The columnist John Lincoln He has been in this business for a long time and has seen the same mistakes a lot of times. Learn from the mistakes from other SEO newbies It will help you start your career on the right foot.
When you are new to search engine optimization, you are going to make more SEO errors than an experienced professional. It's a complicated line of work, and one that can't really be good until you have significant experience.
Often, you don't even know you're making a mistake when you do it. There is so much knowledge to learn in this field and so much history. I wrote this post to help SEO students. Here are the 6 biggest SEO mistakes that I have noticed in SEO newbies and how to avoid them.
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Ignore what they don't know
Good SEO Practitioners They are aware of an undeniable truth: You never finish learning. You will find that any technical discipline requires constant education. This is possibly more true in SEO than in other disciplines.
Because? Because Google uses an algorithm to determine how pages get a rating, and the algorithm can't be counted on to stay the same.
Your SEO efforts to reach the top places in search engines (SERPs) in 2014 may be less effective in 2016. You may also find that your existing pages perform the dreaded “Google Dance” – that is, they change position in the SERPs due to algorithm changes.
What do you know about the latest modification to the Google algorithm? If you can't answer this, then that's what you don't know. Change that by staying on top of the changes, which are frequently documented.
Additionally, if you are just starting out in SEO, be sure to thoroughly study various authoritative online sources on how to properly rank a web page.
Pay attention to what works and what doesn't in the most recent articles published. Chances are good that an SEO strategy that was popular just six months ago won't work as well anymore.
When I started in SEO, I read every article I could on Search Engine Land, Google Webmaster Central, Moz, whatever. But I still didn't know half of what I know today.
If you are new to SEO, it is very important to keep in mind that you don't know anything yet. It's okay to ask questions of your superiors or tell a client, “I'll have to fully investigate that and I'll be in touch with you.” In most cases, the client will have to respect you for this.
Do you think you know everything? Try your luck with some of these basic SEO questions.
These are some of the questions I ask myself during the interview process. Feel free to use them the next time you are interviewed by an SEO consultant.
- What is a robots.txt file?
- What is the X-Robots tag?
- What is the nositelinksearchbox meta tag?
- What is the notranslate tag?
- What is Unicode/UTF-8 and why does that matter to Google?
- What is the meta refresh tag and why is it not recommended?
- What is an .htaccess file and how is it used?
- How can you use user agent and IP location detection to improve UX?
- What is a canonical relation?
- What is noindex, nofollow?
- When you use robotx.txt, a canonical rel, nofollow and noindex?
And I have another 50 more questions but I think these are enough for you to realize how much you know.
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Not analyzing negative numbers well
When the numbers are bad, you need to be honest with the customer about why they are bad. If it is not due to incorrect strategies, and is due to something that broke on the client's site or a technical issue, you need to clarify it.
On the other hand, if you're trying the same thing over and over again, and it's not working, it's time to try something different. You may be using an old SEO strategy that is no longer working.
What's worse, you could be trying a difficult strategy that Google recognizes as an attempt to manipulate its algorithm, and your site could be penalized.
For example, if you are still receiving a lot of low-quality links and waiting for your rankings to go up, you will be disappointed. You'll probably get a few positions for a few months and then leave with terrible grief.
Bottom line: If the reports are bad, be honest about why. If the report is bad because you don't have the right strategy, you should reach out to a superior.
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Not focusing on the most important issues to improve income
In SEO, it is tempting to focus your efforts on positioning “easy” keywords, even if those pages don't contribute to growth like the others. Avoid using these words just because it makes your job a little less tedious.
Make sure you are doing the following:
- focus on the keywords that will give good performance.
- Do not waste your time with strategies that don't matter. Forget the little technical stuff – save it for last!
- Create quarterly strategic plans that are directly linked to business objectives.
- Good content and good links are the most important elements – Never forget that (That is, as long as there are no broken links or something is not working on the site, which happens a lot). Keep in mind that “good content” can mean many things: a good landing page, a good category template, a good blog. Need to know your In-Page, too.
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Becoming too attached to the Contract
Yes, you have a contract with your client that spells out certain specific SEO responsibilities. It lists a series of “thou shalts” and “thou shalt nots.” Consider it a guide, rather than a command. Well, not the “thou shalt not” part… which is a command. But please keep this in mind…
When a sales rep sells an SEO deal, they go all out. They often do an excellent job.
But it is your job to make sure those services are provided and executed. But also, if they are not the right services, it is your job to modify them so that they are the right services.
For example, let's say your contract specifies 30 infographics – but when you look more closely, you realize all of the website content has been stolen by dozens of affiliate sites. Get rid of the infographic, solve the content problem.
Additionally, I generally have no problem with adding more services if the client needs them. I call remarketing client.
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Don't ask for help until it's too late
Although good SEO takes time, it shouldn't take forever. Your efforts to boost the ranking of a web page must be noticeable within six months (depending on the page and the keyword you are trying to position).
However, if you're not seeing any results at all after a few months, it might be time to ping a more experienced SEO professional for help.
Owner of the website you are trying to position check the SERPs, also. If he or she is not seeing results after a while, then you might find that he or she thinks your efforts are no good and you don't want that.
So make sure to monitor the ranking of the pages on a weekly basis to determine if there are movements, even if it is always a small movement. If it seems like the trend is your friend, then you can rest assured that your efforts are having an impact.
However, if the page does not appear to be moving, then you are doing something wrong. You will have to rely on someone else to get the job done.
The lesson here is to be constantly vigilant to ensure that you are having some effect on the ranking of pages you're tasked with optimizing. Avoid waiting too long to seek help, or it may be too late.
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Not noticing a client is forever
As an SEO professional, you will find that there are few things in professional life more valuable than a client. That is why you must do the impossible, jump through hoops and make any reasonable sacrifice to keep your customers happy.
If you want to know what valuable customers look like, start by calculating the cost of acquiring one. You'll usually find that it's cheaper to spend a little more (in terms of time and money) to keep that customer than it is to go looking for a new one.
The key here is to practice customer service very well so that your clients are always happy with your work. In this way, you will be able to keep the clients you have and demonstrably secure a little more with the recommendation advertising.
So go above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to offering customers an exceptional experience. They will thank you with long-term income. Going further is always rewarding.
On the other hand, if you lose a client, it is also very important that you never leave them with a bad taste in their mouth. Always do your best to finish on the right foot.
Most likely, you will encounter them again in your professional life. The main point is that, even if something goes wrong, and the relationship ends, do your best to be a human being, you will probably see them again.
Source: Search Engine Land
