How to Stay Clear of the 6 Deadly Sins of SEO

As 2016 gets well on its way, do-it-yourself (DIY) SEO plans are taking off. With that said, there are a couple mistakes you need to watch for — mistakes SEO experts like to call “The Six Deadly Sins.” From Utah to the East Coast DIY SEO has been successful for some, and for others not so much. Learning to avoid these deadly sins could potentially save your search rankings.

First up is the low-quality content sin. This is when your SEO strategy becomes too quantity focused and you lose sight of the actual quality of your content.

Avoid this sin by creating “audience-centric content.” Define your target audience clearly and write for them accordingly. Know what sources the audience uses to access information. While producing a lot of content is important for SEO, it’s more important to produce quality content that resonates with your target audience.

The second deadly sin of SEO is forgetting about mobile traffic. Mobile and tablet use for accessing the Internet has grown immensely in Utah and elsewhere. With that said, you must never dismiss mobile traffic.

In order to avoid this sin you should create a clean and responsive Web design. Responsive design is the key here; if a Web page can’t adjust to different screen displays such as mobile devices, your SEO will be squandered. So optimize your content for mobile devices and address what your users want.

Now it’s time to bring up the deadly sin of keywords. Keywords have always been an important element for Web trafficking, however, there is such a thing as giving them too much focus. When you’re writing for SEO, it’s important to put your audience first. Make writing quality audience-centric content your focus, not keyword stuffing.

The next sin you want to avoid is not diversifying your search engine usage. It’s clear that Google commands the dominant search market share in Utah and elsewhere, but there are other search engines that exist of which you should take advantage.

Yahoo and Bing, for example, can be used to diversify you search engine efforts. Investing in them alongside Google will give you more options and opportunities for driving traffic to your Web page.

The fifth sin is ignoring the role of social media. Studies have shown social media has one of the biggest impacts on search results. Failure to recognize this can hurt your SEO. The key to avoiding this sin is to understand the connection between search and social and implement it into your SEO strategy.

Failure to optimize for local searches is the sixth deadly sin. For local businesses especially, whether you live in Utah or on the West Coast, optimizing for the local carousel gives you the opportunity to be found through results that include images, reviews and maps. For example, this can be accomplished by encouraging customers to review your business on Google.

From Utah to the East Coast, SEO is a constantly changing business. Keeping up with all the updates and alterations is important — and so is avoiding these six deadly sins. Do-it-yourself SEO can be just as successful as hiring a professional, but you must be sure to do it right.

Alyssa Koenig writes for Fusion 360, an SEO and content marketing agency. He/She writes for many other clients as well. Follow on Twitter