10 mistakes with keywords that jeopardize the SEO
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Keywords are one of the basic elements of an SEO strategy, as we tried to clarify many times here on the pages of our blog. However, we are well aware that, especially for beginners or those who approach SEO and online activities in an amateur way, mistakes are frequent and risky: here is a list of 10 errors with keywords you can easily stumble upon that can compromise both the strategies and performance of the site.
1. Unrelevant keywords.
Perhaps the most frequent mistake is to use on the page keywords that are not relevant with the topic of the site or of the content itself. The temptation could be to create a “wider comprehensive” content, or to insert in the text the most searched keywords, with the highest volumes of traffic maybe, with the result however to create in the end articles that are out of focus regarding the central topic of the page or the final goals of the site.
2. To invest on vanity keywords.
A more specific variant of the previous problem is the one related to the vanity keywords, a.k.a those keywords that seems to be very tempting in terms of search volumes but that, analyzed more in depth, do not offer any added value to the site in terms of organic traffic and conversions. On the contrary, by being too vague they risk to bring on the page the kind of users only interested in different types of information or services, who therefore end in abandoning the site in short time and without interaction, driving up its bounce rate.
3. Not thinking local.
Geolocated search is increasingly important and Google is heavily investing on (also) offering the kind of SERPs related to the user’s location: not taking this into account means to make a mistake that can jeopardize the entire SEO strategy. As in the previous cases, demanding to aim at the top of the game and neglecting the benefits coming from delimiting the field of action of a site threatens to make you lose time and money. A piece of advice in this sense is to try and decline the keyword for a specific location, paying extra attention to sccurately optimize the content of the page, also inserting real contacts in order to rank and appear among localized SERPs.
4. Using the same keyword on multiple articles.
The strategic speech cannot prescind from a basic concept: it would be ideal to dedicate to the main keywords a single article/content, in order to avoid the cannibalization effect and possible internal conflicts. Besides representing an error for Googlebot‘s scanning, using the same exact keyword on multiple articles can also create confusion for readers, offering them a negative perception of the site. To overcome the problem, simply use variations of the detected keyword.
5. Not optimizing on-page keywords.
Moving on to more practical aspects, which also affect SEO copywriting, a trivial error may be to pay little attention to the on-page optimization of the content compared to the main keyword. That is, speaking of concrete examples, not entering the keyword of interest within the title tag and the meta description, or not filling these fields in properly: according to the latest SEO speculations, the ideal would be to use the main keyword at the beginning of the h1 title tag and then enter it in the meta description, but it is also recommendable to foresee its use in the type H2 or H3 headings and so on.
6. Not entering the keyword in the content.
It may seem ironic, but you can often find pages and articles that have managed to rank for a keyword that… is not even present in the text! In such cases, which are the result of the many variables taken into account by Google’s algorithm, they also explain how approaching SEO strategies in an unprofessional way can give partial results, with projects that, through a more targeted and effective intervention, could become really profitable. For instance, if Google has already found, indexed and ranked a keyword on our page that we had not really anticipated, or if we realize that the keyword initially thought to be the main one is actually not working, it is possible to correct the content and improve it according these indications to obtain even better feedbacks.
7. To write the article only thinking about how to enter the keyword
We have already said that on several circumstances: to write a SEO optimized content not only means to think about the possible placement on the search engines, but also to intercept the favor of the readers who land on the page, who must find the text interesting and readable. Therefore, a content that only serves as support to the keyword or that revolves around it, without providing insights or useful cues, risks not to get the desired effects and to frustrate the whole work.
8. Doing keyword stuffing or exceed in keyword density
The neverending evolutions of Google’s algorithm have truly changed the approach to the content of a page: today stuffing the text with repetitions of a keyword (keyword stuffing) is considered an error, both for crawlers and readers. Also because the final effect is a grainy and apparently little cared for article, in which the readability is sacrificed in the name of a presumed SEO optimization, also tied to the rigorous respect of the Keyword Density parameters: in fact, nowadays we no longer need to force the text with the specific keyword we would like to place, but it is rather far better to aim for a smooth and understandable writing also given the fact that Google and its competitors have become smart enough to understand variations as well.
9. Not using correlated keys or synonyms
Not only does Google fully understand grammatical variations, but it also appreciates and encourages them! Connecting us to the previous point, the error number nine regarding keywords is exactly not to take advantage of the potentialities of the language, meaning not to enter in the text synonyms, longer keyword and so on, that are very useful to improve readability and to also give a greater depth and thickness to the content.
10. Non verificare il posizionamento delle keyword
The last, this also frequent, error on keywords is to not verify the effects of the work. Whoever wants to be online with a site of any kind cannot not know if his project has any ranked keyword, nor ignore which they are and how important they are for his business. Needless to say that, in reality, this scenario happens very frequently and that many approach with superficiality to the activities on the Web, without understanding the true potential of gains that they could simply achieve with a more effective SEO management.
