There are many SEO myths and misconceptions that most of us take at face value. After all, SEO is such a complex subject that sometimes it gets difficult to know what is true or not. Concepts like E-E-A-T, the skyscraper technique, entity SEO and other complex tactics confound professionals, to the point that you don’t know which techniques you should use or who to believe.

Truth is, even some of the top SEO experts are not sure of everything. Google has kept many algorithm updates under wraps, misleading SEOs and making one unsure of what to do to rank.

In this article, you will learn about some of the top SEO myths and misconceptions that even seasoned professionals might get wrong.

Top 7 SEO Myths And Misconceptions

1. Keyword Research Is Easy

When working with SEO, keyword research might seem easy. You just look up your business and find similar keywords, right? Wrong.

When researching for the keywords you should rank for, you need to make sure that your keywords match your product, have a high search volume, and low competition.

You might have an idea of which keywords your customers use to find your product, but you need to source actual data to find the best keywords for your business.

If you use SERPed, you can leverage keyword research easily by using Ultimate Research and Keyword Analyzer. With Ultimate Research, you can get more keyword ideas that are relevant for your business. Keyword Analyzer will give you details about each keyword, including competition level, websites that rank for that keyword, and more.

2. Use As Many Keywords As Possible

When optimizing, it’s commonly expected that the more keywords you use, and the more often, the greater are your chances of ranking. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Google can tell when content is over optimized. Also, if you repeat your keywords too many times – in what is called keyword stuffing – you’ll end up missing the spot and ranking even lower.

We recommend targeting a maximum of 3 keywords per page, and using them sparingly.

3. Duplicate Content Leads To Penalizations

It is commonly believed that Google penalizes duplicate content. However, it’s not as simple as it looks.

Duplicate content happens on many occasions without being necessarily intentional. When that is the case, Google finds the page with the highest quality content and is the most relevant for that specific search. The goal is to show users what they are looking for.

If a website is full of duplicate content, however, that might be an issue for the webmaster. Not like losing all ranks, though.

Unlike what you may have heard, duplicate content does not incur penalties. Penalties in SEO are reserved for much worse activities. That is, unless the website is trying to manipulate rankings by duplicating content.

It might seem difficult to tell which one it is in each case: accidental duplication, or manipulation of results. However, Google has become quite accurate at detecting intentional content duplication, so, no need to worry.

4. Content Is Not Important – Keywords Are

This is not as common now as it was around 8 years ago, but it should be mentioned. No matter how well you do your keyword research, the best way to rank is through high-quality, relevant and strong content.

Working hard on your website content – including blog posts – is of the utmost importance to rank high.

As we usually say, what is good for humans is good for machines. Google’s algorithm recognizes quality and relevance with decent accuracy, and it is improving with every update.

You might have heard about E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. These are the main factors that help Google measure content quality. So, it will prioritize content that offers a great user experience, published by someone who is knowledgeable, an authority in the niche, and a reliable source.

5. Set & Forget

Unlike some clients would like to believe, SEO is not a set and forget technique. If you want consistent results, you need to update your content often, check for errors, and optimize frequently.

This is a common source of frustration for both clients and in-house teams. Why won’t all these SEO tactics work?

With SEO, you need to be persistent. A basic SEO audit is great to begin with, but over time you need to go over more details and create a strong content strategy to improve your ranking on SERPs.

It’s all about the constant improvement, as SEO (i.e. Google) is constantly changing.

6. Domain Age Improves Ranking

The SEO myth that domain age affects ranking is an old one, and many SEO experts still swear by it. However, John Mu himself (from Google) has debunked this theory on Twitter in 2019:

What does help when having an old domain is having  more content that might’ve been linked to, increasing authority through activities that every webmaster can do. It’s just easier to reach your goals after you’ve been putting in the work for years rather than months.

7. Domain Authority Helps

For a while, Google used PageRank to help them evaluate the authority of each website in a specific niche. PageRank went from 0 to 10 and was updated until 2013. In 2016, Google announced that PageRank would no longer be used to calculate rankings.

However, SEOs were convinced that another metric replaced it – Domain Authority, from Moz.

When evaluating a website, many professionals still use Domain Authority to understand how “important” or “relevant” that domain is.

But does that matter for SEO? Not surprisingly, it doesn’t. Google has mentioned already that it does not use any of those metrics in order to rank a website.

Wrapping Up

Now, there are many other SEO myths that we couldn’t mention here for the sake of brevity.

It is however very important to be aware of misconceptions when doing SEO work.

SEO, as a subject, includes many perceived rules that turn out not to be as important as we thought. At the same time, there are things we sometimes miss that can make or break your SEO strategy.

Would you like to see a Part II? If you would, let us know in the comment box, or find us on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

The post Top 7 SEO Myths & Misconceptions 🤔 appeared first on Serped.com.

Keyword research is one of the main pillars of SEO. It is usually the first step when it comes to on-page SEO, and it guides the way content is created.

SERPed.net is a very comprehensive tool suite that includes keyword research as part of the toolbox.

In this article, we'll go through the tools included in SERPed that allow you to perform keyword research and analysis.

1. Ultimate Research

Ultimate Research is the main keyword research tool in our toolbox. You can find it here in the Tools menu:

Once you've entered the tool, you'll see it's quite simple to use. To search for new keywords, just click the button. Previously searched source keywords stay on the initial page so you can go back to them anytime you need stats or to go through previous keyword lists.

Once you click the button, a popup window will appear in which you can enter your main target keyword to find similar keywords and phrases. For now, ignore the Advanced Search option – we'll get to it in a second.

So, just type in your main keyword to get suggestions and you'll get a list of hundreds of related keywords.

You can see plenty of data on this screen, including the search volume, trends, CPC (cost per click if you were to run a paid search campaign), the whole traffic value (estimated through Google Ads' API), and PPC (pay per click) competition.

This display includes all the data that you could get from Google Keyword Planner plus a few extras.

If you click one of the keywords, you'll get more details:

The URL list contains your main competitor websites for the keywords in the list. You also get averages for those websites, including SERPed Rank which is our own metric.

