Can You Negatively Impact SEO? After spending the capital and investing your time into a vivid website that holds a users attention; don’t fall into the trap of content that doesn’t rank on search engines. All of those top tier graphics go to waste if search engines don’t notice your content. All of your effort and money poured into your website will suddenly have been swallowed by a money pit. The common mistake web designers make is to focus on flash over function. Here are some typical mistakes that can really damage your SEO efforts and how to eliminate them.
How Big is Too Big?
We all know that visually engaging and pleasing graphics are crucial to how a visitor to your site interprets your brand. Despite keeping a customer engrossed, there is a drawback to using large images and videos. Hefty image and video files can slow the speed on your site significantly. When your website loads too slow, it affects your search engine results page (SERP) position. Conversely, Google will boost your SERP placement if your site loads faster. Goole has added a “speed signal” into their algorithms to advance the rank of faster websites. Google also says that they have found users are happier when a website is fast; which is only logical. So remember, before you upload that enormous image file to your site, think about it slowing your site down.
Tags.
You can put your website together perfectly, but if you are not using H1 tags, you are virtually invisible to the major search engines. Google and Bing both use signals in their algorithms to detect H1 tags. H1 tags are usually used for titles of a page, and hence search engines recognize their value. The first thing seen by users about your company in a SERP is your H1 tag (or title). If you have a well crafted H1 headline, it will likely bring more clicks. Your H1 title should be written well enough that a potential customer can instantaneously understand what the site is about just from reading the headline. But be careful, just like keyword stuffing, too many H1 tags will cause Google, and Bing will penalize your site. The to remember is, use one H1 tag with a clear, understandable headline in strong language and your SEO is sure to improve. If you forget to add an H1 tag, and your site might as well not existent.
Don’t Put Everything on the Same Page.
Search Engines will be confused if you try and fit every fact about your company on a single page. They will not be able to figure out your company’s core business. Clearly, if you confuse a search engine, the SERP ranking will not be very high. How do you avoid this pitfall? Create a page for each product or service your company offers. Producing separate pages for products or services gives a distinct signal to search engines about each page’s content. Separating pages also provide an opportunity to use one keyword on each page. Straightforward content that lauds the advantages of using your company’s goods or services also increases the chance of having a high SERP ranking.
Don’t Put Text in Images.
Regrettably, including text in images, is still an all too common mistake. Why is including text in images a mistake? The text contained in images is not visible to Google or Bing. As of this post being written, search engines can’t read the text in images, so don’t embed any text in a picture. Text in an image also means no H1 tag for the title, as already stated, is not good.
Even Search Engines Hate Pop-Ups.
Are you considering getting a little extra cash through third-party ads in pop-ups on your site? How about pushing one of your products in a pop-up? There are different schools of thought on how effective pop-ups are in selling products; one thing remains true; search engines will put your website in the penalty box for using any pop-ups. Google has said they lower SERP rankings for pop-ups, so avoid them.
If you stay away from these common content marketing mistakes, then you should see your SEO efforts generate better results. Reduce your ability to Negatively Impact SEO. We can help!
For more information on how Incend Media can help you contact us today.