8 missed opportunities in optimizing your content
Delivering content is great. But having the keys to optimize it for your SEO is better. When it comes to search engine optimization, there are some good practices you should know. Actually, some content creators don’t think about simple optimizations to make their content rank higher, attract more visitors and convert better.
Here are 8 missed opportunities in optimizing your content for your business.
1# Not paying attention to title tags
I know it can sound crazy but some websites just don’t pay attention to their title tags. They have poor quality titles or duplicate ones. A bad habit would be to just duplicate a title or set a title by default on all pages. It would result that your pages will not be optimized, neither your SEO. Poor title tag refers to title with keyword stuffing strategies. This is everything except qualitative and intelligent.
If you should optimize something in priority it would be your titles. They do impact your rankings and can help you boost your content in SERPs.
Use all your title tag possibilities as you can write up to 50–60 characters to make it efficient. Insert your main keywords, at the beginning if possible, but also a compelling message to improve your click-through rate.
2# Neglecting your meta descriptions
When it comes to meta tags, we often first think of the title tag but don’t forget its partner in crime, the meta description. Even if the meta description won’t have a direct impact on your rankings, it can help you drive more traffic on your website. The meta description is a great opportunity to appeal a new audience on your site from the SERP with a compelling selling speech. As your title, you can include the main keywords you want the searcher to click for.
The main mistake is to not customize your meta description and to let Google pick your meta description for you. Plugins like SEO by Yoast offer the ability to set your own meta description and avoid being truncated. You have up to 140 characters to make it relevant for readers and in correlation with your title. No need to say that they must be unique.
3# Skipping schema.org
Schema.org and rich snippets are a effective way to enhance your content in SERPs and make it more visible and appealing.
Be sure to use structured data to mark up your code. If you’re using templates in a content management system, this may be as simple as marking up a few templates to show snippets for many pages. But you can also set up these data via the Google’s Data Highlighter tool (but it will only be visible to Google engines, not in other ones).
Ratings are one of the most engaging rich snippets as it catch the reader attention. A result based in the middle position of a SERP can get a better CTA compare to a higher result thanks to these rich snippets. To know more about rich snippets, please read our article.
4# Not checking your sitelinks
Google automatically generates your sitelinks. They offer quick accesses to pages from your website. It is thus a great way to increase your traffic to deeper pages. That’s why you should check what Google displays about your website. To know more about sitelinks, refer to our previous article.
5# Not optimizing your embedded videos
Videos, as one of the most engaging media, are a great partner in your content marketing strategy. But you should have all the cards in your hand. Most of the time, embedded videos are poorly executed using Javascript pop ups to show up. This type of integration prevent the video to be ranked by Google. This is a missed opportunity to get meta tags indexed by Google and rank your video page for specific keywords.
6# Not using your analytics tracking
Not checking your analytics is for sure a big mistake. When it comes to content marketing, your analytics tracking is your best friend. It tells you who came on your website, who left and when, from where they came, how they interacted, etc. But you cannot exploit your analytics if it not working 100% well.
Benchmarking organic traffic and monitor your results must be done with a proper code. Use the Google Tag Assistant plug-in to check your Google Analytics tags and other one like Adwords conversions tags for errors.
7# Having no XML sitemap
Getting your content registered on a XML sitemap and the sitemap registered with Google Search Console can drastically increase your indexation speed.
Be sure to have set up your XML sitemap if you want your content to be seen as soon as possible by Google and thus be ranked.
Use for instance Yoast SEO on WordPress to create your own one.
8# Getting your page lowered by useless codes
Having too much code on your website just slow down your overall speed performances. If you don’t need that code, get rid of it. Moreover, Google delivers a list of suggestions to minify some types of code to improve your load time. You can use OnCrawl to check your page speed performances and get the right insights.
CHECK YOUR PAGE SPEED FOR FREE
Originally written on: http://www.oncrawl.com/8-missed-opportunities-in-optimizing-your-content/