You also get Trust Flow and Average Page Authority. These two measures come from different sources: Trust Flow is a Majestic metric and Average Page Authority comes from Moz.

This is another reason why SERPed is such a cost-effective tool: you can get all the metrics you need without having to purchase any other software packs.

On the right-hand side of the table, you also get your Alexa score, social mentions, MozRank, Domain Authority, Page Authority, Links, Referrals, the number of .gov and .edu sites containing that keyword, Majestic's Citation Flow and, as previously mentioned, Trust Flow for each of the websites ranking for that keyword.

At the top left, right next to the keyword, you can see a small circle that can be green (low competition), yellow (average competition), and red (high competition). This color code indicates how hard it is to rank for that keyword.

If you click the three dots on the right of each keyword, you'll get the following options:

We'll go through Keyword Analyzer later, which is another very useful tool for your keyword research. We'll also discuss Long Tail keywords at the end of this article.

You can view a yearly graph for the search volume trend of each keyword, go to Google search using Search Broad, or even calculate your possible revenue for each keyword using the Revenue Calculator.

We offer the option to export the results to .pdf, .txt, .csv, .xls (for Excel) or even .ods (Open Office). Remember your previous searches will stay on your SERPed account if you ever need to go back to them.

This tool is:

  Great for finding new keyword ideas 

  Perfect to get keyword stats so you can plan your SEO content strategy

Ultimate Research – Tutorial Video

Ultimate Research – Tutorial Video

2. What Ranks Where

This tool shows you which keywords your website (or a competitor) ranks for. To add a new website to your account, you just need to click the button:

Once you have clicked that button, a popup appears. It requires you to fill in the website name (that is going to show in the History), the URL, the country you want to search for, and the number of keywords found.

There are also three options at the bottom that allow you to pick the search type (organic or PPC) whether you want to check the whole site or just a specific URL, and the order in which results appear (position or traffic percentage).

The results show on the next page:

In the results page, you can see the estimated traffic for the top keywords (in this case we're only showing 20 results).

Then, for each keyword, you have the position it ranks on SERPs (search engine result pages), the previous position, the position difference (if it has gotten higher or lower in organic search), the monthly search volume, estimated traffic, cost per click, traffic value (in percentage), the pay per click competition, number of results for that exact same keyword, and lastly, a small graph on the right showing the search volume trend.

All this data can help you understand for which keywords you're currently ranking and perform a competitor analysis to find out new keywords you should be ranking for. Just like Ultimate Research, all your previous searches can be found in the history screen, which shows when you open the tool.

This tool is:

  Ideal for finding out the keywords you rank for

Great to find keywords your competitors rank for so you can add them to your plan

What Ranks Where – Tutorial Video

3. Keyword Analyzer

Keyword Analyzer gives you insights into a specific keyword, showing you data about it and the websites that rank for it. It can help you define whether the keywords you found on Ultimate Research will be truly useful for your own website. The “History” section shows your previous searches and can be useful if you want to compare different keywords.

Once you enter the tool, you just need to click the button to add a new keyword. This popup will then appear:

Then just enter the keyword you want to get stats for and pick the database. If it's a general search, you can leave it on Google.com; if it's local, you can find the different databases for certain countries. You can also enter a specific URL if you want to limit your search, but this is optional.

On the results page, you'll get the same data as if you click on a specific keyword on Ultimate Research results: competition, difficulty, search volume, Alexa Rank, Moz Rank, DA (Domain Authority), PA (Page Authority), and more.

This tool allows you to get a history of your most important keywords so they won't get lost among the results from Ultimate Research. If you don't use this tool, it's easy to lose focus on long keyword suggestion lists. Great for:

Comparing keyword stats

Getting data on your keyword ideas

Keyword Analyzer – Tutorial Video

4. Long Tail Keywords

When it comes to keyword competition, the best way to make sure you rank for the right keywords is using long tail keywords. These are keywords that are longer and more specific than your source keyword, making it easier for you to rank for relevant terms without having to compete with older, highly optimized websites.

Long tail keywords help you rank higher for specific searches. The way it works is that specific, longer keywords have less competition, so if you use longer keywords, you have more chances of ranking higher for those terms. These keywords usually include your source keyword or some variation, which helps you rank for those as well.

Our long tail keyword tool gives you suggestions for this type of keyword, helping you develop your SEO strategy further.

As is the case with all the tools mentioned in this article, all you need to do to start a new long tail keyword research is to click the button on the right-hand side of the tool screen. The following popup will appear:

You just have to fill in your source keyword (in this case, we used “keyword tools”), pick your database and the country, and click on “Get Keyword Ideas”.

You'll get a list of long tail keywords that match your source keyword. Each of them has details about its source volume, trend, CPC, traffic value, PPC competition, and related searches.

You can also drill down each keyword to get another list of related long tail keywords, making it possible to find thousands of keywords for each search.

You just have to pick between adding the new keywords to the same project or creating a new one.

When you get the new list as a result of drilling down, you can go on drilling down as long as you want to find the right long tail keyword.

For each keyword, you can click on the three dots on the right to access other tools, such as running keyword analyzer (which we already covered) viewing the trends graph, related searches, or related domains.

If you pick the trends graph, you'll get this popup:

This gives you data for a whole year so you can analyze the evolution of each keyword, which is quite useful when picking your target keywords. You can also see related searches to get more keyword ideas.

In this case, no data shows for the keywords at the time of writing, but you can always run them through Keyword Analyzer to get all the data you need. This tool is:

Ideal for finding specific keywords with less competition

Long Tail Keywords – Tutorial Video

Wrapping Up

With these four tools, you can do all your keyword research tasks using SERPed. All of the tools are interconnected with each other so it's easy to go from one to the other, getting a 360º view of any keyword idea.

With this article, we have tried to show all that you can do with each of the four tools, from Ultimate Research to Long Tail Keywords. However, the best way to discover all the tricks is by subscribing and testing it out yourself – if you don't use SERPed already, of course. We offer a 30-day money-back guarantee that ensures you have absolutely nothing to lose if you subscribe.

