Note: if your blog is not in the first 10 pages of search results, you are done for and if you want your blog to appear at the top of page one, it requires not just hard work but wisdom and patience in your part.
In this guide, we’ll primarily focus on Google and its current search algorithm, although most of the tips can be applied to getting better rankings on other search engines too, such as Bing and Yahoo etc.
Today I will explain how you can easily repair (correct) past SEO mistakes which were done by you or a self-acclaimed SEO-expert:
Page Contents
- 1 Best SEO Tips and Techniques to Audit Blog Site: Updated
- 1.1 1. Clean up Spam backlinks
- 1.2 2. Fix broken links
- 1.3 3. Eliminate duplication
- 1.4 4. Set canonical pages
- 1.5 What is the duty of a canonical tag?
- 1.6 Why do canonical tags matter?
- 1.7 How do I apply a canonical tag?
- 1.8 What pages should I put the canonical tag on?
- 1.9 5. Check for flimsy content
- 1.10 6. Use alt tags to help SEO
- 1.11 7. Don’t use alt tags to stuff
- 1.12 8. Bigger isn’t always better
- 1.13 9. Keep images relevant and unique
- 1.14 10. Give images accurate filenames
- 1.15 Conclusion:
- 2 Sharing is Loving!
Best SEO Tips and Techniques to Audit Blog Site: Updated
1. Clean up Spam backlinks
Links are generally a good thing for SEO. However, your search engine ranking depends on these links to your site being relevant.
Having a lot of links to your site from less reputable sites can end up hurting your ranking. Ask site owners to remove the links or, if that isn’t working, use the Google Disavow Tool.
2. Fix broken links
A search engine can only index what its spiders can crawl. Broken links within your site will stop a search engine in its tracks and lower your ranking. Make sure every link on your page works and points to the right place.
3. Eliminate duplication
Duplicate content is a big problem for your SERP ranking. Search engines want to provide users with unique, relevant content; if your copy is repeated exactly on every page, you are going to have problems.
Make sure each page is unique, and that you have content that is unique to your site.
4. Set canonical pages
If you have some unavoidable duplication within your sites, such as old versions still lingering on your server or different sub-domains with similar landing pages, set the canonical page.
This highlights one of the URLs as the ‘master’ version of that content for search engines. Use canonical tags to combat those kinds of pages.
Read also: 6 Simple Steps To Easily Drop Alexa Traffic Rank Faster
What is the duty of a canonical tag?
A canonical tag specifies the source URL (or the main content page) of a given page to a search engine such as Google. Canonical tags are used to declare a single page as its own source or for duplicate pages to reference their source / originating page.
Search Engines use the canonical tag to combat duplicate content issues and assign search engine ranking value for that content to the page designated as the “source” URL.
Duplicate content is a big no-no to search engines. Having pages of identical or very similar content on your website is seen as an adverse and may be used by Google to knock-off your website when determining rankings.
If you use “https” on your site, utilize a content management system like WordPress or Drupal, or run an e-commerce website, the combination of different URLs people can use to access your website opens you up to a major SEO vulnerability if not properly addressed.
By properly employing canonical tags to pages on your site, you can avoid this pitfall and take full advantage of both a robust site and streamlined Search Engine Optimization practices.
How do I apply a canonical tag?
On the pages that you want Google to recognize as canonical, add a link tag to the head of the HTML code. For instance, to label www.Abtechblog.com with the canonical tag, the HTML code would look like:
<a href=’https://abtechblog.com’ rel=”canonical”>link text</a>
Rinse and repeat for every page on your site you want to make canonical. Again, the use of a Content Management System such as WordPress can streamline this effort.
What pages should I put the canonical tag on?
As many as appropriate. Visits from social media, internal site search, referral links, and other inbound references all have the potential to generate a unique URL that could have a negative impact on your website’s rankings.
Additionally, many content management systems allow for multiple URL paths to access the same content. All of these paths can be crawled, and Google potentially could identify them as separate pages of duplicate content.
