Table of Contents
SEO is one of the most important aspects of any online marketing campaign. If you are not doing everything possible to optimize your website for search engines, you are missing out on a lot of potential traffic. Unfortunately, there are many SEO “myths” that still persist today. People continue to do things that hurt their ranking, without realizing it. Some of the worst SEO practices that you should avoid at all costs include:
-
Stuffing keywords
When you stuff keywords into your content, it makes it difficult to read and understand. Not only that, but search engines will penalize you for keyword stuffing. A good rule of thumb is to use your keyword a maximum of three times per 100 words.
-
Not using keyword-rich titles
Your title is one of the first things that potential readers will see. If it’s not keyword rich, they are likely to move on to something else. Make sure your titles are attention-grabbing and informative, while still containing your target keywords.
-
Neglecting meta tags
Meta tags are still important, even though some people seem to think they aren’t. Make sure you include keyword-rich meta tags on every page of your website. Not using proper tag structure can result in penalties from search engines, and can eventually hurt your ranking in the long run.
-
Content duplication
If you have multiple pages on your website with the same or similar content, you are going to get penalized. Make sure that all of your content is unique and original. This includes both the text and any images that you use. Copying someone else’s content is not only bad for SEO, but it’s also plagiarism. Not something you want to be known for!
-
Cloaking
Cloaking is the practice of showing one version of a page to search engines, and another version to human users. This is usually done in an attempt to trick search engines into thinking a page is more relevant than it actually is. Cloaking is considered to be a black hat SEO technique and if you are caught doing it, you will be penalized.
These are just a few of the worst SEO practices that can hurt your ranking. Avoid them at all costs if you want to maintain a good position in search engine results pages. For more tips on how to improve your SEO, contact a reputable SEO Toronto agency. They will be able to help you create quality content that will help improve your ranking.
