Top SEO Techniques to Avoid in 2020.

If you are a Digital Marketer or Content Developer in 2020, you know how important it is to keep up with the latest SEO trends in this fast-paced world. You also know that you need SEO to drive traffic and conversions; without forgetting to mention that the competition to rank high on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) is stiff. For this reason, in your bid to satisfy the demands of SEO, you might find ourselves using certain SEO strategies that should have been avoided. Although it is expected that you should try out different strategies to rank, but using certain SEO techniques is counterproductive because, in the end, it will affect your conversion rate or your ranking on search engines.

Quick List of SEO Techniques to Avoid in 2020.

Writing For Search Engines

It is easy to be so focused on ranking that you create all your content to satisfy Search Engines and not humans (your audience). The point of the content in the first place is to proffer solutions or supply answers to a question. So, you should make sure that your content achieves this. While it is understandable that you are trying to rank high, this is one of the SEO techniques to avoid because it is counterproductive; the content should be for the readers. If readers are satisfied with what you have to offer, they will patronise and also promote you. In the end, you’ll be recognised by Search Engines.

Building An Unresponsive Website

More than half of your traffic is likely to come from mobile device users. The reason for this is obvious; people spend more time on their mobile devices than on their computers; so, make sure that your website is friendly on mobile, in fact, on all devices. This will increase your website’s visibility and traffic; since mobile-friendliness is a ranking factor, you are now in a more advantageous position.

Focusing Only On Text

You probably already know that visual content performs better than text. We can relate this to the fact that people are now more impatient to read than ever before; the fast-paced world has turned us into visual beings. You are likely to get more traffic if you use videos and images. You should take advantage of the fact that video contents rank easily on Google. When you include images to your long or short text, you are also likely to attract more readers. We use Pexel, Pixabay, or Unsplash to source for beautiful images.

Clickbait

Clickbait is one of the SEO techniques to definitely avoid in 2020. Some brands arouse the curiosity of readers by using headlines that will draw them to a page, knowing fully well that the page contains nothing related to the title. The problem with using this SEO strategy is that while it will get readers to your page, they will exit immediately and that will reduce the credibility of your website as well as your ranking.

Unrelated Readers’ Intent

Providing unrelated readers’ intent is another SEO mistake that you should avoid this year. Readers’ intent is basically what the reader intended when they searched for a particular title. For instance, if a reader searches for “what is SERP?”, it is clear that the reader wants to find out what SERP means. In providing this answer, you should understand what the reader was thinking when they searched for the title and provide them with an answer. If the content is unrelated, it will make readers exit your page quickly and this will affect your ranking and increase your bounce rate.

Duplicated Content

This goes without saying that if you have two pages on your website with the same content, search engines will have a problem deciding which content to index. Also, if you are found duplicating content from other websites to yours, your website will not be listed in the search results.

Focusing On Only One Keyword

Especially when you have the opportunity to rank for several keywords, focusing on only one keyword is an SEO mistake you should totally avoid. You can use plugins like YOAST SEO to optimise your content for more than one keyword. But even without doing that, you can aim for more than one keyword by infusing your content with 2 or 3 related keywords.

Inadequate Keyword Research

In the first place, if you want to rank on Search Engines, before creating content, you need to carry out extensive research on the keyword. Even if you do have something in mind, research your topic to see what aspect of it people are searching for; you might just find a related keyword that deserves your attention or get ideas on how to craft a compelling headline. Keyword research helps you provide your users with what they need and improves your engagement rate.

Not Tracking Your Content

It is important to track your content so you can see how effective your SEO techniques are. There are analytic tools that can be used to track specific phrases, words, and titles. The knowledge of the performance of your keywords will help your subsequent keyword research.

Not Staying Updated

Not staying updated in this ever-changing digital world is perhaps the biggest SEO mistake to make in 2020. Google is constantly bringing up new updates that could harm your website if you are not in the know. Also, there are many SEO tactics that you could learn if self-development is important to you. Not keeping up to date is simply unadvisable in this new decade; make it a priority to keep learning and improving.