6 Common Mistakes to Avoid While Doing SEO

Many webmasters worship Google Analytics, completely forgetting about the tools for webmasters from Google. Webmaster Tools has at least 5 useful functions that are more effective or simply not available in Google Analytics.

Google Webmaster Tools – a real goldmine for the optimizer and marketer, because the service not only allows you to look at the site through the eyes of the search engine but also get detailed information for the SEO Company. Have you already acquired a Google Webmaster Tools account and verified ownership of the site? It’s time to go to the in-depth analysis of the site.

Mistakes to Avoid While Doing SEO

1. Searches

Do not confuse a search query with a keyword. A search query is an exact word or phrase that the user enters when searching on a Google site or on one of the web resources of the search network. A keyword is a word or phrase that an Adwords advertiser adds to an ad group for targeting potential customers. The Search Queries report displays important information such as the current and average keyword ratings, organic traffic, and CTR.

The list of search queries is not necessarily identical to your keyword list. Select the most successful queries from the list of search queries and add them to the list of keywords.

2. Keywords

You have made a semantic core, selected the keywords and have already implemented them on the site. At the bottom of the Search Queries report, you’ll see all the keywords that Google sees on your pages. To see which pages a particular request belongs to, just click on it. On the page that opens, you’ll see all the pages to which the request relates, as well as the number of impressions, clicks, and click-through rates.

3. Popular pages

In the Search Queries report to the right of Popular Queries, go to the Popular Pages tab. In Google Analytics, you can also monitor traffic to pages, but the webmaster tool in this regard is much more detailed. Along with the popularity of individual pages, you will learn:

What content is best ranked;

CTR for each page or content;

The report is especially useful when introducing new formats and promotion strategies. For example, did you upload a video presentation to the homepage to increase conversions? Self-testing will help to choose the right path of development and avoid potential mistakes.

4. Statistics for the author

In this section, there is only one subsection – “Statistics for the author”. It allows you to find out what resources are referring to you. If one author is assigned to the site or you are maintaining an official blog, this statistics will prove useful for three reasons.

First, you can find potential partners, referrals or customers. Secondly, you will find out which articles are most in demand. Thirdly, you have every right to go to the user citing you and ask you to place an external link to your site in addition to the name.

5. Download speed

At the very bottom of the Webmaster Tools list, go to the Other Resources tab, and then click Page Speed Insights. The speed of downloading the site is one of the important factors of site ranking, especially when it comes to mobile platforms. Enter the URL of the web page and click “Analyze”. In a couple of seconds, you will be available a detailed report on the problems, as well as possible ways to solve them. The report is divided into two parts according to the platforms used by users: for mobile and computers.

All errors, in turn, are divided into critical ones, which must be corrected necessarily, and secondary, which it is desirable to fix, if possible. In addition, the webmaster offers a beta-analysis of usability for mobile versions of the site.

6. Onpage SEO

Mostly onpage seo ignored by webmasters, but in fact your ranking website at top position is almost impossible without onpage seo. Check website SEO before working on off-page seo techniques.