Digital marketing is a vital component in today’s marketplace, in the real estate sector or otherwise. But as search engine optimisation (SEO) algorithms continue to evolve, it can be difficult to keep up-to-date while simultaneously running a business. Here, First Page digital agency director Byron Redhead reveals the simple but common mistakes that could be losing you leads and sales.
With Google algorithm and SEO updates regularly evolving, businesses need to remain on top of these changes and update their website to perform at its best.
Not doing so can push your website ranking down Google’s search engine results page – losing you website traffic and potentially new business.
When working with new clients or even just browsing the web, far too often, I see mistakes on websites which negatively affect its SEO. Below, I’ve outlined seven common errors which could be hurting your page ranking.Â
Publishing content on your website that is too short
Google associates long-form content as expert information and rewards you by boosting your search engine ranking.
Any blogs, articles or written content on your website should be at least 1000 words long, and a maximum of 2500 words.
If your page goes on for more than 2500 words, break it up by using images, videos, links and graphs to keep readers engaged.
Publishing spammy content or inauthentic links
If your website content is trustworthy and provides value to visitors, Google tends to rank this higher – meaning it is more visible in Google searches.
However, those that publish content such as spammy links to irrelevant sites, are buying links for SEO purposes, or have little to no content (or worse, is pasted from another website) will be penalised and push you further down the ranking.
Not updating content regularly
Readers want to read content that is informative and up-to-date – and so does Google’s algorithm.
Including facts or statistics that are outdated will see your website pushed down in relevance when users search for content. Take the time to update your website copy to be fresh so it ranks highly.
Not using keywords or metadata
Not sure what this means? It refers to the titles and descriptions on your website that tell Google what your page is about to help users find relevant information.
For those who aren’t familiar with SEO, this can be a difficult one – so consider engaging with a digital agency, freelancer or an in-house expert to help with this.
Not optimising your website for mobile usage
With more than half of online traffic coming from mobile users, not mobile optimising your website could see users quickly leave your site if it is difficult to navigate.
It comes down to making sure your website runs smoothly and users have an easy experience.
To check if your website is mobile friendly, you can use Google’s mobile-friendly test tool which measures if it is easy to use on a mobile device.
Remember: designing for desktop and mobile differs – you may have to design graphics to suit the mobile format.
Duplicating content
Copy and pasting copy across different pages on your website hurts your page rankings.
It’s vital that all content on your website is unique – and that you don’t take direct copy from another website.
Not only is this plagiarism but Google will penalise you, so make sure any content you include is unique and useful. Â
Your website takes too long to load
The time it takes for a webpage to load content has a bigger impact than you may realise.
In fact, Google puts it in the top 200 factors that determines how high it will rank a website.
The faster your page speed, the faster the website’s crawl rate, which means Google will go through more pages at the one time if it loads fast enough.
Page speed also has a significant impact on user experience which has a direct impact on your site’s bounce rate and conversions rate. Optimising your site’s page load speeds is good for your website’s overall ranking.Â
