You picked WordPress to build your website. Good.
You use SEO on your website to rank higher. You are already better off than most people.
But you are still far from the best results.
Your website has never been on page 1 of SERPs.
You hardly have traffic.
Those who do come to your site never convert.
Your PPC efforts are not enough.
You need your WordPress SEO efforts to pay off.
Chances are you are making some WordPress SEO mistakes.
And that’s why you are getting poor results.
A WordPress development agency would have never let that happen
How do you know I am making WordPress SEO mistakes?
If you aren’t already on the top of Google Search Engine Result Pages, it is clear that something is not right.
And common SEO mistakes are the most probable culprit.
Want another proof?
Check your WordPress SEO score using plugins like Yoast.
Shocked, right?
But don’t worry about what happened.
Stay fixated on how you can get better tomorrow.
How do I improve my SEO score on WordPress fast?
The best way to do that is to get WordPress development services. Experts will save your site by fixing any and all mistakes that you are making.
Not ready for that just yet?
Check out the most common SEO mistakes to avoid in 2021. Once you know what types of mistakes to avoid, you’d be at least a step ahead in the right direction.
What Are The Most Common SEO Mistakes?
Below we have mentioned the most common WordPress SEO mistakes.
Experts call them the sins of SEO. And these sins keep you away from the heaven of the web, aka, the page 1 of SERPs.
Check them out.
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You Are Ignoring Technical SEO
We know it is confusing and complicated. But what’s got to be done needs to be done.
(Quick hack: If you don’t want to spend hours figuring out the basics of technical SEO, get experts on board and they’d happily do it for you!)
- Schema markup – Schema markup tells Google’s crawler what type of page it is dealing with. And there are several different types of schema markups that you can use. WordPress has got plugins for that. You just have to decide on the right type and implement it.
- Page load speed – Does your page have too many media files? Does your site have useless code and CSS scripts? These things slow down your site. And Google’s bots and your audiences both hate slow-loading websites. Tidy up your backend for faster loading.
- Security – Using HTTP instead of HTTPS? Google is penalizing your site in rankings. If your site doesn’t guarantee security, ranking high will always remain a far-fetched dream.
.Your Linking Strategy Is Incorrect
Backlinks are among the most important ranking factors. But are you doing off-page SEO right?
- Quality Over Quantity – Do you focus on getting too many backlinks and don’t assess the link quality? Too many poor-quality backlinks are harming your SEO strategy.
Pro Tip – Links from sites that deal with pills, poker, and pornography are extremely detrimental to your website. Don’t use them.
- Internal Linking – You just focus on getting external links and completely neglect internal linking. Internal linking not just helps Google bots crawl your site better but also helps readers with navigation. When your audience navigates between your page and spends more time on your site, it gives off positive signals to Google.
- Right Anchor Texts – If you are not using the right and relevant anchor texts for internal and external linking, you are wasting a significant portion of your link juice.
.You Are Not Fixing WordPress Errors
WordPress errors are a common bone in the neck for most website owners. Some of these are your fault, some completely out of your control.
However, you should get the errors fixed as soon as you find them.
The most common errors that need fixing include:
- Database connection not set
- Error 404
- Error 500
- Error 301
- Scheduled Maintenance Error
- Memory Exhausted Error
- Missed Schedule Error
- Connection Timed Out Error
If you cannot fix these WordPress errors on your own, you may want to consult WordPress experts to set things right.
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Your Site Doesn’t Have Sitemaps.
Sitemaps list all your website’s pages in a structural and hierarchical order. Without sitemaps, your visitors and Google’s bots have to work harder to find the right pages.
You should have the following sitemaps on your website:
- XML Sitemap – For Google’s bots (Yoast SEO plugin automatically creates an XML sitemap for you)
- HTML Sitemap – For your readers
- URL List or text sitemap – For Yahoo! crawlers, if you want to rank on Yahoo! as well.
Once you have created and uploaded these sitemaps, mention their URLs in your robots.txt file. (You can edit the robots.txt file and upload the sitemaps using a File Manager plugin)
Also, remember not to send too many indexing requests in the robots.txt file. Pages that aren’t important or shouldn’t be crawled or ranked should be marked with a noindex tag.
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You Don’t Set Permalinks Right
The URL of the different pages on your site are called permalinks. Ugly and irrelevant permalinks deter users from clicking on your site in search results. It also confuses Google’s crawlers.
Permalinks that contain keywords and coincide with your page’s title/blog’s headline are the best for ranking higher.
For example, if your page is about women’s sandals, the permalink should contain women’s sandals.
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You Aren’t Using Analytics In The Right Way.
Not using analytics is going to cost you heavily in terms of your WordPress website’s rankings.
But I do use Google Analytics.
Are you setting the right destination goal in your Google Analytics?
Not setting destination goals in Google Analytics means you are tracking everything else, but not your conversions.
Not sure how you can track sales or filled contact forms or something else? Create thank you pages for when people complete the required tasks. Now track those pages to keep an eye on your conversions.
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Your Content is Killing Your Conversions
Content is the true king of the web. And most site owners forget to use the right content in the right way.
Five reasons your content is ruining your rank and conversions:
- You don’t update your old content.
- You don’t have a regular posting schedule.
- You don’t post good quality content.
- Your content isn’t relevant for your users.
- Your content isn’t structured or formatted right.
.You’ve Got Broken Links On Your Site.
Used external links on your site? Those links might change.
Used internal links on your site? You might have updated the permalink for those links.
In either case, you’d have broken links on your site. Google hates them. So do your visitors.
Use broken link checking tools to find broken links first. And then replace those links with active links at the earliest.
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Your Site Isn’t Optimized For The Right Audience.
If you aren’t targeting the right audience, you won’t ever rank on top. And your traffic will never convert.
- Time Zone – You schedule your blog posts, but if your website isn’t using the time zone of your target audience, it won’t do you any good. Set the time zone right.
- Wrong Keywords – Do you just randomly select high-volume keywords and stuff them on your site? Stop right now. Use relevant keywords and properly space them.
(Expert suggestion – Long-tail keywords are less competitive, and even if they have lower search volumes, they have higher conversion rates due to specificity.)
- Not Optimizing For Mobile – The future of the web is mobile. You are pissing off both your audience and Google by not using mobile-optimized themes and templates.
- Not Optimizing For Local Search – if your website has a local audience, you cannot skip local SEO.
.You Skip The Basics And Forget About Them.
It is easy to forget about the basics of SEO when you have a lot else to do. But these basic mistakes should be avoided at all costs:
- Not Adding Alt Tags – Google cannot crawl images without alt tags. Alt tags describe to Google what the images on your site are about.
- Not Using Optimized Images – Not optimizing images for quick load speed and mobile screens makes using media content futile.
- Improper CTAs – Dull, boring, and misplaced Calls To Action never get clicked. This further tells Google that visitors didn’t find your site useful, and it shouldn’t be ranked higher.
- No Heading Structure – If you are not using <H1>, <H2>, <H3> tags in WordPress, you are giving up on your page rank yourself.
- Skipping Title and Meta Description – Title and meta description for your page are trailers for your page on the SERPs. No trailer or a less-than-perfect trailer is a guarantee for a film that draws no one to the box office.
Fix The Mistakes and Fast Forward Your Journey To The Top
Learn the mistakes you are making? It is time to fix them now.
Either fix all those mistakes yourself. Or contact Uplers right away.
Uplers is a WordPress development company that can help you build beautiful, functional, and SEO mistake-free websites. Contact their team of global experts today and hit fast forward on your hike to the top of page 1 in SERPs.
