There are plenty of things that companies can do that can directly benefit their rankings on search engine results pages. Between using the right keywords, adding alt text to images, using different types of content, and using the right website structure, there are plenty of strategies that can improve SEO efforts. However, there are certain strategies that can plummet the ranking of a website, and that plenty of businesses are still using yet should be avoiding.
Content Types
If there are any pieces of content that are similar to others in a different location, or an exact match to them on the internet, it’s considered duplicate content, or plagiarism. Companies should avoid duplicate or plagiarized content at all costs. The best way to prevent search engines from flagging website content as plagiarized is to use a consistent structure for URLs and noindex tags on content that’s syndicated. Companies should also create 301 redirects and top-level domains.
Companies should encourage their users to engage with the content on their websites. When encouraged in this way, users will spend more time on a website and have improved experiences. These are both things that search engines take into account when ranking a website. Currently, the top media content type is video, and over 80% of businesses use videos as marketing tools to grow their businesses. And according to consumers, most people have reported that in some cases it was precisely video content that made them decide to make a purchase from a business. Aside from video content, audio content is also on the rise with consumers, which means companies should be looking to incorporate this type of content on their websites too.
Keyword Targeting
Whenever a company has two or more pages on their websites that are targeting the same main keywords, it’s considered keyword cannibalization. This is relatively common with newer websites, where business owners think it’s better to break down larger pieces of content to create more pages. However, instead of doing that, companies should create a single large post that includes the entirety of the large piece, and section that piece into smaller segments with headers.
Another thing that many new business owners do is replicate anchor text phrases in too much website content. This is a very clear signal to search engines that a website is trying to forcefully manipulate its ranking. To avoid this issue, companies should first determine the current status of all the backlinks to their website, and try to avoid exact links to those keywords going over 10% or 20% of those backlinks.
Link Building
There is a right and a wrong way to go about generating backlinks for a website. Some of the most obvious types of spammy link building detected by search engines include links in comments on blog posts, link schemes, link directories, as well as paid links. Companies should also analyze any relationships they might have with referring domains. Those domains should only use white hat SEO tactics and should maintain good linking practices.