Sunday, January 4, 2015

Top 28 SEO Mistakes of 2014



Top 28 SEO mistakes that I saw in 2014, as I did SEO for banks, hospitals, insurance, law firms, accounting, agriculture, energy companies, manufacturers, associations, event planning, dentists, restaurants, chambers of commerce, and tourism:

(1) Bad or missing title and meta description tags.

(2) Slim content, with few keywords, and not answering typical customer questions.

(3) Poor use of H tags (for example, not using just one H1 tag, which states the theme of a webpage).

(4) Failure to use a dedicated phone number that is used only on the website, to track results.

(5) Not using an FAQ type format for content, as specified by Google Hummingbird recommendations.

(6) Failure to use effective, non-stock photos with keyword savvy captions, contextually relevant surrounding content, and img alt attributes.

(7) We-oriented generic corporate fluff that doesn't differentiate the business from competitors.

(8) No XML site map.

(9) No robots protocols.

(10) Antiquated attempts to use black hat gimmicks, that ultimately get a website banned from Google search results.

(11) Failure to integrate social media, blogging, PR, video, etc. with branding and SEO.

(12) Failure to implement Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools.

(13) Failure to implement Schema.org structured markup microdata.

(14) Poor use of internal and external linking on site.

(15) No associated feed.

(16) No favicon.

(17) Not enough interactive functionalities.

(18) Not optimized for mobile devices.

(19) Bad design, colors, layout, typefonts.

(20) White or light gray text on light colored backgrounds.

(21) Boring About page that doesn't give adequate history and purpose of company.

(22) Not having strong calls to action on every webpage.

(23) Bad Contact Us page, without web form or missing some contact information, and no strong call to action.

(24) No photos of CEO, staff, real customers.

(25) No slogan or tag line for logo on Home page.

(26) No strong benefit statement on Home page.

(27) Not using enough variety of substitute words and relevant keywords in customer language that users put into search engines.

(28) Not keeping up with ongoing algorithm changes and SEO requirements of Google.


Need help with Google-compliant SEO to achieve business goals?


CONTACT ME today:

Steven Streight

steven.streight@gmail.com



















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