If you aren’t sure if issues with duplicate content are affecting your SEO, we can perform a full SEO Audit of your website to identify issues that impact how your site is crawled and where it ranks.
Once you know what the issues are, you can get started on fixing them. If you want us to run this Audit for your blog or website, Contact us and we can get started right away!
5. Check for flimsy content
Simply having a page full of keywords is not enough to get a good search engine ranking. If your site has been over-optimized stuffed with keywords, or filled with useless content, this will damage your ranking.
Make sure your content is written for humans first and search engines a distant second. Make your images worth a thousand words.
The alt tags are a part of your website’s code that can help users who aren’t able to view the images on your website, and they can also help a search engine gather details about the images you use. They should describe the images only, though.
The misuse of alt tags is something that search engines have cracked down on. Don’t be tempted to use the alt tags to stuff a text-free page with keywords and other content. If the content doesn’t describe the image, leave it out.
8. Bigger isn’t always better
Your camera might take images at a ridiculously high resolution, but when it comes to your website, downsize them. A resolution of 72 pixels per inch will give you an on-screen display that is almost identical to a much higher resolution but with much smaller file size. This means a faster loading time.
9. Keep images relevant and unique
Stock photos can be good in a pinch, but unique photos are always better. When a unique image loads quickly on a page, you’ll get a lower click back rate, helping your overall SERP ranking.
10. Give images accurate filenames
In the past, most website users wouldn’t ever see the image file name or know how to see it. Along with avoiding the embarrassment that might come from a badly named image file saved from your site by a savvy user, giving a relevant filename to your site’s images can help boost your SEO.
Read also: 8 Incredible Tips to Start a Successful Lasting Online Business
Conclusion:
Adhering to the above tips will help you Audit your site to suit with the latest Google algorithm. Do you have any other tip? you can share with us using the comment box below.
How did this article help you? You can contact us or reach me via different social media handle which you can find in my About page below. Don’t forget to share your experiences with us!
21 thoughts on “Best SEO Techniques and Tips on How to Repair Past SEO Mistakes”
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Some really great stuff! I really need to be doing this on a weekly basis, using this post as a check list to get my blog running better than ever!
Wow, I’m glad to have you here Sian. I’m glad you had value too.
Wow, this is one of the most in depth articles I’ve seen on SEO. Thank you for sharing! I’m going to book mark this because I’ve yet to master the art of SEO.
I’m glad you had value. Thanks for visiting
Lots of great tips here. I had canonicals messed up on a site once and my SEO rankings tanked. So important with that one. Fortunately using WordPress and Yoast’s plugin fixes that.
yea Carleen, Yoast SEO plugin is my favourite and don’t forget to upgrade to their latest version.
Wow there is so much to know… some of this sounds really technical. Is there any SEO consultants that can review and optimize? If so, what is a competitive/reasonable rate?
helo Emily,
I’m glad that you find this to be helpful. There are a lot of SEO firms, but to be sincere most of them can turn things worse for you.
I can remember that one of my client complained to me that Google totally flagged his site after hiring an SEO firm, simply because the self-acclaimed SEO expert created huge number of backlinks in a day which is against google algorithm, which I corrected for him.
SEO, backlinks, social media bookmarking, wiki links, and similar gigs, some of them are not only useless, but they may do harm your website, they are very risky, and as a general role : Spending $5 on a SEO work and hundreds of backlinks and expecting great results is a waste of your money and time.
We can give you a perfect web Audit.
To know more about Our Services, you can use the Contact page to reach us.
this is a really informative post. i appreciate learning more about how to improve my skills and my blog. thank you!
Thank you for sharing this. It is so helpful for me who is still learning as a blogger.
Improving my SEO is a constant battle. This has given me a better road map for some things I can do to better my search results.
Lot of great tips here. Very informative. This is so helpful for a new bloggers to improve there skills.
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If we entrust an seo company can we really get traffic ?
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I have read this full article.Hope this tips would work for me as well as my business.