*generic Italian swearing*
Okay.
So see, we all make mistakes and sometimes it's because we have
really hard problems, but most of the times it's just because we're
missing the basics. In today's video,
we talk about the most common SEO mistakes that SEOs usually make.
Let's dive into it.
Before we get into the technical stuff, just a teeny tiny disclaimer,
there are three pillars that you should always have in mind.
The first one is do the basics.
Well, the second one is don't be lazy and I speak as a
representative of the category.
It's no good.
And the third thing is do your job.
Well, I mean, of course I know you do, but it's much better to
be a great SEO than one that just goes and fixes all the mistakes.
But I mean, I know you got that covered.
As I promised,
now we go to the technical stuff.
First mistake.
Do you use H1 and H2 headlines as they are intended?
These headline tools matter.
Sometimes content creators aren't really SEOs,
so the person publishing into a blog might use headlines treatment as
design elements, such as using H1 or H2 format to showcase a quote.
It might look nice on the page, but it's really, really bad SEO.
To avoid that, here's a few tips to remember.
H1s are for your on-page title only, once you've made your title
don't use H1 for anything else.
And think of the keywords or search strings, you know your audiences are
using when crafting that headline.
Think of H2s like chapters
if you're building a table of contents for a book, H2s are there to separate your
chapters or sections in a blog post.
H3s are often overlooked, but strong for subsections within a chapter. They're
great for structure and flow, and they are another opportunity for keywords.
And remember the H1 H2 and H3 elements are not designed focused.
If you want a way to make words stand out,
for example, check out the style sheets tools in your CMS, or work with your
dev team for nice design elements.
Second mistake.
Skipping over metadatas and meta-description. Plain and simple:
don't cut corners. Too often.
in fact, content creators just breeze through meta titles and meta description,
and simply trust the defaults.
But believe me, if you spend just a few more minutes checking if the settings
are actually correct, that can pay really big dividends in the SERP.
The search engines might not use metadata for rank, but if your metadata is used
in the search results, your users do so invest a few minutes and make the
description fields sing. That headline might be a great headline, but when
the headline defaults as the metatitle, it can be too much. Trim the fat!
So as before a couple of tips on this.
So aim for 50 characters for the meta title and 150 for the
meta-description. Be crisp, get the essentials in and nothing more.
Of course, put the keywords in the metadata.
And now let's look at number three in our list:
PDFs. It's perfectly fine to serve certain types of content PDFs, but what
many SEOs mistake is that they have to treat them as any other webpage,
the linking and all the things that you would do in a regular blog post is also
what you should be doing in any PDF that serves up content. PDFs also have metadata
fields, including description, author company, and other key information.
If you don't fill it in,
it's another missed opportunity.
Defaults might put in gibberish or no info at all.
And guess what shows up in the SERP? Garbage. Also, files' names matter.
Don't name that PDF as "BobsPostAboutSEOfinalV2edits", because
that can also sneak into the SERP.
And it's not as funny as it sounds when it does.
And finally never output a PDF for online publication as image only.
It needs to be actual text because the search engines will crawl the text, treat
the headlines and subheads just as we discussed about the H1, H2 and H3.
And let's move on to mistake
number four: images and alt-text.
So everything we said about the metadata earlier, applies exactly in the same way
here, do the work, fill in all the gaps.
This is info that Google crawls and it helps you ensure WCGA compliance
for accessibility to boot.
Oh, and one more important thing.
Yeah.
Come closer. For all the people following me from the U S.
All the things that I have just described pertain the U S American
Disabilities Act's laws and regulations.
So unless you want a lawsuits in your hands, which I really guess you don't,
you need to really put attention into all the images, text, PDFs, alternative
texts, and all the things you have on your website, because they really
need to be accessible to everybody.
It's really important, besides the law thing, because it's a human thing to do.
And finally, mistake number five.
Have you made friends with the PPC team yet?
SEOs and PPC folks need to be playing nice in the sandbox together.
Yeah, not like that.
Why bid on a keyword that is crushing it in the SERP? By working together
SEO and PPC teams can identify the keywords that need spending and
those that serve up content for free.
Okay.
Let's bring all this back to the SEMrush stools that you use.
In fact, a recurring theme of all these mistakes have been...
Yes, you got it.
Keywords!
Keyword Overview helps you decide on keywords that you can or should compete for organically.
Keyword Magic Tool helps you identify the keywords that can help you build
profitable SEO or PPC campaigns.
And remember that part about playing nice in the sandbox!
Keyword Manager helps you keep track of all your favorite keywords across
SEMrush and track ongoing metrics with data that is always, always fresh.
But the three important things we said at the beginning of the video, do the basics.
Don't be lazy and do your job well.
I mean, I know you do your job well, but you know what I mean.
What are the worst SEO mistakes you have made in your career or the most common
ones that you think we haven't mentioned?
I mean, there are tons that we could mention, this could be a whole series.
I just put the most, most, most common ones.
But again, if you have any suggestions or opinion, leave them in the comments
below because I'll be happy to read them.
And as usual, if you liked this video, please subscribe to this channel,
hit the like button and activate the notification bell so that you don't miss
all the new content that will be posted.
Thanks again for listening to me, I'll see you in the next one. 119 00:07:29,094 --> 00:07:30:00 Ciao!