About SEO Sydney experts

Blog - seo mistakes

Bad SEO Mistakes You Need to Know About

I hope you enjoy reading this blog post.

If you want my team to do your SEO & digital marketing for you, click here.

Article Overview

In a rush to get better Google rankings there is the temptation to cut a few corners and try to spam your way to the top of the rankings. We have all done it in the past and are all guilty of committing a few SEO sins. Many SEO agencies still practice outdated spammy techniques and the following are some SEO mistakes that need to be highlighted so you are aware of the dangers associated with such practices.

It’s so easy to be tempted into using the services of cheap and nasty SEO companies, but I can make a bet that these guys are going to not be abiding by all of these 7 rules.

Google is quick and I mean super fast in detecting any SEO mistakes being made so the following are some tips you need to be on top of if you are going to stay ahead of your competitors when it comes to SEO.

If you for 1 minute think that your SEO agency is doing any of the following then you need to ditch them ASAP.

Related post: The Danger Of Using Cheap SEO Agencies

Never be tempted to over optimise keywords

The temptation will be there to think that if you spend a lot of time building links with 1 keyword in mind then this is going to help you rank for that word. This is not how it works and if you think that you can say to your SEO company that you only want to spend a small amount of money and that they should spend all their efforts on 1 keyword, then this is a recipe for trouble. It sends a signal to Google that you are trying to manipulate 1 keyword and this looks very spammy. The right way to do things is through a strategic and balanced backlinking profile which is exactly what we do here at SEO SYDNEY EXPERTS. We look at a whole range of natural-looking keywords (including your main ones) and build backlinks to all of these. This is the most natural way of implementing SEO and we know exactly how to do this without raising any alarm bells with Google.

Social media activity will help SEO

Link building is one thing and will get you ranking but there is a whole other space known as social media and pundits are now speculating that this does have an effect on your SEO. How? Every tweet, like or follow on social media platforms does send a signal to Google which builds authority to your URL. Whilst I am not saying that this is as powerful as quality backlinking I do advocate that these social platforms are an advantage and business owners should be active on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. It is hard to do sometimes but it is another form of marketing and will help in anything, build your brand and expand your client base. If your SEO company is not helping or advising with your social media then there is something very amiss. Google’s focus is somewhat geared now to social media activity.

Spam comments on blog sites

Years ago this was a great way to get a link back to your website. SEO companies used to do this all the time. I think in the early 2000’s I was probably guilty of a few rogue post comments. I still cannot believe that people still do this nowadays in the hope of generating some kind of added authority. It’s a humongous waste of energy and will get you busted eventually by Google. So many people still do this that it’s actually comical. People post comments on totally unrelated blog sites with links pointed towards their website. A joke and Google is watching this activity closely.

Directory links are out of date

There are so many online directories online all wanting your business. There are a few good local ones that are great for local citations (and will help) but the rest should really be binned. Never and I repeat never pay for a link on a directory website. Even worse, have multiple entries across similar looking directories as this is a cause for real concern. Search Engine Journal backs this up by telling us that submitting to low-quality directories will likely do more harm than good for your rankings.

Duplicate content

Do you ever read a competitors website and think, how good was that copy or content. Do you just sit back and wish your site could read as good as this website. Well, you can. All you have to do is copy and paste the content and put it into your website. Simple as that. Hold on… there is one very small problem other than copy write issues. That is, Google will pick this up and your page will not rank. Plagiarism is rife online and people copy websites all the time. Don’t you be the person that does this as Google will figures this out soon enough and you will end up paying a heavy price.

You need a balanced link profile

Some people say that link building has been canned by Google and to a certain extent, this is right. Google will not count irrelevant or low-quality inbound links as a ranking factor. In fact, if you have too many they will bust you and you are going to get barred from ranking. This is completely another story so let’s just focus on what a balanced quality link profile means. Simply put if you are a cosmetic surgeon, Google will want to see inbound links from medical websites. If you are a lawyer, the same applies. All links must be from sites with legal references. On top of this, you must spread out all links so they are balanced throughout your website. Many people just want to optimise the home page. WRONG! All pages of your website are of equal value and therefore must have an even number of inbound links. This is the right approach to handling this and this is the real and only way you are ever going to rank properly. Anything else is just ‘spammy’ and will never ever work in this stringent Google environment.

Building micro-sites in the hope of boosting the authority of your main website

This is quite complex for people who do not know too much about SEO so let me go through this. Many SEO agencies will build smaller very product-focused websites known as microsites. These are generally only 1 or 2 pages and they generally reflect a product or service offering of your business. The problem here is that people abuse these sites by placing many inbound links all pointed to your main site. So in effect, you could have 10 or even 20 separate microsites all pointing to 1 main site. A huge issue if you get pinged by Google.

Conclusion

My advice if you are genuinely serious about attaining a solid Google ranking is to deal with an agency that will comply with what Google is looking for. To add fuel to the fire, you can still comply with everything and not rank. This is where you need to be working with a team like us at SEO SYDNEY EXPERTS.

The huge difference between us is that we actually know what we are doing. Where some SEO agencies have been working on a site for years and the rankings are going nowhere. We then step in and presto, immediate results. This is why you can do all the shopping around you like and see as many SEO companies as you want to, but at the end of the day, there is only a handful of us that can actually perform.

You will know what I mean if you have been stuck with a dud agency and have had no luck in getting better rankings – call us today on 02 9360 8514 to start seeing real SEO results.

steven waldberg - ceo seo sydney experts

About the author

Steven Waldberg

Steven is the director of SEO Sydney Experts and is one of the founding members ( that’s over 18 years ago). He has one of the longest careers in the SEO and content marketing industry and has written for many prestigious websites, including B & T and AdNews. If you’re serious about working with someone who will dedicate 100% of himself to your business; Steven is your SEO Expert.

Do you want more traffic from Google?

Yes, I do Not Now