It can be difficult enough getting your pages ranked well in Google, so to unintentionally (or worse – intentionally) make it harder by committing SEO mistakes that either kick you out or keep you out is a total unforced error, and one you should avoid at all costs.
While often these are unintentional blunders, it's your job to be aware of these types of things, so as to help your business keep progressing upwards in the search rankings. Failure to do so leads only to bad things, like lost sales, leads, rankings and visitors.
Let's take a little time and look at 5 egregious SEO blunders that can cost you all of the above, hoping you will then be able to avoid them!
Related: See 5 Proactive Ways to Minimize a Drop in Search Ranking
5 SEO Mistakes you don't want to make!
Lousy on-page SEO work – If your on-page SEO is incorrect, Google will have a difficult time ranking you for anything. Make sure that each page is properly optimized, with title tags, descriptions and images all dealt with and also that your pages aren't loading like molasses, another rank killer.
Not diversifying your keywords – The days of stuffing your pages with the keyword you wished to rank for are gone. You still need keywords, but make an effort not to hit visitors over the head with them, and be sure to include relevant verbiage throughout the page as well.
Duplicate content – It can be very easy to unintentionally create duplicate content these days. Tag pages, http and https versions of the same page, and several other tripwires make it easy for Google to discount your pages if they see these.
Bad link profile – If you are in the practice of buying links for your sites, your days are numbered as far as rankings in Google are concerned. The algorithm is becoming better and better at ferreting out bad links and imposing penalties on the sites that are using them. A word to the wise…
Indexability issues – If Google can't find or read your pages, you may have a problem. (You WILL have a problem!) There are a number of ways this can happen, from broken links to faulty redirects, too much flash and even blocking the search engines entirely. Hopefully this is one you'll not fall victim to!