You know about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and you are working on it for your website. However, you are not visible on search engines, your site does not generate traffic and your business does not take off. That’s because you’re probably making SEO mistakes that are preventing you from being properly referenced and generating traffic to your site. It is not too late to rectify them and have a well optimized and referenced site in 2022.

Why is good SEO important?
You want people to see your site? Then you have no choice but to master SEO. Your site will have to stand out from the millions of other sites that deal with the same subject as you. So to generate traffic, you will have to position your site in the first Google search results.

Moreover, being in the first results of a Google search brings you a great credibility in the eyes of users. You will therefore have to gain the trust of Google, which is increasingly demanding.

Here are 9 SEO mistakes to avoid in 2022.

1 Write content that doesn’t meet users’ needs

If you do a Google search, it’s because you need an answer. The mistake that is still too often made is to write content that pleases the writer but does not meet a need. No matter how good your content is, if no one needs it, no one will read it. You need to know what your users need. To do this, you can use Google Trends which lists the most used keywords on the search engine.

This will help you to know the most common needs and queries. You will be able to write content on this topic and that answers a problem.

There is no question of sacrificing the quality of the content. Google also evaluates this for its SEO. Content is ROI. So there’s no point in writing about all the top Google searches if you don’t bring any added value to your content.

2 Don’t worry about the competition

Even though there is room for everyone on the web, there are only a few best among thousands. It is very important to know the competition within your niche in order to stand out.

You need to look at the most successful articles, the structure of the site and its SEO. For SEO, look at the keywords and methods used by the top ranked sites. Take the opportunity to read their content, get inspired by it and propose your own content, more in-depth or with additional solutions.

You can use a software like SEMrush to help you in this task.

3 Not optimizing titles and meta descriptions

This is a common mistake in SEO. Many make a point of placing keywords in the content and neglect the title and meta description. The title is just as important in SEO. Google will propose in its search results in priority content whose title is relevant and consistent with the search. Moreover, it is the very first information given to the reader, the one that will encourage him to click or not on the page.

Meta descriptions do not enter into the direct ranking. Even if the subject is still debated. This does not mean that it is not important to optimize them.

Even if there is no SEO issue, there is an issue to catch the reader. After the title, the meta description will give indications on the content and will influence the reader on the ability of your article to meet his need.

4 Forget about long tail keywords

Long tail keywords are longer and more specific keywords on a given subject. They are still little used because many people think they are useless. This is a mistake.

Long tail keywords will bring you less traffic, of course. Indeed it will take more specific Google searches to find you. However they have several advantages:

They are very specific and therefore suffer from less competition. You will have more ease to be well positioned in terms of SEO.
Users who do these specific searches will have fewer relevant results and will go to your site more easily. This gives you leads that are easier to convert.
To work on your long tail keywords, use Google Suggest or Mazen to help you define them.

5 You overuse links

Optimizing does not rhyme with “overloading”. There is still too much content filled with internal and external links, so you can be redirected 50 times while reading. Google likes links yes, but coherent links. They must bring a real added value to your content, a complement of information or redirect to a site whose description you make. Use the SEMrush tool to check the links in your content and correct inconsistencies.

The more you add, the less coherence there will be in the content and the less Google will like you.

6 Keyword cannibalization

Keyword cannibalism is when several pages of your site compete with each other in a search. This happens when the same keyword is used on several pages, in several articles. This also applies to commercial links. This is not necessarily seen as an error but it penalizes the SEO. Indeed, one of your page will prevent another to appear.

To avoid the cannibalization of keywords, you must define a different key phrase for each of your articles or each page of your site. Find synonyms when you deal with the same subject on several different pages.

7 You don’t have an SSL / https certificate

SSL certificates are not mandatory for a website. Google had announced that it was a ranking factor. Thus, with an equal SEO work, a site that has this certificate will be visible before yours. This is a mistake that is easy to rectify. You can find SSL certificates to buy but some websites offer them.

It is also an added sense of security for the reader, as we become more and more suspicious of internet scams. The message “the connection is not private”, can scare away more than one user.

8 Your site is not optimized for mobile

With which tool do you do Google searches most often? Your Smartphone of course. This is the case for a large majority of people. It is always at hand and easy to use.

That’s why Google has announced that it will favor sites that are optimized for mobiles with a faster loading speed than those that are not.

Moreover, the “Mobile-First” indexing is used by default.

9 You do not check the indexing of your pages

This is a classic mistake, you tell yourself that you have worked well on your SEO and that you don’t need to come back to it. However, the verification work MUST be an integral part of the optimization. You need to perform regular SEO audits to ensure optimal visibility and to correct if it is not the case.

To do this, simply use the Google Search Console tool which will give you all your pages indexed by Google. The console will also highlight the indexing errors.

This way you will be able to find the pages that are not indexed and you will be able to rectify your errors.