‘Up-to-date’ SEO articles on the web date back 10 years
Google’s search algorithm changes every single day

SEO best practices change every time google changes (around 400 times per year) so neglecting to adapt your SEO strategy can be as bad as not doing any SEO at all, not researching your search markets first and not publishing informative or entertaining content that people find useful.

Optimising your web pages and content to increase organic search traffic can be quite straight forward but keep an eye out for these common mistakes…

Keyword research mistakes

• trusting Google – collaborate keyword research data using other free tools
• just the basics – find modifiers and qualifiers as well as targetable phrases
• lazy thinking – seek new keyword phrases that match the searcher’s intentions

Website configuration errors

• incorrect indexing – check search engines index your pages with free tools
• annoying robots – add robots files, xml and html sitemaps to help the robots
• mixing it up – silo your site architecture and nofollow cross category links

SEO content gaffs

• guessing – study volume and competition before developing a content strategy
• slacking – publish regular linkable, quality articles, blog posts and pages
• forgetting – focus on readers, write for people first, search engines second

Links building disasters

• paid submission – don’t go near sites that send naff traffic from off-topic lists
• non-personal requests – don’t send link requests that appear to be automated
• spamming – posting spammy links in forums and blogs is a no no. Do it with care!

Learn the basics and get optimising your web pages to claim your share of the organic search market, but be sure to get expert advice wherever possible because out-of-date SEO practices and misinformed link building strategies can destroy your brand and get your website banned/penalized/filtered out of the major search engines, or both in an instant.