We are often unaware of these kinds of mistakes and fall into them without even realizing it. In reality, there are so many factors that influence a website's SEO, and they change so quickly, that it is very difficult to keep track of them all.
If you want to stay alert and avoid them, below we will look at 7 mistakes that can jeopardize your website's SEO.
1. Forgetting About Mobile Visitors
Until very recently, we thought that just having a mobile or responsive version of your website was enough, but not anymore. Google has launched the Mobile First Index, an algorithm that prioritizes the mobile version over the desktop version when indexing your website. So, in addition to having a website that adapts to all screens, it has to be well optimized if you don't want to lose rankings on Google.
2. Not Paying Attention to the Meta Description
The meta description is an HTML tag that provides search engines with a description or short summary of the page's content. And although it is not a decisive factor when ranking a page, it is essential for attracting visits to your website. If you succeed, your metrics improve, and Google does value that.
With good copy, you can get people to click through to your website. There is a big difference between letting Google pick up any text on your page by default, such as the cookie notice, and defining for yourself the description you want displayed.
3. Misusing Headings (h1, h2…)
If you want Google to recognize your page's titles and subtitles, you need to identify them as such. To do so, you need to classify them with the corresponding HTML tags:
- Title: <h1>Page title</h1>
- Subtitle: <h2>Page subtitles</h2>
- Sections: <h3>Sections of each subtitle</h3>
It is important not to skip this order. In other words, if you have an h3, there must be an h2 and an h1 before it so that the website is well structured and Google can correctly interpret its content.
In addition, for SEO it is essential that you try to include keywords naturally in these tags. In fact, if you work with WordPress and use an SEO plugin like Yoast, it already recommends including your target keyword in the title of each post and in at least one h2.
4. Broken Links
Broken links are URLs on your website that were either typed incorrectly or are addresses that no longer exist.
A user finding a broken link on your website, whether internal (to another page on your site) or external (to another website), can hurt their user experience. These errors can undermine your website's credibility and, very importantly, make it harder to index your pages. Google may consider your website outdated and penalize you for it.
Therefore, I recommend checking your website for broken links from time to time. Some of the most widely used tools are Google Webmaster Tools and W3C Link Checker.
5. You Haven't Set Your Preferred Domain
Surely you have noticed this more than once: why do some addresses work with “www” and others don't?
As the owner of a domain and a website, you can choose how you want your domain to be displayed in search results (https://www.tudominio.com or https://tudominio.com).
To prevent Google from treating the versions with and without “www” as if they were different references (it could interpret this as duplicate content), you need to verify ownership of the domains through Search Console and then select your preferred domain.
6. Underestimating the Power of Images
Using images on your website is key to making an impact and attracting your visitors' attention. But do we just upload the image as is? No.
When we include an image on our website, we should get the most out of it so that it counts for SEO, just like text content. To do this, it is very important to always name images correctly and fill in your image's Title and Alt fields.
7. Web Security: The Most Overlooked Issue
Malware does not discriminate: even if you have a personal website or a small ecommerce store, you can fall victim to an attack. For example, a hacked website will not only affect the experience of those who visit it, but it can also affect your reputation and your brand's credibility.
And what happens when Google notices? This is perhaps the worst part of all. It posts a banner on your website warning that your site is dangerous, something like “The site you are trying to access contains malicious software.”
Preventing it is in your hands. Scan your page daily, remove malware and monitor Google's blacklists. If the tool detects a problem, it sends you an alert so you can review it immediately.