Not a member yet? Click here to sign up now…

Already a member? Log in now and start doing some keyword research

For our power users, these tools might be well known, but we're constantly updating and improving each tool in our suite. If you have any questions, feel free to use the comment box below, and remember you can always find us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

The post Keyword Research in SERPed.net 🔍 appeared first on Serped.com.

If you’re interested in SEO, you’ve probably wondered about how search engines work. Especially, Google's search engine, since approximately 87% of all online searches are done in Google. Having the lion’s share of the search engine market, Google is without a doubt the main search engine that SEOs care about – although this might not be the case depending on your location.

However, all search engines have the same goal: to locate information online that best matched the terms that were searched. But is that all it is? How do search engines work anyway? In this article, we’ll answer that question thoroughly. Let’s start with the basics.

1. The primary actions of a search engine

There are three primary actions that a search engine goes through which describe how search engines work. We’ll discuss them quickly:

Crawl 

Crawlers (or bots – we’ll explain this concept further along this article) travel the internet looking for new content to add to their index. They read all the content and code on each URL.

Index 

The search engine stores all the information collected during the crawling process, and prepares them to be matched to specific searches.

Rank 

Ranking connects the content indexed to the results that best match the user query, attributing a position in the search results for each URL in order to best serve users with the content they’re after. They are sorted from the most relevant to the least relevant in the search results.

2. Crawling

This is the first step in the search process. In order for your website to be crawled, you need to make sure that every single piece of content and code are crawler-friendly. There are two main things you need to do in order for your website to be accurately crawled: using a robots.txt file and defining URL parameters on Google Search Console.

2.1. Can search engines find every page on your website?

In order for your website to rank for specific keywords you have chosen, it needs to be crawled and indexed. The first thing you need to do is to use the “site:yourdomain.com” search on Google.

This search will allow you to find out how many pages on your website are indexed right now. This will help you figure out if there are any pages on your website that haven’t been correctly crawled. Once you have this information, you can track crawling errors.

Of course, this is not an exact listing of how many pages on your website have been crawled. If some pages do not show, there can be a few other reasons why this is the case:

• If your website is brand new, it might not have been crawled yet. In this case, we recommend installing Google Search Console to accelerate that process.
• There might be no external websites linking to your website. We advise you to start with a link building strategy from the beginning to avoid this.
• Navigation on your website might make it difficult for bots to crawl it.
• Your site has been penalized by Google for some reason, blocking it from showing on search results.

We won’t go into details about penalizations from Google in this article, because they don’t happen often. Unless your website uses spammy tactics, you don’t need to worry about being penalized.

However, there might be pages you don’t want Google to crawl: such as pages with duplicate content, test pages, landing pages for your campaigns, and so on. To keep Google from crawling those pages – and making sure it indexes the other ones – you should use a robots.txt file.

Robots.txt

This file should be located at the root of your domain (such as yourdomain.com/robots.txt), as it helps Google understand how to crawl your website. If the file does not exist, Google will crawl all pages. If you have a robots.txt file, Google will follow the rules set out on it while crawling your website, thus indexing only the URLs that aren’t blocked by the file.

However, if your robots.txt file has errors, Google will not be able to crawl your website correctly, thereby preventing it from being indexed.

Using Google Search Console to Define URL Parameters

Sometimes, you may have a need to use dynamic URLs. There are two types of URLs: static and dynamic. A static URL is something like this: https://www.serped.com/domain-authority. This URL is always going to look the same, no matter where you access it from.

Dynamic URLs depend on the search terms used, and are commonly used on eCommerce websites. Let’s say you’re making a search on Amazon. As you click through, your URL changes and adds parameters to match your search filters. So you get a URL like this: https://www.amazon.com/s?bbn=16225006011&rh=n%3A%2116225006011%2Cn%3A11057241&dc&fst=as%3Aoff&pf_rd_i=16225006011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=fd971cf1-cdbc-4301-8c91-0a56b1c1e13f&pf_rd_r=MFAGVPVN324FNGJQ2QDC&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-4&pf_rd_t=101&qid=1488484834&rnid=16225006011&ref=s9_acss_bw_cts_AEVNBEAU_T3_w See the difference?

However, you can use Google Search Console to define which pages should be crawled and indexed according to these parameters. You just need to set options such as “crawl no URLs with the X parameter” in order to avoid crawling of duplicate content.

2.2. Common navigation issues

There are several aspects in website navigation that can affect how your website is crawled, and whether it is crawled correctly or not. Below are a few common navigation mistakes that can prevent your website from being crawled properly:

• Different navigation in the mobile version and the desktop version.
• Google has improved the way it crawls Javascript items in the navigation, but it is still recommended to use HTML for it. Using Javascript for the menu buttons is not recommended.
• If users see different content according to a defined personalization, it can keep Googlebot (Google’s crawler) from accessing all the pages. It can even lead to a penalization if Google considers this as cloaking on your website (a black hat technique).
• Make sure all your primary pages get links to them from the homepage – Googlebot uses links to travel between your pages.

Using sitemaps

Sitemaps make sure all your relevant pages are crawled and indexed. This is a major step in order to create a clean information architecture. Information architecture refers to the way pages are connected and labeled in order for visitors to navigate easily through your website.

A sitemap, as the name suggests, is a map of your website, including all the URLs you want bots to crawl. Our first advice is to follow Google’s rules for sitemaps. Other than that, you should make sure that your sitemap does not include URLs you are hiding in your robots.txt and vice versa. After that, you need to upload your sitemap to your website, in the root of your website (just like your robots.txt), and submit it on Google Search Console (GSC).

We mentioned Google Search Console above, and we definitely recommend using it even if you don’t have to define URL parameters. GSC is a powerful tool for your SEO, and it can help you detect crawling and indexing errors quickly.

If your website is not updated often, GSC can help as well. If your website does not update frequently, Google bot will stop crawling it for updates. Using Google Search Console, you can force a crawl when you’ve added some blog posts or made some major changes in your website structure and content.

2.3. Common crawling errors

While crawling your website, crawlers can find errors – just as we mentioned previously. You can check those on Google Search Console: however, you need to know what caused them and what kind of errors they are in order to fix them. We’re going to list the main types of crawling errors you’ll usually encounter on your website.

