Stephanie Donelson

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) encompasses a wide array of digital elements, like technical backend development, on-page optimizations in the content, and link sharing. Essentially SEO makes sure your site is structured the right way so search engines understand your website and serve it to the right searchers. 

SEO has come a long way in the last few years to help marketers and website developers become more skilled in driving quality traffic to their websites and improving online conversions through new tactics and SEO best practices.

But, sometimes a best practice can be overused and become a bad practice or a marketing mistake to avoid. 

Instead of covering some best practices for 2020, I’m going to cover some SEO mistakes you’ll want to avoid in 2020 to get the most out of your digital marketing efforts, drive the right traffic, and improve clicks and conversions. 

6 SEO mistakes to avoid in your marketing

1. Not having an SEO strategy

Planning your content in advance is an important first step of your digital marketing strategy but you want to ensure you get the most of your content by optimizing it and promoting it correctly.

As you map out your content plan for 2020, include chances to map out keywords and related terms, internal linking opportunities, and ways to promote your content and get links back to it.

You should also have a plan in place to revisit content and refresh the copy and keywords if need be. You’ll also want to include both on-site (your own website) and off-page (third-party website) SEO optimization updates throughout the year. 

Keywords aren’t just for your site’s content efforts, but are also used for your Google Ads and can be used in your social media posts to show the search engines how your site relates to those terms. 

2. No links or having low-quality links

Links are integral to your SEO strategy and  you should focus on both internal and external links. The search engines always prefer quality over quantity, so it’s better to have fewer high-quality links than a lot of low-quality ones.

Make sure you’re appropriately linking to other pages of your own website and linking to external sites or sources when you need to attribute quotes or statistics or want to pull in authority from another reputable brand. 

In the past, it was a common practice to troll other blogs or online forums and leave links to your website in the comments, but this is now a common SEO mistake you should avoid. Focus on sharing your content and links back to your site with others who request it and with other sites that make sense with your brand.

3. Keyword stuffing

Don’t overdo it with keywords! Not only will your site be penalized by the search engines but your human website visitors will hate reading your content. Aim for a keyword density of 1-3%, meaning one to three uses of your keyword term per 100 words.  

I’ll still never forget the time I worked at a digital marketing agency and our new client’s website copy read something along the lines of: Are you looking for the best things to do in Orlando? Our Orlando hotel is situated near the best things to do in Orlando, making it a great choice for your hotel in Orlando. Our Orlando hotel is right in the heart of the city, putting you next to the best things to do in Orlando. When staying at our Orlando, FL hotel you’ll enjoy the best hotel rooms Orlando has to offer and have easy access to the fun things to do in Orlando. 

It was amazing, in a very, very bad way. The page had a super high bounce rate and low conversion rate, and if I had to read that as a potential customer, my eyes would have started bleeding.

The days of keyword stuffing are gone as the search engine crawlers and algorithms get smarter about making connections between related words and synonyms. Use secondary and tertiary terms to round out your content and not make it obvious what search term you’re optimizing your content for. 

4. No keyword mix

Your site should have a healthy mix of broad keywords and long-tail search terms, meaning a keyword phrase with at least three words. 

Broad terms help the search engines understand the general information on your website and long-tail terms are more specific. For example, your broad term could be “Denver hotel,” and your long-tail keyword could be “pet-friendly downtown Denver hotel.”

Broad search terms can help you acquire visitors who are in the early stages of their buyer’s journey and not ready to convert. Broad terms are also much more competitive, meaning long-tail keywords will perform better in more defined searches – and generally searches done by people who are ready to purchase. 

5. Forgetting about technical SEO

There are also some behind-the-scenes SEO techniques that need some TLC to improve your site’s ranking and conversion rate. Some of the technical SEO elements you’ll want to include in your optimization strategy include:

• Title tag
• Meta data
• Slug (page URL)
• XML Sitemap
• Schema
• Headers
• Rich snippets
• Social markup
• Alt tags
• No-follow txt
• 301 redirects
• Site speed
• Responsive design

These elements might seem trivial and unimportant but can make a difference in how your site and its content performs and is worth the time it takes to optimize them.

6. Not measuring results

With today’s access to data and real-time analytics there’s no reason you shouldn’t be measuring the results of your SEO efforts. Data from Google Analytics can tell you a lot about how your website is performing in terms of site traffic and engagement with your site’s content.

• Pageviews
• Time on site
• Bounce rate
• Exit rate
• Conversion rate
• Page value
• Referral source

You’ll also want to look at your demographic and geographic  information to make sure you’re targeting the right people and meeting their needs.

Set up a monthly and quarterly report that shows what content was produced, what social media campaigns were run, and what Google Ads were displaying and how they performed on the metrics listed above. 

Not sure where to begin with Google Analytics? Read the guide setting it up for success!

Is there a specific SEO tactic you’re focusing on in 2020? Share it in the comments below or on Twitter!