19 Most Common SEO Errors That Hurt Your Rankings
When it comes to SEO, there are a few errors that can be made that can hurt your rankings. They include:
- Duplicate Content
- Forgotten Noindex Tags
- Using iFrames
- Low Word Count
- Flash
- Deprecated Elements
- CSS & JavaScript Errors
- Server Status Code 4xx
- Server Status Code 5xx
- Mixed Content
- Insecure Password Input
- Common Name Mismatch
- Orphaned Pages
- Links to Redirected Pages
- Links From Bad Pages
- Not Using Browser Caching
- Not Enabling Compression
- Hreflang Page Source Conflicts
- Invalid Hreflang Values
On-page SEO: a handy checklist to tick off in 2021 and beyond
When optimizing a page for SEO, ensure that you’ve included the following:
- URLs
- Images
- Titles and meta descriptions
- Page load speed
- Links – internal and external
- Content
Learn about the three Core Web Vitals: LCP, FID & CLS
When it comes to Core Web Vitals, there are three that are essential to success.
- LCP, Largest Contentful Paint: This measures how long it takes for the largest piece of content to appear on the screen.
- FIS, or First Input Delay: This measures how long it takes for the site to react to the first interaction.
- CLS, or Cumulative Layout Shift: This measures the visual stability of your site.
Featured Snippets Back To Normal Levels In Google Search
On February 19th, Google significantly dropped the number of times featured snippets would show up in the Google Search results. As of Friday morning, March 12th, it looks like the percentage of time Google shows featured snippets in the results are back to normal.
Google: Words In A URL A Very Light Weight Factor But Less After Indexing
Google’s John Mueller said once again that Google does use the words in the URL as a ranking factor. But John explained that this is a “very very lightweight factor.” John added that it becomes even less of a factor once the content is indexed. Once Google understands the content on the page, the keywords in the URL are even weighted less for ranking purposes.
Google Local Pack Showing Menu Highlights
Google in the local pack is now expanding its “justifications” to show not just general justifications about the business and not just what is on the menu but highlights from the menu.
Google Blocked 3.1 Billion Ads, Restricted 6.4 Billion Ads & Suspended 1.7 Million Advertisers
Google has published its annual “Ads Safety Report” and disclosed that it has blocked or removed over 3.1 billion ads for violating its Google Ads policies, it restricted over 6.4 billion ads, suspended over 1.7 million advertiser accounts, and removed ads from over 1.3 billion pages in 2020. Google also said it added or updated over 40 policies for both advertisers and publishers. In 2011, Google removed 130 million bad ads compared to 3.1 billion bad ads in 2020.
5 Key SEO Tactics for Growing Organic Traffic
Want to increase your organic traffic? Be sure to:
- Rank Higher for Already-Ranking Keywords
- Rank for More Long-Tail Keywords
- Rank for Net-New Keywords
- Increase Your CTR
- Rank in SERP Features
8 local SEO essentials
For your local SEO to be effective, you need to make sure that you have:
- Quality Content
- Well-Defined Location Strategy
- Understanding of Google
- Voice Search
- Local Keywords
- Local Search Ads
- Mobile Compatibility
- Relevant Business Category