4xx Codes

This type of code is due to a client error. What usually causes these errors is usually either a URL typo, broken redirects, or the page has been deleted. The most common is error 404. Since this happens on every website, we recommend having a page designed to show your users when there is a “404 – not found” error, such as the one below:

5xx Codes

5xx codes are due to a server error. Google Search Console has a tab dedicated to these errors only. When you have a 5xx error, it means the server was unable to fulfill the request (performed by a user or by a search engine). Often, what happens is the request for this specific URL timed out. When a request times out, bots will abandon it.

To solve these issues, you need to fix your server connectivity.

How To Use 301 Redirects

Luckily, there is a way to prevent these errors: using a 301 redirect. 301 redirects are permanent, so they’re perfect to make sure users get to the right page on your website.

Redirecting ensures that all the “link juice” (defined by page rank and page authority) flows from the old page to the new one. It also helps Google index your new page correctly and quickly. When it comes to UX (user experience), it also improves the way users interact with your page, since they will be able to find it and see its content.

Avoid Too Many Redirects

If you need to redirect users to a page temporarily, you can use a 302 redirect. However, that shouldn’t be the case for too long, as it will not share the link authority from the old page, and it might affect your ranking.

You should make sure that the new page you’re directing users to has relevant content according to the old page. If this new page does not match the original content, bots are going to find that it is not relevant for the search that was made by users, and your rank will drop.

When it comes to ranking, it’s important as well to avoid too many redirects. If you redirect your users too many times, it can both affect your ranking and user experience too. Make sure to use 301 and 302 redirects only when strictly necessary.

3. Indexing

3.1. How do search engines index your website?

Now, making sure your pages are crawled does not mean you’ve ensured that they are going to be indexed. Bots render your page with all the content and all the code, analyze it, and save it to be shown on search engine result pages (SERPs, in short).

3.2 How do you see how your website is being indexed by Google?

To find out how your page has been indexed, you can check the indexed version of it by clicking on the arrow next to the URL on search results:

The arrow will show you a “Cached” button you need to click. There, you’ll find out how your page is seen by search engines:

3.3. Can I get removed from the index?

There are instances where a page is removed from the index, therefore not showing on search results. This can be intentional or accidental. These are the most common reasons for a page to not be indexed:

• 4xx and 5xx errors can cause that page to be removed from the index.
• The page was deleted and a 301 redirect wasn’t implemented.
• The page was hidden intentionally by deleting it and setting up a 404 page.
• A noindex tag was added to the page to prevent it from being indexed.
• Google penalized the page manually because it didn’t comply with its Webmaster Guidelines, causing the page to be removed from the index.
• A password was added to restrict access to the page, keeping it from being indexed.

As you can see, there are a few reasons why your pages might not be indexed. It’s not always an issue per se: sometimes you might want some pages of your website to remain private, for many possible reasons.

However, if the de-indexing wasn’t intentional, there are a few things you can do to fix that. You just need to install Google Search Console. In GSC, you can find the URL Inspection tool, which will show the status of a page. It allows you to see what is causing a wrongful de-indexing.

Also in GSC, you can find the “Fetch As Google” tool. In this tool, there is a button called “Request Indexing”, which is the one you should use when submitting a new page for the search engines to crawl.

“Fetch As Google” also allows you to see if the cached version of your page is up to date.

3.4. Telling search engines how to index your website

Search engines follow specific protocols when it comes to deciding whether to index your pages. In the following section, we’ll show you the common ways to hide or show specific URLs according to the pages you want to index or not index.

Robots meta directives

Meta directives are instructions that you give to bots in order to index only the pages you want. These instructions include the option to not pass any page authority to links on a specific page, or not to index another specific page.

Meta tags are included in the <head> of your HTML pages using the Robots Meta Tags container. They can also be added to your HTTP header using the X-Robots-Tag.

Robots Meta Tag

In the <head> of your HTML, you can use a Robots Meta Tag. It can be used to exclude all search engines or a specific one. These are common meta directives:

• “noindex” tells search engines to ignore a specific URL, preventing it from being crawled and indexed. There’s also the “index” directive, but it is not commonly used since bots index all pages unless there is a directive requesting otherwise. You can use noindex on private pages, especially ones that have content from users you want to keep hidden.
• “follow” and “no follow” allows you to define if link equity is going to be passed on from that URL. By default, all pages have “follow” activated. “Nofollow” will prevent  the link equity from being passed on to the links on that page. Usually, you’ll find social media links using “nofollow”. It should be used together with “noindex” to make sure the pages you want to keep private are not crawled nor indexed.
• “noarchive” prevents Googlebot from saving a cached version of each page. It is commonly used in eCommerce websites, because prices change often and you don’t want visitors to see the old price tags. By default, all pages are archived in search results, showing a cached version of the page. Noarchive prevents that.

You can use all of these tags at the same time, as long as you respect the syntax for the robots meta tag.

X-Robots-Tag

This tag will be placed in the HTTP header, and it allows for more flexibility than meta tags. You can set up a tag that will block entire folders in your website, or hide specific files or file types from being indexed.

We recommend using a X-Robots-Tag when you have to block a large volume of content, since it is more efficient than using the robots meta tag. The robots meta tag is ideal to block specific URLs, but if you have a lot of content to prevent indexing for, the X-Robots-Tag is the way to go.

3.5. What is mobile-first indexing and how does it affect my website?

Mobile-first indexing was first announced in 2018, and it is now working in full functionality. But what does mobile-first indexing mean?

Well, as the name suggests, Google now starts indexing your website from the mobile version and uses this version as the starting point. This also means that your mobile version has a great effect on your ranking.

So, it has become imperative to have a responsive website design, making sure that visitors coming from every device have a great experience with your page.

Mobile-first indexing also affects crawling: if you have a mobile version, it will be crawled first. However, if you only have a desktop version of your website, it will be crawled anyway; but your ranking might suffer if you’re competing with websites that have a mobile version.

It should be noted as well that if you use responsive design, your ranking should not be affected by mobile-first indexing.

