Small businesses looking to save a quick buck by search engine optimizing their own website might end up with costly long-term headaches. It may surprise every single business to know that there are a variety of mistakes that are being made in regards to SEO search queries. Every business ought to have an awareness of the mistakes that can hinder its online success when it doesn’t hire a professional. Once these mistakes happen it can be very difficult to undo without further impeding your search engine presence. The following is a list of common SEO mistakes being made everyday by SEO do-it-yourself-ers.

Keyword Stuffing

Repeat keywords are an important element when it comes to the SEO search engine. The mistake that is commonly being made is that the keyword itself is being overused. It should be known that the overuse of keywords can damage the rankings and may even get you penalized. This technique of repeating the keyword phrase numerous times is now considered to be outdated. Search engines have changed and the overuse of keywords does not benefit you.

Targeting the Wrong Keywords

It is important to keep in mind that a keyword phrase might sound good; however, it may not necessarily be relevant to the content that is offered. Many businesses all target the same keywords while leaving goldmines just sitting around. Instead of wasting your time fighting for the same keyword, a professional can target the diamond in the rough and take your business to the next level.

Poor and Repeated Content

There are common mistakes that occur because of unoriginal and repeated published content. Believe it or not, multiple businesses try copying the same content from page to page, or simply steal it from another website.  Google is very smart and can figure out if something is original or not. If you’re not willing to put in the time to create unique, engaging, custom, creative content than your website is going to get penalized

Non-Canonical URL’s

Many websites don’t customize their URLs and leave all the junk that can scare away visitors. That means: when was the last time you clicked on a link that looked like: www.example.com/496764-23iadsflj-f945qjdk/? As soon as you fix up you URLs you’ll notice an increase in click-through rate, plus people are going to be much more willing to link to your content. You also won’t confuse search bots on your inconsistent URL structures.

Not a Specialty Topic

Each Page needs a specific topic that the subject matter covers. This part also takes advantage of the specific targeted keywords. If you’re really going to be an authority on the subject, you’ll need to spend some time finding sources. If the content does not have a source that offers specialty information you kill the sense of authority on the subject, and people are less likely to link to you.

No Internal Linking, or Overkill Internal Linking

Google loves seeing internal links to other pages among the website. Not only does this help Google crawl your website, so it doesn’t miss any of your content, but it helps website visitors navigate your site. But too many websites are overloading their customers with too much information and too many links. If a website has 8,000 internal links on one page it can be a nightmare for navigation purposes. But if you don’t have any internal links it can also kill your websites navigation. You need a professional to find the right balance to optimize your webpage navigation.

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