Attention SEOs! Understand Which Risks to Take and Which to Avoid in SEO
Businesses and professionals may not fully know the potential and value a “Successful SEO campaign” brings to their business marketing, which is understandable.
A significant amount of misinformation about SEO practices circulates on the internet, often deceiving readers and leading to confusion when making informed decisions.
An effective SEO strategy will not only yield long-term results for businesses but also enhance the company’s digital presence. However, the tactical decisions and strategic solutions will only be known to a true SEO expert who has demonstrated and achieved extraordinary results in their work experience by taking calculated risks.
Many companies and their SEO experts may be hesitant to adopt a strategy that is either new to the world of SEO or lack the courage to try something different.
It is never an appreciated move. It doesn’t involve any risk that either results in success or leads to new opportunities that could be left undiscovered.
Some risks can be avoided, but others must be accepted, which leads to sudden and profound growth. Let’s delve into questions as we try to find the answers to the Greatest SEO risks a business can make or which risks can be avoided altogether.
The Risks to Take in SEO
1. Test some strategic (significant) and some Tactical (small) changes
You may be putting in all the effort to make your website engaging, but you’re not seeing any results in website clicks. There could be several reasons that can divert the click-through rate on your website.
The earliest thing you need to do is the A/B testing. In this, you will consider one element at a time that needs improvement. Analyze whether the titles of the content, meta descriptions and the content itself need some variation to be tested.
You must be thinking this is just a minor change that can be taken, but where is the risk factor in this? Without trying out anything new while implementing changes, you may overlook the optimal combination of words and their layout.
You can also get an idea of what new combinations can bring more traffic to the website, either in the short or the long run. You must keep a record of what was changed, when, and the time it was re-crawled by Google’s search engines.
Additionally, you should utilize a reliable keyword rank checker to ensure that your SEO efforts are not going astray.
2. Risks while making Well-established Backlinks and enhancing the URL structure of Your Website
You may be wondering why you're adding Backlinks to other websites on your page, which can divert your existing traffic. Well, here you are, not taking the risk you need to take. One of the most essential elements of a successful SEO campaign is Backlinks.
Companies use each other’s links to add to their website to build up credibility. And yes, if you are thinking that you are helping the sites with their Backlinks, then it is true. Sometimes, you need to give back, too.
However, providing some credible websites on your page that enhance your users’ experience shows Google that you are using reliable referencing sites with reputable authorities.
Just make sure you keep your campaign clean from malicious and spammy websites, as adding too many unreliable links to your site can lead to penalties from Google.
Another common mistake companies make with SEO is in their URLs. An ideal URL should be concise, straightforward, and easy to recall. Pages with longer URLs are less likely to be clicked, as they may diminish a website's perceived value.
The URL should also include the targeted keywords. The disadvantage of a longer URL is that Google will trim its display with […] after the point where it gets cut off. The primary risk here is the type of changes to the URL that can affect your rankings.
If done correctly, you can achieve results in a streamlined structure that will attract both search engines and a higher volume of users to your site.
3. The Risk of Buying Expired or Available Domains
Many websites are available for sale. Either they have expired and need to update their payments, or the owners fail to renew their domains or lack interest in keeping the site up to date.
Buying these domain names is a worthy investment. It can also redirect them to your existing website with the help of Backlinks. However, there are some severe risk factors attached to it.
One of the key considerations is that the domain name should be related to your business and have a credible history, which means it needs to be legitimate.
There is nothing more exasperating than when users arrive at a site that is not related to the content they initially searched for.
SEO RISKS TO STAY AWAY FROM
1. Use of Plagiarized Content
Plagiarized content is one of the most serious SEO risks you should stay miles away from. Not only does it damage your brand’s credibility, but it also puts your website at high risk of being penalized or even deindexed by Google.
While it may seem convenient to copy and paste existing content to quickly fill up a webpage or blog post, the consequences can be far-reaching. Google’s algorithms are highly efficient at detecting duplicate content and once flagged, your website could suffer a significant drop in rankings.
To safeguard your content and SEO efforts, consistently strive to create original, high-quality material that adds value to your audience. If you’re not sure whether your content is truly unique, it’s wise to ensure its uniqueness with the help of an online plagiarism checker.
This simple step ensures your site maintains its integrity, earns the trust of both users and search engines, and avoids costly SEO penalties.
2. Reject Neutral Backlinks As Well
You should now have a clear understanding of the importance of backlinks in an SEO campaign. You want the good ones and eliminate the bad ones. However, you should also keep your campaign clean from neutral ones; they don’t hurt, and they don’t help either.
Technically, neutral backlinks do not necessarily provide the SEO boost they require, but they also won’t be subject to harsh penalties by Google. Therefore, it is always recommended to earn only high-quality backlinks. Several methods for determining if you have acquired a poor or spammy backlink on your site are outlined below.
- Manual Notice Issued by Google.
- Utilizing a free Spam Score Checker.
- Using Ahrefs, Semrush, or other Premium tools.
3. Take the Risk of Deleting Content OR Even Entire Pages
It may not be a big deal to delete some content or even an entire package that you have posted on your site, particularly when you are discontinuing a product or service.
However, you should be fully aware that once the content is removed from the website, the keywords it consisted of, which were ranked before, will also be gone.
Instead of risking losing content and thus a drop in ranking, ensure you update it with fresh information about a newly launched product or service that replaces the discontinued one.
Place a message on the page and link it to a call to action so that users are redirected to a relevant page with a similar product or service.
4. Creating an All-New SEO Campaign by Making Too Many Small Changes
It is always good to keep your SEO practices current and relevant to the industry sector in which your business operates. In fact, Google appreciates occasional changes and updated content. However, constant changes in aesthetics and content cannot go unnoticed by site visitors and Google.
Google will likely flag such changes as suspicious, and your website may incur a penalty as a result. Over time, visitors to your site will notice the alterations and may feel uncomfortable due to the constant changes made to your website.
It also disrupts your website's architecture, making the content difficult to navigate. Therefore, in conclusion, balance the risks and rewards accordingly when executing a smarter SEO campaign.
Some of the risks will take the venture to the next level, while others will harm and hinder a business’s digital marketing strategy.
You Can Also Read About How to Grow Your Small Business through SEO.