4. Ranking

Now, we arrive at the part that SEO professionals care about the most: ranking. Crawling and indexing are requisites for ranking, but if your website is properly crawled and indexed and your ranking is still not high enough, you need to dig further.

In this section, we’ll explain how ranking works and what search engines want from your website in order for it to rank high.

4.1. How do search engines rank URLs?

Ranking ensures that when users type a search query, they will get relevant content in return. This function organizes results (SERPs) in order to show content from most relevant to least relevant.

Algorithms define how all websites are ranked. Google updates its algorithm quite often, with the goal of improving the quality of search results. To find out if you’re following the quality guidelines, please check this help article from Google. This link is quite helpful if your ranking has suffered recently due to an algorithm update.

The goal of search engines has always been to deliver the best results for a search query. However, if you work with SEO, you have probably noticed that a lot has changed from when search engines first appeared and how you do SEO these days.

Take keyword stuffing, as an example. In the beginning, if you wanted to rank for a keyword, you’d repeat that keyword as much as possible in your content. However, that resulted in a terrible user experience, since users don’t behave in the same way that search engines used to in the past. Users want quality results that answer their question or request, not text that’s made up for bots.

Fortunately, as time goes by, bots have become quite apt to understanding which results provide users with a better experience. Keyword stuffing now results in penalizations from Google and other search engines.

4.2. How do you rank higher?

There are three main factors that help you rank higher without being penalized: content, links to your website, and RankBrain. We’ll describe how each works in this section.

Links in SEO

There are typically two types of links when it comes to SEO. Backlinks (also known as inbound links) are links from one website to another. On the other hand, internal links are those that connect pages on the same website.

Links to your website can have a positive impact on your ranking if they are from websites that are considered authorities in your subject. However, if you get links from spammy or low-quality websites, your ranking might suffer. If you get links from the wrong kind of website, you might even get flagged for spam.

If you have no links pointing to your website, your authority on the subject is unclear, so this factor will not increase nor decrease your ranking.

PageRank is part of Google’s algorithm, and it’s PageRank that defines whether you get a better ranking according to the quality and quantity of backlinks to your website. This ranking factor works under the assumption that the better the links you have, and the more links you have from authoritative websites, the more relevant your website is for users.

Unfortunately, it’s become very common to find websites that buy backlinks; we do not recommend that at all. PageRank is able to understand which backlinks are natural and organic (resulting from other websites considering your content useful) and which links are unnatural, meaning they were bought or are the result of a link exchange. Link exchanges should be avoided too unless the website is highly relevant for your content and has a good DA (domain authority).

Content in SEO

Content is the main pillar of on-page SEO. It includes everything that is on your website: text content, videos, images… In order for your website to rank higher, your content must answer the question implied in the search.

For each search query, there are thousands of websites competing for number one on the SERPs (search engine result pages). How do search engines know which website provides a more comprehensive answer?

Well, an important factor is search intent. If a user is looking for information, your website should provide it. If the user’s intent is to buy, we’re looking at another kind of content.

In order to rank for a specific keyword, you need to find what other websites that rank already provide for users. How long is the content? The more comprehensive your answer to the search query is, the easier it will be to rank high for it. Your focus should always be on what the user wants to accomplish with their search: if your content is good for users, it will be great for bots.

4.3. What is RankBrain?

RankBrain is part of Google’s algorithm. But why is it so important for your ranking? Well, RankBrain is the part of the algorithm that uses machine learning to constantly improve search results and make them more relevant for users.

Machine learning implies a constant iteration of the algorithm functions, by using data collected in order to improve its performance. So, RankBrain is constantly learning new ways to rank websites in SERPs.

As an example, let’s say a result that is on the 7th position of search results gets more clicks than the number one result, and a lower bounce rate from users. RankBrain will “learn” that this result on 7th position is more relevant than the others above it and bring it up to the top of the search results.

4.4. Are search results changing?

In the beginning, search engines were simple mechanisms. There was a page with “10 blue links” that was shown to users for each query, and that was it. Your goal was to place as high as possible on this list.

However, over the years, Google has implemented changes to this “10 blue links” format, and now each search returns other formats as well, such as:

• Paid advertising (Google Ads)
• Sitelinks
• Featured snippets
• Local Map Pack
• Knowledge panel
• “People also ask”

Google is adding new features to its search results constantly. This caused a bit of panic among SEOs in the beginning, since organic results were pushed down on the list, and users were clicking ads and “zero-result SERPs” started appearing: result pages that only showed an answer to the user’s question and a button to “view more results”.

The goal of these experiments was to improve the way search engines answer the question implied in the search query. If users can get an answer to their request without having to click through, the experience is better for them, because it’s faster than having to go through a website looking for an answer.

So, if you have an informational query, you’ll probably find the answer in a featured snippet. If there is only one answer to the query, you can get a knowledge graph or an instant answer. Local queries are answered using the Map Pack, and transactional questions get results from Google Shopping.

User experience is everything. If it can be improved using other formats than links to websites, that’s what is going to happen; and the only way for SEOs to handle this is to adapt.

4.5. Local Search

Google has its own directory of services from which search results are extracted to show up for local queries. If you or your SEO client has a local business or provides services in a specific area, you need to create an entry on Google My Business (GMB).

Among results from GMB, Google uses a specific ranking to show each result. This ranking is based on relevance, distance, and prominence.

Relevance has to do with how well the business fits the search query. To make sure the business shows for the right keywords, you have to optimize your Google My Business entry and make sure you describe exactly what your business offers.

If you’re searching for a local business, you are interested in companies that are close to you. Even though distance is not often taken into consideration when it comes to other types of searches, in local search it is a major factor for ranking.

Google tries to show users the businesses that are more prominent in the offline world too. In order to produce the more prominent results, it relies on reviews from users (collected from Google). The more positive reviews a place gets, the more likely it is to show up for local searches.

Business listings on other sources can also be taken into account, usually from websites such as Yelp and other similar directories. Google pulls data such as name, address and phone number (NAP details) from many sources, adding that information to its database. Links and articles can also be used to collect data for Google My Business.

