Much of your business’s SEO strategy will revolve around improving the different elements of your website. Making sure that the little things are in check is more important than you think! Part of your SEO strategy should revolve around taking preventative measures as well. Google will be your lifeline to getting new business, which means that taking a penalty from them is something that you want to avoid at all costs. Significant Google penalties are extremely difficult to recover from, so what are the biggest ones to avoid? We break it down for you below!
Duplicate Content
Duplicate content is one of the most serious penalties that Google can dish out. There’s a good reason behind it; plagiarism is increasingly frowned upon today. Most businesses wouldn’t go out of their way to steal someone else’s content, but the chances of it happening by accident (or them duplicating their own content) are still there. There are several free programs online that allow you to check for plagiarism before you upload content to help avoid this. You should also be making sure that every topic has some level of uniqueness to it.
Broken Links
While a website’s user experience isn’t a direct ranking factor to Google’s algorithms, this experience could cost you dearly if your website isn’t properly optimized. If you have a broken link on your website, clicking it will result in a 404 error and negate the user experience. Thankfully, this penalty is an easy one to fix. Simply set up a 301 redirect on the broken link and you won’t be penalized. You can use online programs like Screaming Frog and Ahrefs to do a full scan of your website to check for broken hyperlinks. This is something you should be doing periodically.
Mobile Accessibility
Your website may look great when browsing it from a desktop, but can you say the same thing when browsing it on your phone? This is an accessibility issue that could not only get your website penalized, but also land you in hot water with the ADA! Make sure that mobile users can read the text carefully, see every image in full, and be able to use the different widgets. Google Search Console can help you check for accessibility errors and snuff them out before they become big problems.
SEO With Boston Web Marketing
Boston Web Marketing understands better than anyone the severity of Google penalties. As part of our SEO strategy, we’ll work with you to snuff out any problems with your website that could lead to one. We’ll then optimize your website to take you to the top of the rankings. For better business and less stress over Google penalties, click here to contact us directly!