7 common seo mistakes to avoid
BY ALEXIS SCHROEDER
This is a follow-up to '8 Actionable Tip for boosting Squarespace Website’s SEO’ and offers more advanced steps you can take to improve your SEO.
In this guide, we’ll go over the top SEO mistakes to avoid on your Squarespace website. Don’t worry if you have made these mistakes as they are easily fixable.
Here’s a list of 7 common SEO mistakes to avoid on your Squarespace website:
1. Producing low-quality content
One of the worst things you can do on your website is producing content for the sake of producing content. It’s best to have a clear goal in mind and only produce the best content possible.
Low quality content is bad for many reasons, including failing to engage readers, which leads to high bounce rates which are negative signals to search engines like Google.
So what makes high quality content? A high-quality blog post should contain:
Answering the visitors’ question right away and using the rest of the blog post to give a more thorough dive into the answer
Researching for accurate and up-to-date information
Including relevant keywords
Providing actionable resources and tools the visitor can use
Easy to read by using short paragraphs, bullet points, and images to break up text
Using clear and concise language
2. Not optimizing images
Optimizing images is one of the quickest things you can do to increase site speed. You can do a few things to optimize an image including compressing an image before publishing it to your website. You can do this with sites like TinyPNG. All you do is upload a photo to TinyPNG and they’ll give you back the compressed version. Compressed images improve load times, which is beneficial for both SEO and use experience.
Optimizing images has several benefits including:
Improved page speed load
Properly named images help search engines better understand what your blog post is about which increases relevance in Google results
Optimized images are more likely to appear in Google Image results, increasing chances of traffic to your site
If you’re targeting a keyword on your blog post, it’s also beneficial to change image names to the keyword you’re targeting. For example, if I was targeting the keyword best coffee machine, I would rename the image best coffee machine. Doing this is going to help Google better understand what your blog post is about, helping increase your organic traffic from search engines.
Here are some examples. If I was targeting the keyword “chocolate cake recipe”, I would change the file name to “chocolate-cake-recipe”. Search engines interpret hyphens as spaces, so make sure to use hyphens instead of underscores or anything else.
A poorly named image would be something like “Dogs_Running_Through_Field_Eating_Grass_Playing” for multiple reasons, including 1) Underscores were used instead of hyphens, 2) You want to use lowercase letters because filenames are case-sensitive on some servers, and 3) This filename is long and soundslike I’m keyword stuffing.
3. Neglecting on page SEO
On Page SEO is the process of optimizing blog posts to rank higher in search engines. When you neglect on page SEO, you’re missing out on free traffic from search engines like Google. Optimizing blog posts for Google is simple and may include:
Ensuring your content is of high-quality (informative, straight to the point)
Naturally incorporate your target keyword throughout the post
Write engaging meta descriptions that summarize the post’s content
Short, descriptive URLs that include your target keyword
Linking to relevant posts on your website and authoritative external links
4. Keyword stuffing
People new to SEO often mistake keyword stuffing as a good SEO tactic. This couldn’t be further from the truth as Google penalizes sites for doing this. If you don’t know what keyword stuffing means, it’s a spammy SEO tactic that involves stuffing as many keywords as possible into blog posts, meta descriptions, etc.
So how do you make sure you’re not keyword stuffing? It’s easier than you think. When writing a blog post, keywords should fit seamlessly into the content of the post. You may even want to use synonyms for the keyword so you’re not overusing it. For example, instead of repeating “best coffee machine”, you could also use “best coffee appliance” or “best brewing system”.
You can also make sure you’re not keyword stuffing by spreading keywords throughout your post in places like the introduction, body content, and conclusion, instead of putting all the keywords in one place.
5. Skipping meta descriptions
Writing a meta description for a blog post is one of the easiest things you can do for SEO. A meta description informs readers what the post is about in 150 words or less. This appears below the title in Google search results and entices readers to click to learn more.
Editing meta descriptions in Squarespace is easy. To do this, navigate to the post you want to edit on your Squarespace site. Underneath the page title field, there will be a section named “Description”. This is where you can write a 150 word or less description that explains how your post will help solve the readers problem.
A great meta description for a post about houseplants sounds like this:
“Discover the ultimate guide for indoor gardening. From tropical houseplants to cacti, learn how to grow different plants in your home using our tips and care guides. Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or complete beginner, find everything you need to know about houseplants here.”
6. Not making use of analytics
As a Squarespace user, you get the benefit of Squarespace Analytics and Google Analytics. Which option you choose depends on the level of detail and customization you desire. For example, Google Analytics is the tool SEO experts use because of its advanced features and customization options. However, if you’re new to Analytics and don’t want to get overwhelmed, Squarespace Analytics is a great place to start.
With Squarespace Analytics, you get essential insights like website performance, visitor behavior, and traffic sources. Some may find Squarespace Analytics to be more user-friendly than Google Analytics, making it easier to get started with Analytics if you’re a beginner.
Analytics is beneficial to use because it helps you track important numbers like organic traffic, bounce rates, conversions, sales, etc. Knowing these numbers is incredibly beneficial because it’ll help you make the right decisions going forward.
For example, if you notice one of your posts has a high bounce rate (bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who navigate away from your website after viewing only one page), you may want to edit that post. Ways you could update the post include providing content that better matches the user's intent or by adding a call-to-action to encourage further action from the visitor.
7. Ignoring user experience
User Experience (UX) refers to how effectively a website meets visitors' needs, which is crucial because positive UX increases engagement, and improves search engine ranking. There are a few things you can do to create a positive user experience including:
Having a mobile-friendly website
Optimize website by reducing load times (compressing images)
Choosing legible fonts and staying away from cursive as it’s hard to read
Using a compelling CTA (call-to-action) like making a purchase, signing up for an email list, or contacting you for your services
One of the best tips I will leave you with is write for humans first, and search engines second. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by SEO tactics, so focus on making one change at a time and understand you don’t need to do all of this in one day.
About the Author
Alexis Schroeder is a freelance writer in the blogging and SEO industry. In college, she started a personal finance blog while paying off debt, and worked several different side hustles to make money. Now she teaches others how to build their blog from scratch and rank on Google.