You should optimize your listing as you would for organic search. When defining local ranking, GMB also takes into consideration the ranking of the company’s website in order to show more relevant results to users.

Wrapping Up

Knowing how search engines work is important in order to make sure your SEO work is on point. Even if you don’t do SEO, as a client, it is important to know what your SEO professional needs to take care of and to align your expectations with reality.

SEO work is not easy, and it is constantly changing. From mobile-first indexing to zero-result searches, there is a lot of information to take in at all times. Every year, Google launches a new core update so it’s essential for SEO professionals to keep on learning all the time.

If you use SERPed.net, it can help with you different aspects of your SEO campaigns, including keyword research, rank tracking, and much more, improving your ranking within Google. Not using SERPed yet? You can check out our plans here. You'll see it will make a huge difference in your SEO strategy.

Our comment box is always available for you if you have any questions. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post How do Search Engines Work? 🔎 appeared first on Serped.com.

No matter how hard we try and how experienced we are, there are some common SEO mistakes that can be found even in the most well-optimized website. However, fret not: these mistakes are easy to discover and fix if you perform a comprehensive SEO audit.

If you didn't read our guide for a perfect SEO audit, now is the time to read it. These two articles are complementary to each other and we recommend using both when optimizing your website. We also recommend using Google Analytics to get stats on your target audience and relevant keywords, which are both ranking factors. Backlinks are also essential for your link building strategy. So, on to the list!

HTTP Status and Server Errors

HTTP status and server errors are the most common SEO mistakes that you might encounter in an audit. This type of SEO mistake is related to problems in the data transfer between the browser and the server; the dreaded error 404 falls under this category.

This type of error can affect your traffic severely since users tend to distrust websites with non-available pages and generally leave when faced with a 404 error page. Find the most common SEO mistakes of HTTP status and server errors below.

1. 4xx Codes

These codes indicate a broken page, which prevents users from being able to access it. A 4xx code can also mean that the page wasn't indexed.

2. Non-tracked pages

Non-tracked pages can result from two different issues: either the server timed out, or the server denied access to the page.

3. Internal broken links

These are links that take you to pages inside your website that no longer exist, affecting both SEO and user experience.

4. External broken links

These are links that take you to a page on another website that no longer exists, sending a negative SEO signal.

5. Broken image links

These happen when an image file is no longer available or the URL is incorrect.

6. Redirects

These can damage your optimization efforts too, and they can be either temporary or permanent.

Meta Tags

Meta tags make search engines understand what your pages are about. The text from the meta tags is also displayed on search engine result pages (SERPs), so it's extremely important to optimize these tags. Title tags and meta descriptions should include your target keywords, and at the same time be clear and concise.

We also recommend making sure there are no duplicates: title tags and meta descriptions should be unique for each page.

If these tags are not available, search engines will automatically pull whatever text they deem to be relevant from your page. Those excerpts most likely will not make any sense since they are collected and displayed automatically.

The title tags and meta descriptions you create for each page should also be the correct size 70 characters for the title tag and between 150 to 160 characters for the meta description. In some websites, it is hard to create unique title tags and meta descriptions for each page, which makes it necessary to invest even more in other aspects of SEO through SEO tools. However, the more you can use unique metadata for each page, the better it will be for your website. The following are the most common SEO mistakes when it comes to meta tags.

7. Duplicate title tags and meta descriptions

When you have several similar title tags and meta descriptions, it makes it difficult for any of them to rank for the keywords you're targeting, especially long tail keywords (which help rank for targeted searches).

8. Missing H1 tags

If you don't use H1 tags in your content, Google and other search engines will have issues analyzing your content correctly, even if it's high quality content.

9. Missing meta descriptions

When your meta descriptions are well-written and to the point, users are more likely to land on your website. Their absence might lead to low rankings and therefore, low search traffic.

10. Missing alt attributes

Alt attributes show Google and visually impaired users what your images are about. Using them correctly increases relevancy and traffic for your quality content, including blog posts that rank for more specific search terms.

11. Duplicate H1 and title tags

If there are several pages on your website using the same H1 tags and title tags, it's likely that cannibalization might occur. This is a phenomenon in which pages of the same website compete against each other on the Google rankings, disrupting any search engine optimization performed and resulting in a negative user experience.

12. Several H1 tags

Using more than one H1 tag on the same page will harm your optimization rather than improve it. Each page on your website should have one H1 tag only. This H1 tag should include your key phrase or search terms.

Duplicate Content

All elements of a page should be unique. So, marketers should make sure there is no duplicate content on your website, whether it is duplicating another website's content or another page on your own website. Whichever is the case, any instance of duplication is detrimental to your SEO strategy.

Duplication can also occur in URLs if you have a www and a non-www version of the same page.

When every element in page content and tags is unique, your website has a better chance of ranking higher. It is also going to be more relevant for your users. If you find two pages with the same content, the best you can do is use “rel=canonical” or a 301 redirect.

Missing Link Optimization

Links are of the utmost importance for user experience on your website. This includes both internal links (links toward other pages in your website) and external links (links that take you to other websites).

To make sure your website's architecture is up to date, you need to check if you have no broken links, whether internal or external. Some other links might have a nofollow attribute, or use HTTP instead of HTTPS – all these factors affect your rankings and your SEO strategy.

These are the most common SEO mistakes in link optimization.

13. HTTP pages in HTTPS websites

You probably already know your website should use HTTPS. However, when you add your SSL certificate, you need to make sure that you redirect all the pages to their HTTPS version. Otherwise, you'll end up with orphaned pages that still use HTTP.

14. URLs that contain underscores

We highly recommend using dashes instead of underscores in your URLs. Underscores might be misinterpreted by search engines, creating errors in your website's crawling.

Other common mistakes regarding link optimization are:

• Broken external links
• Broken internal links
• External links with nofollow attribute

Tracking Errors

Tracking errors can block your website from being correctly indexed by Google. That's why you should always make sure you detect any tracking errors on your website when auditing. If you correct any tracking errors, that's a great step toward better rankings.

You can avoid technical SEO issues by checking broken or blocked elements during your SEO audit. The absence of a sitemap.xml file or robots.txt file can also affect your rankings.

