Search engine optimization (SEO) is a constantly evolving subject matter that even the most-seasoned digital marketing professionals struggle to entirely comprehend. While mistakes are at times inevitable, it’s imperative that you are familiar with not only best practices for SEO, but worst practices as well.

Not only are errors in your SEO a huge waste of time and resources, they can also harm your rankings. This is why before you are able to build a successful SEO strategy, you first need to familiarize yourself with poor SEO methods so you know what to avoid. Get a free SEO audit.

In 2018, no business can afford to have a website that’s not mobile-friendly. Hosting Facts reported that in 2017, mobile was responsible for more than half of all internet traffic – a whopping 52.21% to be exact. And, that number is only going to continue to rise from here on out.

With so many people reaching for their mobile device to surf the web, it is crucial that your site be responsive and user-friendly upon landing. If you’re not familiar with mobile-friendly web design, it’s the concept of your site being easily accessible when viewing on a mobile device.

In regards to digital marketing, you may at some point have heard the expression “Content is king.” However, that statement can sometimes be misinterpreted. While it’s true that to this day content is still a vital component of any SEO strategy, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you should throw up a subpar post on your blog every day of the week.

To take advantage of all the benefits that it has to offer, you have to make sure that you are producing quality content that your audience will want to read. This goes for the content all across your site – including the interior pages, blog articles, videos, social media, etc.

Producing content that is authoritative and informative will not only build trust and intrigue your readers, it will also provide Google with more context regarding your website – this will help you rank better on search and therefore receive more traffic.

If you’re looking for ways to improve the quality and effectiveness of your SEO content, Yoast provides a thorough guide to help you get started.

Once this is determined, you can then turn to a free keyword tool such as Google’s Keyword Planner to scrape the surface – or, a paid tool like Ahrefs, Moz, etc. for further advantages.

Utilize your tool of choice to help you discover keywords relevant to your business and industry, taking note of which ones have the highest search volume and lowest difficulty. After that, you will have to create a keyword map to determine where and when the keywords will be used on the site. Incorporating these keywords in your SEO strategy will help improve your rankings on Google and drive relevant traffic to your site.

If you haven’t noticed, Google is continually changing its guidelines to provide its users with the most relevant search engine results pages (SERPs.) Keeping up with these updates will allow you to stay ahead of the curve and optimize your site with the most up-to-date best practices. Failure to keep up with these algorithm updates can lead to your site falling behind in rankings or even result in penalties.

However, as the technology company tends to release their updates off the radar, keeping up with Google’s changes isn’t as simple as you may think. This is why the only real way to stay on top of the algorithm changes is to pay close attention to your site’s rankings and decipher if any drastic changes have occurred.

If you don’t necessarily have a great eye for stats, or just don’t have enough time to intensely analyze your site’s traffic and rankings on a daily basis – there are some generous SEOs out there that take note of Google’s algorithm updates for the rest of us. Moz and Search Engine Journal are just a couple of the blogs you can turn to for details regarding new Google updates.

Utilizing a tool such as Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz, etc. will point out broken links, missing alt-text, duplicate content, and other factors that could contribute to your site not ranking well.

After you determine what changes should be made, you’ll be able to go ahead and make improvements that will not only appease Google and improve your organic rankings, but also make your site more friendly for users and encourage them to stay and click around.

Clearly, the only way you will always be doing right by your site (and your business) is to stay on top of things. Digital business is an ever-evolving process that creates challenges and opportunities for everyone. How we address these obstacles is up to you and your team – but, seriously, the resources I’ve shared above will be a major help.