In this article I will be discussing 4 of the most common missed SEO optimization opportunities that are completely avoidable and can lead to higher rankings and better click through rates on your Google listings.
1: Badly Written Or Duplicated Page Titles
While title tags are hugely important in SEO but it is also crucial in letting possible customers know about what your business offers and what message you want to convey to the searchers. People often write everything about their business in a manner which doesn’t reflect the information that searchers are actually looking for. The other extreme which also crops up very often is when people completely ignore the title tag which results in many duplicate titles for completely different pages. Both of these examples are huge missed opportunities. There is a limit of 50-60 characters to be used in title tags, you should use these convey your message concisely while still using specific keywords. For example an Italian restaurant could include the location of the business while using the keywords such as “Italian” & “Wine Bar” if applicable.
2: Badly Written Meta Tags
Much like the title tag, meta tags are trying to convey your message to your searches. It’s an opportunity to write something compelling and entice them to click on your link as it enables searchers to decide whether or not that result is relevant to them. Unlike in the title tag, when keywords are used in meta tags they are highlighted which gives you an opportunity to explain what’s on the other side of the link as well as highlighting the most important pieces of the tag.
3: Broken Analytics Tracking
Analytics tracking working properly is crucial as it lets you who was on your site, when they were on your site and how they interacted with your site. Too often there are countless errors in peoples analytics tracking. If you aren’t getting the information from analytics tracking then you can’t benchmark your organic traffic, track your progress or know the best possible way to improve your results leads to you losing opportunities. It might seem like a daunting task to get rid of all these errors but Google provides you with a very useful tool in the Google Tag Assistant plug-in which checks for errors and helps you get rid of them.
4: Unchecked Site Links
Sitelinks are a great opportunity to get searchers to delve deeper into your website and are generated automatically by Google. However you this doesn’t mean that you can just forget about them. Sometimes the sitelinks aren’t clear and don’t tell searchers clearly what page they will be clicking into. Using Google Search Console to monitor your links for errors and links you don’t want included is a must.
So in conclusion write your title tags well, write your meta tags well, make sure you fix any broken analytics tracking with the Google Tag Assistant plugin-in and use Google Search Console to fix any broken links and to delete links that you don’t want. If you follow these guidelines you will stop missing out on opportunities and hopefully gain a meaningful edge over your competition.