These are the most common issues when it comes to tracking.

15. Nofollow attributes in internal links

Internal links that contain the nofollow attribute keep your “link juice” from flowing from page to page.

16. Incorrect pages on sitemap.xml

Your sitemap.xml file should not include broken pages. Check if all your pages return a 200 code and that there are no redirects or missing canonical attributes.

17. Sitemap.xml not found

Including a sitemap.xml file on your website makes it a lot easier for search engines to explore, track, and index your website's pages.

18. Sitemap.xml absent in the robots.txt file

If your robots.txt file does not have a link to your sitemap.xml, SERPs won't be able to understand your website's architecture.

Other common tracking errors include:

• Pages not tracked
• Broken internal images
• Broken internal links
• Underscores in URLs
• 4xx errors
• Resources hidden on page links
• External resources blocked on the robots.txt file
• Nofollow attributes in external links
• Pages with one internal link only
• Orphaned pages in the sitemap
• Tracking depth over three clicks
• Temporary redirects

Indexing Errors

If a page is not indexed, it cannot be found by Google. When Google doesn”t find a page, it is unlikely that users will. Even when it doesn't seem like your website has tracking issues, there might be indexing errors Duplicate content can cause indexing errors because search engines don't know which page to rank for a specific keyword. This is a quite common SEO mistake, so make sure there are no duplicate title tags or H1 tags in your content.

When there is duplicate content , it is up to the search engine to pick which page to rank, which will be detrimental for some of those pages competing against each other.

These are the most commonly found issues with indexing.

19. Title tags that are too short/too long

If your title tag has under 60 characters, you might be losing an optimization opportunity; on the other hand, if it is too long, it's going to be shortened by SERPs.

20. Hreflang conflicts on the page's source code

If there is a hreflang conflict, websites in several languages might end up having indexing issues.

21. Hreflang link errors

If you use relative links instead of absolute ones, there might be hreflang issues. Make sure your absolute links are used when you're implementing hreflang.

22. Low word count

If your pages have less than 500 words each, we recommend increasing the word count. Longer content usually makes pages rank higher on search result pages.

23. Missing hreflang and lang attributes

When your website uses multiple languages, it is essential to use hreflang and lang attributes correctly. When these are missing, your SEO audit will show the above error, meaning there is no way to show each region the correct language.

24. HTML errors in AMP pages

When your HTML code does not follow AMP patterns, it will affect your website's performance on mobile devices.

These are other common indexing errors:

• Duplicate content
• Duplicate meta descriptions
• Hreflang language compatibility errors

Errors in the mobile version

In September 2020, mobile optimization will be one of the standard ranking criteria for all websites. Therefore, it is necessary to update your website according to AMP (accelerated mobile pages) standards, making sure it is mobile friendly.

AMP implies a few changes to your HTML, such as style, layout, or page templates. As of 2020, any mistakes in your HTML for AMP can affect your ranking.

Low website performance

When we talk about website performance, we mean first and foremost page speed. If you didn't read our page speed guide , we recommend checking it out. Page speed affects not only your users, in the sense that users will leave your page if it takes too long to load, but also affects the way Google perceives your page, making you rank higher or lower.

The following are the most common issues with website performance.

25. HTTP and HTTPS pages mixed up

It is common, as we mentioned previously, to have HTTP and HTTPS pages mixed up. You need to find a common standard for all of your pages, preferably in HTTPS. If you set up an SSL certificate, you need to change all your pages to HTTPS.

26. Javascript and CSS not cached

If the browser cache is not active, your website might take longer to load.

27. Javascript and CSS files not compressed

Compressing these files will help your page load faster. The easiest way to do this is by removing lines, comments, and blank spaces from your code.

How to check for SEO mistakes using SERPed

If you use SERPed.net, it's easy to perform an SEO Audit:

You just need to pick the Site Manager tool and then click on SEO Audit for an easy way to do an audit that will give you all the information that you require.

Wrapping Up

In this article, we tried to list the most common SEO mistakes you should be aware of. Of course, there were a few we didn't cover as thoroughly, mainly because you can find them in other articles in this blog.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask away in the comment section or you can find us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

The post The 27 Biggest SEO Mistakes in 2020 ❌ appeared first on Serped.com.

You might be thinking “I'm not overlooking anything on my SEO strategy!”.

There are a few SEO factors that a lot of people overlook when optimizing their websites.

These oversights arise from ignoring a few factors. We'll be going through these factors in this article.

For comprehensive SEO work, you need to pay attention to on-page factors as well. Check out our article about it here. You can complete your SEO plan using both articles as a guide.

Now, let's dig through these widely-underrated SEO factors that can make a difference in your strategy.

1. Image Optimization

There are several things you should know about how to optimize images. First of all, do you always fill out your alt-img tags? You don't even need to get Yoast or any other SEO plugin to do this.

This should be done from the beginning – all the images on your website should be optimized according to what they represent and using your target keywords.

That does not mean you should write a full-blown description for your images full of keywords. Alt-img tags are short.

It all starts with picking the right images for your website. Use infographics and charts when relevant, and choose images that are closely related to your page subject.

This makes it easier to have alt-img tags which are both informative for search engine crawlers (they can't read images without these tags) and that use the keywords that you are targeting on each page.

Another factor we're going to include in this item is your image size. By size, we don't mean to use images that occupy less space on screens when browsing. We mean download size.

Consider this size as a kind of “weight”. If your images are “heavy” in that sense, that means they'll take longer to download on any browser your prospects and customers use.

You know where we're going with this. Websites that take too long to load are a pain for both bots and users.

On the one hand, bots will check your loading speed and take your ranking down if your website takes too long to load. Google first announced that website speed was one of their ranking factors ten years ago. It still is applicable now.

Other than that, if your visitors get to your website and leave without browsing around because it takes ages to load all elements, your bounce rate will skyrocket.

Bounce rate is not supposed to affect your SEO, but if you're optimizing to get more visitors, you want them to stay on your website. You don't want users just to get to you, you need to convince them you're what they're looking for.

