8 of the worst SEO mistakes even the experts make

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Countless websites and online businesses rely on organic search traffic to generate sales. Unlike pay-per-click (PPC) traffic, there's no way to purchase organic traffic. Rather, you must demonstrate your website's authority and relevancy for a given keyword to the search engines. When performing search engine optimization (SEO), however, you can improve your website conversion by avoiding the following eight mistakes.

1) Duplicate Content

Google won't penalize your site for having the same content published on multiple pages. According to Moz, however, it can still affect a website's search rankings. This is because search engines like Google and Bing typically index the first page on which a particular piece of new content is published. If you publish the same content on multiple pages, search engines will only index the original page.

2) Overlooking Site Speed

Some SEO experts overlook site speed as a ranking signal, believing it doesn't affect their site's search rankings. All the leading search engines currently use site speed a ranking signal, and failure to provide visitors with fast load times could hurt your site's rankings. The SEO services experts also recommend webmasters track the number of pages they have indexed in the search results and the keywords for which those pages rank.

3) Publishing Low-Quality Content

Perhaps the single worst mistake that SEO experts make when optimizing their site is publishing low-quality content. They assume that more content is better, so they churn out dozens or hundreds of pages filled with subpar content. According to We Blog Better, webmasters should publish engaging content that's relevant to their audience. You can further improve the quality of your site's content by using eye-catching headlines.

4) Building Link Farms

Backlinks can help or hurt your site's visibility in the search results. Since 2012, Google has targeted websites that engage in link farms by lowering their search rankings. Known as the Penguin update, it's forced webmasters to take a more natural approach to building backlinks. If you want to achieve a top search ranking, you should avoid link farms or other unnatural link schemes.

5) Paying for Links

Google's Penguin update also began targeting websites that pay for backlinks. Because this is a form of rankings manipulation, it can hurt your rankings. To prevent this from happening, never pay for links.

6) Not Using Google Search Console

Google Search Console (GSC) is an invaluable tool for SEO. Unfortunately, many webmasters and SEO experts overlook it, choosing to use third-party tools instead. But there's no substitution for GSC as it offers invaluable data into your site's visibility on Google Search.

7) Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing is a black-hat SEO strategy that involves adding the keywords for which you want to rank into the web page's content. Like many black-hat strategies, however, it's become obsolete and is no longer effective at boosting a site's search rankings.

8) Not Using a Mobile-Friendly Design

Finally, make sure your website can be accessed on mobile devices. According to Statista, 52.64 percent of all internet users get online with a mobile device. If your site uses an outdated design, these users may struggle to access or use it. A simple solution is a responsive design, which changes automatically to create a universal layout.

Don't let your website's search rankings suffer because of these mistakes. Create a proper SEO strategy that focuses on high-quality content, a positive user experience and natural backlinks.