Business owners want their websites to be found on search engines and, once found, they want their websites to work—to be useful to visitors and effectively sell their products or services. When someone hires RSPR to evaluate their website, we almost always find problems that are hurting SEO and how the website functions.
Common SEO Mistakes
- Multiple pages are missing title tags and meta descriptions. These should be custom written within the character limits and should include the focus keyword of the page.
- Keyword phrases that matter to the company don’t have their own pages.
- No content has been added or changed in months or even years.
- Pages don’t have photos, or the photos don’t have alt tags.
- Linking has been overlooked. Pages should include internal and external links. Additionally, the importance of backlinks (beyond social media) is almost always neglected.
Common Functionality Mistakes
It’s worth noting that some mistakes that affect how a website functions also hurt SEO.
- The website is difficult to navigate. Can visitors easily find what they came for, on both desktop and mobile?
- The website loads too slow, weighed down by high-resolution graphics and code errors.
- The content is out of date. Are product and service details and contact information still accurate?
- The content isn’t written for the target audience. It’s too difficult to read, focused on the wrong topics, too short to offer any value, and/or missing the call to action.
- The URL is cumbersome. Once you start adding in the forward slashes with page URLs, you probably don’t want it to be longer than 50 characters. No one wants to type www.thiswebsiteisentirelytoolong.com/seriously/thisistoomanycharacters/.
- The website is unattractive. You don’t want old-fashioned style and low-quality photos any more than you want bulky, high-resolution images. The website reflects the company, so what impression does it leave on visitors?
Some problems have one-time fixes while others, such as regularly adding content, are an ongoing commitment. Websites are a necessary tool that needs regular sharpening. These are some of the most common mistakes RSPR has corrected for clients, to improve SEO and help that tool work for them.