You can't do that with a slow website. We advise using tools like Smush (which is a paid service, although totally worth it) to compress all images on your website, making it load faster.

2. Outbound Links

It is common to use outbound links as part of our SEO strategy. We're using those in this article.

On one hand, linking towards authority websites in your field is encouraged by SEO experts as it shows you have the sources to prove your claims, which is good for users.

It is also good for crawlers because each website's reputation precedes it. If you link to spammy websites, your website will be considered spammy. If you link to authority websites that are related to your subject, you get a small reputation boost in Google's eyes.

The thing about these links is that you have no control over what other webmasters decide to do with their websites.

Outbound links can damage your SEO strategy if you're not careful. This can happen if someone deletes the page you linked to, or changes its URL.

That will make you lose that link, and at the same time make your website seem careless and lazy for pointing towards a dead-end.

What should you do to avoid this then? Check your website for broken links constantly.

You can check for broken outbound links using this WordPress plugin.

3. Static and Keyword-Based URLs

If you use dynamic URLs on your website, maybe you should consider switching to static URLs.

But first, let's start by explaining what a dynamic URL is. This kind of URL is composed of what seems to be a random code, like this:

http://www.exampledynamicsite.com/forums/thread.php?threadid=12345&sort=date

Static URLs, on the other hand, are composed of words and dashes (if you check this article's URL, it is static).

Even though Google says dynamic URLs can be crawled easily, static URLs have quite a few advantages when it comes to user experience:

• They have a higher CTR (click-through rate) than dynamic URLs
• They are more easily trusted by users
• They're easier to remember
• They allow you to use your keywords.

Even though it's not certain whether keyword-based URLs are better for SEO, it does not hurt to have your keywords in your URLs.

If you have dynamic URLs in most of your website pages, this doesn't mean you have to change them all to static URLs. In fact, to change them all is not recommended because it's difficult to be sure that the new URLs are going to work.

Nonetheless, if you're going to create new blog posts, use static URLs. That's easy on WordPress, and it should be easy on any CMS. If for no other reason, they're easier for users – and what's easy for users is good for SEO.

4. Custom 404 Pages

No matter how well you maintain your website, 404 errors happen on every website. So rather than trying to fix this, you might as well accept it.

Accepting it means that you'll have to come up with a custom 404 page for your website. This will help your users know that they're on the right website, they just need to navigate a bit more to find what they need.

If you don't use a custom 404 page, people will most likely think your website is gone for good and move on to the next website on their search results.

Eventually, since everyone leaves your website to click on the next result, you'll lose your ranking for that keyword.

This is not difficult to avoid. Just get your 404 page designed and make it easy to navigate from it to your most important pages.

5. Content Length

When optimizing your website, remember to aim for longer content. It is widely known now that longer content tends to rank better on search results.

It's not just that longer content ranks well, but you have more chances of users staying on your page if you are thorough in your subject. Pages with less than 300 words aren't good for SEO.

Of course, you might have a website that is only supposed to showcase your products. Well, first of all, we advise using one page for each product (more on that later).

Then, on each of those product pages, write detailed descriptions about each of your products, using thorough keyword research for each description. Each product should have its own keyword (or keywords, but one is enough to optimize product pages if you have a lot of products).

This leads us to our next point…

6. Unique Content

If you have a small business, or you designed a marketing strategy for a small business' website, it's likely that you have one page for all products. Well, the expression “divide and conquer” is meaningful in this context.

Each product should have its own page with enough content on it (we mentioned it in #5). This makes it easy for crawlers to find your products.

Make sure you divide your products by categories and make it easy to navigate through all your products. If it takes eternal scrolling to find a specific product, it's unlikely anyone will go through that effort.

Instead, have pages for each product category, from which you have links to each product page. Have a page in which you list all categories with links for those as well.

This will do your website another favor: great internal linking. Internal links help crawlers understand your website's structure by allowing them to navigate between pages easily.

7. Consistent Updating

Our last tip will be about the frequency in which you update your website. This is one of the reasons why almost every website should have a blog – a blog offers you a chance to be constantly updating without having to change anything in your website structure or main pages.

You probably already know that Google privileges websites that are frequently updated. What you might not know is that it's not only about posting often, it's about posting in a consistent manner.

If you go months without posting and then post three articles at once, you have an erratic update frequency. That reflects on your rankings.

Make an effort to have new posts every week, or every two weeks. It depends on the resources you have for blogging as well, of course, but keep it consistent.

Even if you only post once a month, on the same day every month, you'll have a consistent update schedule. It is better to be consistent than trying to post too often and failing.

Now, we strongly advise you to implement Google Search Console on your website. If you don't post often, spiders will crawl your website less often because you're not giving them a reason to do it every day.

It's just resource management. If you post several times a day, spiders will go through your website every day because there's new content. If you post once a month, crawling will be reduced.

We advise you to get Search Console because it has a useful tool that will help you in this case. If you can't post often to ensure freshness of content, there's a way to make sure your new URLs get crawled.

If you have only one new URL, all you have to do is paste it on the URL Inspection bar on Search Console and it will be crawled as soon as possible. This action signals for Google to crawl your new URL and index it.

If you have several new URLs to index at once, you should submit a new sitemap. All you have to do is update it on your website, then simply go to Sitemaps on Google Search Console and paste the link for your sitemap. All your new pages will be indexed in a few hours or days.

Last Considerations

SEO is not easy. It is a long term job that never ends. However, we know it's easy to get caught up in things like keyword research, optimizing title tags and meta description tags, getting backlinks…

We are aware we're adding to your workload by telling you there's more to pay attention to. However, by making you spend more time on these tasks, we'll be saving you worries and hassles further down the line.

Better SEO practices lead to profit in the long run. A few of the practices we talk about here have to do with user experience. Well, the thing is, SEO is nothing if you don't consider user experience.

If you're not sure, SERPed can help you figure out what's wrong through our SEO Analysis tool. With over 40 tools in SERPed's suite, you'll find all you need to jumpstart your content and technical SEO.

As always, remember: what is good for users, is good for machines. Usually.

The post 7 Most Overlooked SEO Factors 🙈 appeared first on Serped.com.