Business

6 Common SEO Mistakes That Can Harm Your WordPress Website

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Once you have developed a website on WordPress, please do not rush to publish it. Work on SEO to make the site attractive to Google.

SEO is the most critical factor for your website to attract more traffic. But SEO is not a one-tip formula; different strategies work for different businesses. It varies with your industry and even location. So, it is important to spend your time on research and strategize your online marketing plans to move your website ranking to the top.

Rather than offering ideas about formulating effective SEO strategies, in this article, we will talk about some common mistakes that can harm their website in terms of SEO performance.

Here are six pointers mentioned below; if you identify any of these, your website will need fine-tuning.

  • Is your website slow and lagging?

Google always prefers fast web hosts; websites that offer a better user experience. The quality of content, ease of navigation, etc. each element adds up to a user’s experience. The fast loading time is one such factor that improves the overall user experience, and it can be achieved with a high-speed web host. If users have to wait long for the website to load, most would prefer to leave it with a sour experience.

  • Is your website unsecured?

Your search rankings can get hugely affected if it is hacked. Hence, maintaining your website’s security is crucial; adding SSL will bring you one step closer to attaining that security. Also, make sure to keep your WordPress plugins updated. If you are not using a theme, then delete that. With all the adequate security measures, your website will rank better in Google listings.

  • Is there a proper meta description?

When you see a list of websites on Google, you might have noticed a small text snippet that describes the website’s content in short, known as “meta description”. Google can automatically create meta descriptions, but it would be better to do that on your own. Write a description that matches the focus of your website. You can install plugins like Yoast and All-in-one SEO pack to serve the purpose.

  • Did you submit the XML sitemap to Google?

These are the text list of your website pages, tags, categories, etc, whose format makes it easy for Google to find relevant pages on the site. With the Yoast plugin, XML sitemaps get automatically created. Google can of course do it on its own, but submitting a sitemap is always a good idea. This strategy is especially relevant if you want to do major design or content changes on your website.

  • Are you using the right keywords?

SEO without the right keywords is an impossible situation. Keywords are essential to include in your website strategy. Keywords are those words or phrases that directly link to the content of a webpage. Professionals use keywords as anchor text for links on your post. Ensure that you always use relevant keywords and do not overuse them, as that would degrade the quality of the content. Google strictly penalizes plagiarism, so never use duplicate content.

  • Is your website design mobile-friendly?

The use of smartphones has increased dramatically in the last few years and even more after the pandemic outbreak. People rely on their phones to search for products and services they need. Thus, if you do not have a mobile-friendly website, you would be missing out on a lot of customers. Also, Google has moved to a mobile-first index which means the search engine automatically favors those websites which are mobile-friendly. Thus, it is an important criterion to rank on top.

Very often people tend to overlook these aspects of their website, and then worry about dipping SEO performance. But being meticulous and taking care of these six elements of your website can bring about marked improvements. Make sure to use proper tags and categories too. Also, make sure to use the right WordPress plugins and employ useful website maintenance tools. A website that is regularly maintained and updated strikes the right notes with your target audience and also with Google (which favors SEO performance). Make sure to check your site’s performance consistently based on these parameters and add new elements to see if it helps or not.