SEO Mistakes You Must Avoid in 2018 to Succeed – Insight into the Don’ts of Optimization

Search engine optimization is one thing which the business owners of all categories and sizes don’t want to compromise on. Dependence on the internet is increasing day by day, and there is no better way other than SEO to impress your potential consumers and let them make buying decisions in your favor. But, when it comes to practical search engine optimization approach, many among us are still so novice to understand what one should do and what not.

The rules and standards in search engine optimization change day by day. 2017 was a bright year for SEO specialists as well as search engine users with a lot of streamlining and standardization happened in this area. Further, in 2018, there are a lot more to be expected as the major search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo are working hard to make their search algorithms more perfect.

The need for being knowledgeable

In fact, while trying search engine optimization, it is essential not to know the don’ts rather than do’s to avoid any mishaps. With the search engine algorithms made more stringent and streamlines, there is a high chance that your genuine efforts may ultimately work against you regarding SEO. Many of the old-age SEO strategies are now considered as black-hat SEO practices, which may instantly end up in penalty or black-listing of your website by the search engines.

So, here in this article, we will discuss some major don’ts one should be aware of while trying to find SEO success. This is not a comprehensive list, but primarily to give a proper insight on how to act well for more results by staying away from redundant and outdated practices.

Top SEO don’ts in 2018

#1
Don’t try to trick users

The ultimate goal of search engines is to help users, not to mislead them into biased interests. So, by maintaining a website online, you also need to get it tuned primarily for the users, not for the search engines. The old practice of showing a different URL or content to the search engines/users and ultimately make them end up in a different page (known as cloaking) is an adverse practice now, which you should never try. Some of the major cloaking practices were:

• Serving an HTML text page to the search engines, but finally showing a custom page of flash or images to the users.
• Showing a different content to search engines to get ranked and misleading the users into something else.

You should also stay away from the adverse practices of deceiving the search engines too as by avoiding the use of:

• Hidden links for SEO ranking update
• Masked text
• Tricky redirects

The primary question you should ask yourself with any SEO effort is “whether it genuinely helps my users?

#2
Don’t fall prey to link schemes

Links do play a crucial role regarding search engine rankings, and the number of links may surely give you an advantage over the competitors to be on top. However, one thinks that everybody doesn’t necessarily know the fact that the relevance and quality of the links now count way higher than the number of random links.

Previously, it was an advantage to join any of the link schemes and try to increase the number of backlinks to your website. However, now participating in such link schemes may negatively affect the ranking of your site and goodwill. The link schemes to avoid include:

• Offering links in bulk to manipulate search engine rankings.
• Links to the web spammers or the bad neighborhoods on the internet.
• Large volume reciprocal links and bulk link exchanging.

#3
Don’t underestimate the need for using customer vocabulary

Your customer may not be speaking all formally. For example, they may not be used to the industry term as “kitchen electrics.” They may search for things from within the limitations of their vocabulary, and if you are someone who only speaks the formal language, SEO may be difficult.

The customers usually don’t search in a way you may think of something making intuitive. Another example for this is the usage of ‘home loans’ in the majority of searches where the actual industry terms to be used formally is a mortgage. So, if you want yourself to be always visible in front of the possible beneficiaries, then it is essential to use their vocabulary in your content.

Some other random considerations to make to avoid SEO mistakes and always stay on top of the SERPs are:

#4. Don’t entertain duplicate website content even one percent.
#5. Don’t hesitate to use the free tools by authentic providers and log in to them for complete and comprehensive insights.
#6. Don’t stuff keywords.
#7. Don’t leave a 404 without return when you have to accommodate it.

Even though we have discussed a few basics adversities you need to be aware of; there are hundreds of such points to be aware of while engaging in a successful SEO campaign. Consistently updating the knowledge base and instantly adapting to the ongoing changes is essential to find SEO success.

Guest article written by: Simon Burch is a well-known online marketing specialist, who used to post useful blog articles to guide the newbie digital marketing specialists. He is followed by a large number of people on medial social channels for his SEO ranking update and standards.