Blogging – Top 5 SEO Blunders You Should Refrain From

Blogging has become an inseparable
part of the internet. Over time, running a blog can be a fulfilling way
to express yourself, and in many cases, even make a tidy profit. If you
are a talented writer with the ability to inform, engage and convince
your readers with your writing style, blogging can be a very promising
career. Search engine optimization is an indispensable part of any
blogging campaign which, when implemented the right way, can guarantee
success for any blogging campaign.

SEE ALSO: Five Tips To Make Sure Your Website Doesn’t Suck

Image Credit: sivantech

But SEO itself is complicated for
many reasons, but mainly because, it depends on search engine algorithms
which take numerous factors into consideration when ranking a web page.
And the best (sic) part is, they keep changing it. As a result,
bloggers keep making mistakes with their SEO efforts. While many can be
inconsequential (such as the occasion grammatical error), there are
quite a few that could severely hamper your marketing efforts. In this
article, we will be going through some of the mistakes you are probably
making.

1. Focusing on SEO at The Expense of High Quality Content

This was a common mistake during the pre-Penguin and pre-Panda days.
Back then, it wasn’t a big problem since search engines didn’t penalize
keyword stuffing and content duplication as much as they do now. But
after the two algorithm updates, bloggers had to pay more attention to
writing for people first, instead of search engines.

The recent hummingbird update placed
even more emphasis on fresh, informative content that readers find
useful. There really is no specific rule you can follow. The most
important thing is to keep creating fresh, up to date content in your
niche. To avoid getting penalized for keyword stuffing, ensure that your
keyword density doesn’t exceed 1 percent and use long tail keywords
that integrates into the content seamlessly.

2. Purchasing Links
Buying
links can give your blog a short term boost if your site is already
popular, but you’ll still be taking a major risk here. Google actively
searches for and penalizes paid links. Apart from the bots, Google has a
dedicated team in the company that searches for unconventional link
patterns every day, so you will most likely get caught.

For instance, if several hundred
back links were created to your site in one day, the links will be
flagged as irregular linking activity. The links will then be
investigated and if found to originate from suspicious websites or
unrelated sources, your website will be penalized in the search
rankings.
You can go around this by using the
old fashioned methods of link building – manually, and over time. But if
you mind is set on purchasing links, avoid using the same anchor text
or purchasing hundreds of links within a very short time.

3. Posting Duplicate Content
Many
bloggers make the mistake of targeting the same topics with variations
of the same keyword and in different posts. For instance, if your
keyword is “make money online,” it won’t add any value to your site to
create a completely different post with “make money on the internet” as
your keyword.

Avoid playing around with keywords
or topics that are essentially talking about the same thing. Instead,
you should always try to generate new original topic ideas that will
generate interest from both readers and search engines.

4. Ignoring Google Plus and Authorship
It’s
no secret that Google lets Google Plus strongly influence its search
results. Take advantage of this by building up on the credibility of
having a personal Google Plus page and connecting it with your content
with Google Authorship. Signing up for Google Authorship will allow you
to help your fans, followers and potential visitors find the blogs you
actively post your content. It will also make it easier for you to
discover authors in your niche thereby opening up potential business and
networking opportunities.

SEE ALSO: The Blue Print For A Good Blog Post

5. Lack of Internal linking
Once
your blog accumulates ten or more posts, then you should start thinking
about interlinking. Internal links are the best way to guide readers to
other relevant posts within your blog. Remember one thing though, the
anchor text must be relevant to the post you are linking to. Don’t just
use internal links because it will boost your SEO. Most importantly, the
interlinked content must provide value for your readers.

Wrapping up
SEO
is intricate businesses. The SEO mistakes outlined above may seem
basic, but you should only ignore or overlook them at your peril. Start
evaluating your website right away to identify any SEO mistakes you may
have made to ensure that everything is in check.

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