’s content. Repeating the keywords again and again, you will be donning Black Hat SEO technique.

Optimize web pages content to get better SEO ranks

13- You are using duplicate content which will lead to plagiarism and will lead your website to nowhere.

14- You might be lacking keywords in the content. Content is the main part of any website and if there are keywords in the content, then the website can be said to be optimized in a rather better manner.

15- You might not be updating the website’s content regularly. Updating website’s content on a continuous basis is the need of the hour for every website so that it ranks well in Google search results.

16- You might be working either on content or optimization while both are necessary. Being a webmaster, you must insert equal efforts in both fields.

17- You have forgotten about Content Marketing. Content plays a crucial role in digital marketing and therefore it is important to work on the same.

Google, Bing webmaster, analytic settings, Sitemap issues

18- You might not be using Google Keyword Tool.  This tool can indeed help in searching for the right keywords that people are typing in the Google search bar.

19- You might not have registered the website with Google and Bing Webmaster tool. It is essential to register the website for better crawling. The tools help the website owners to learn more about their properties.

20- You aren’t a Google Verified Author. It is important to register with Google as it is the main search engine and your website ranking depends on its crawling.

21-You are not building a sitemap / xml sitemap for Google if there is use of Javascript Menus. Building a sitemap will help your website to be crawled easily.

22- You might not be allowing your website to be crawled. If the content in your website is difficult to digest, then Google shall not be able to crawl your website.

Neglecting Social Media:

23- You are non-active on Social Media like facebook, linkedin, pinterest, twitter, Google plus etc which in turn can lead to reduction in making leads.

Not promoting your website on blogging platform and neither creating press releases

24- You might not be promoting your Blog Posts. If you do not have a blog, you can create one on blogging platforms like blogger and wordpress.

25- You are not focusing on inserting Press Releases. Regular updates about the website through Press Releases indeed play a crucial role in letting the customers know about the company’s day to day working thereby building loyalty among the customers.

Site Speed Up, Server issues

26- Your website might be having a slow loading rate. If the images and videos in your website are heavy thereby slowing the loading rate of the website, then it can affect the ranking of your website because people will tend to close the website within seconds of typing the URL.

Some other SEO mistakes that you haven’t paid attention to

27- You might not be following a consistent publishing plan. Consistency is a must for any work and same goes for SEO process also. If you stop the SEO work in between, then all your previous efforts will also go waste and your website’s ranking will go down.

28- You must be doing aggressive link-building to gain ranks fast which is big . It just won’t offer you with the desired results.

29- You are building internal links in a quite fast manner. Link building is a time-consuming process and if you happen to perform it in a fast manner, then it will be named under Black Hat SEO.

30- You might be doing Over optimization. Over optimization also weakens the website’s ranking. Just like everything consumed in excess hampers the functioning of human body, the same rule applies to SEO process also.

31-You are having a flash website without an HTML alternative. Flash websites are not compatible with search engines easily. If you wish to make the website search engine friendly, then provide an html version.

32- You are relying on Old Methods of SEO. The world of SEO keeps changing with changes in ranking algorithms of search engines. Being a webmaster you must keep yourself abreast with these changes and work accordingly.

33- You lack consistency and maintenance in optimizing the website.  Only regular efforts can help in optimizing the website.

34-You might be ignoring the importance of URL’s. Inserting keywords in the website URL name gives you an edge over your competitors.

35- You might be using efforts solely keeping in mind about Search engines and not for users and customers. It is the end user that will turn into a customer, so you must know that.

36- You might be involved in Backlink Spamming. Webmasters always tend to get more and more links and that’s why they resort to link farms and other spam activities which in turn lead to getting their website banned. Thus, one must not use this kind of easy way outs.

37- You might be copying the SEO strategy of other websites. It is essential to know that every website demands individual attention and that’s why the webmasters must adopt unique strategy for doing SEO of every website.

38- You are taking links from low quality and non-credible sources. Links obtained from quality websites and blogs will boost the rankings of your website as compared to quantity links taken from useless directories.

39- You might be getting your SEO done through outsourcing when you can actually do it on your own. You must give ample time to see that the working of SEO is being used in a proper manner.

40- You might be depending solely on ranking reports and not paying attention to traffic stats. When it comes to search engine rankings of your website, then emphasis on both are essential.

41- You might be participating in Link Farms. Your participation in these will only lead to spamming.

42- You are taking poor and unqualified advice from SEO agencies. A lot of agencies that boast of using SEO tactics are mushrooming in every nook and corner. However, blindly trusting them will hamper your website’s reputation in long run.

43- You are not doing efforts to make customers hit the buy button on Ecommerce websites. Merely getting traffic is not the sole motive of SEO. If the traffic is not being converted into potential leads, then your efforts are lacking somewhere.

44- You are depending excessively on PPC campaigns and not organic listings. Organic results are far better than mere paid campaigns.

45 -You are looking to tools before your assets.

46-You might be arguing with the data. If you are not working as per data records, then your efforts to make the site rank in search engine results will go waste.

47- You are giving false promises to the customers. Misleading customers can indeed hamper your website in long run.

48- You are not optimizing the website for local audience first and giving all attention to global audience.

49- You aren’t focusing on Conversion rate which is otherwise an important part of entire SEO process.

50-Cannonical issue is yet another factor that affects SEO process to a large extent.

If you have been affected anyhow on account of these mistakes, then you must make sure to resolve the same as fast as you can so that your website can again get the right slot on the search engine rankings page.