When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), making sure that your website rises to the top of the search engine result pages (SERPs) can seem easy. But sometimes, even with the best intentions in mind, it can be easy to stumble into common mistakes. This October, we’ll talk about the 7 spooky mistakes
that people most commonly make when doing their SEO!

Our first spooky mistake: Missing Alt Text! Alternative text, known as “alt text,” is a critical piece of your SEO. Alt text is the text that you add to an image to help search engines understand what the image means. For example, if you write a page about the “best food near me” and add an image of delicious pizza, you can add alt text for the image such as “best food around” so search engine crawls understand the image! Alternative text is a great way to deliver information to search engines about what your page is trying to rank for.

Our first spooky mistake: Missing Alt Text! Alternative text, known as “alt text,” is a critical piece of your SEO. Alt text is the text that you add to an image to help search engines understand what the image means. For example, if you write a page about the “best food near me” and add an image of delicious pizza, you can add alt text for the image such as “best food around” so search engine crawls understand the image! Alternative text is a great way to deliver information to search engines about what your page is trying to rank for.

Next on our list of spooky SEO mistakes to avoid is the one most people have heard of…keyword stuffing! If you’ve not heard of keyword stuffing, this is when a web page has a keyword that is overused, typically in egregious fashion. Your keyword should be prominent on your page, but if you keep the user experience in mind, it shouldn’t be the only thing on your page. Building content around your keyword without overusing it is the best way to let search engines understand your page while users still have the ability to engage with it.

Utilizing the proper SEO tactics for search engines to read is extremely important, but one thing people often forget is that search engines aren’t who you’re trying to reach! User experience is one of the most important things people forget when optimizing their website pages. Having your page be easily readable by search engines is a great thing, but what good is it to have everybody see your page if the user doesn’t see any value in it! Having your web page be optimized for search engines while still being practical for users to enjoy and maneuver is something that flies under the radar but should be kept at the front of mind.

While we’re on the topic of overusing, another common error is the overuse of headings. Headings should typically fall in a hierarchy with both placement and usage. Your H1 is the main title of your page, this tells search engines and the user what your page is about. Having multiple of these can confuse search engines, making them unsure what your page is truly about.

Once you’ve got your content on your page and you’ve tackled the mistakes from above you may think that you’re finished. But a very simple common mistake that people forget, is proper internal and external linking. Adding a link on a page to another page within your website can help create an understanding for search engines and provide your site with reputability. Search engines crawl through the links and see where they end up, whereas users utilize these links to get to more places on your site. Using internal and external links properly will help your search engine optimization and provide better visibility for pages.

Our final spooky SEO mistake that people commonly make is being impatient! Search engine optimization can take time and it’s accompanied by ebbs and flows. Using proper SEO techniques and jumping through the hoops that search engines want will surely get you where you want to go, but it doesn’t happen overnight. Continuing to use search engine optimization in a strategic and correct way will help gain organic rankings all in due time!

If you’re interested in learning more about search engine optimization and doing it the proper way, get in touch with a team member at The Gratzi, Inc! Our team will help gain your business organic rankings and help you move up on Google and other search engines!