Students learning SEO and working on their first SEO project

Common Mistakes Students Make In Their First SEO Project

Starting your first SEO project? Usually you select keywords, write articles, submit site map, and wait for Google to index your site. And then days turn into weeks. Nothing happens. Sounds familiar, right? This is the point when most fresher students get confused. But the reason is not that you put no effort in your SEO activities, but rather several simple mistakes that can ruin an entire SEO project. When it comes to their very first SEO projects, students usually try to see SEO in terms of checking boxes. They pay much attention to search volume and keywords, completely ignoring important SEO concepts as search intent, quality content, website structure and needs of your target audience. Sometimes they even try to make sentences keyword-rich, thinking that more frequent use of keywords will improve their rankings.

And, of course, there are technical mistakes. Slow page speed, broken links, poor internal linking, and indexing issues can quietly spoil everything you have done in terms of creating high-quality content. So what is good about it? You can easily avoid all of these mistakes! This blog is your guide to SEO mistakes, ways of avoiding them and creating your very first SEO project properly.

Jumping to Keywords Without Understanding Audience

A lot of people just open a keyword research tool and pick out keywords that have high search volumes. However, the keyword will only be effective if it corresponds to what a person is actually searching for, and the reason behind it. Prior to using the tool, one needs to spend some time figuring out who their target audience is and what is bothering them.

Ignoring Technical SEO

Students might be interested in just creating content because it appears to be an exciting task. But a website that is poorly optimized in terms of load speed, broken links, and the lack of metatags will fail regardless of the quality of content provided. This is the most unpopular task among the students, as they consider it too complicated and technical. Try to learn the basic principles of site speed and URL optimization from the very beginning.

Writing Focused on Ranking, Not People

This is definitely one of the most frequent mistakes. When a student hears the word “optimization,” they think they should try to put the keyword into everything possible. This leads to the text looking artificial, repetitive and even robotic. Now, the search engines have become clever enough to recognize such tricks, and so do your potential readers who just leave the site. Write as you would talk to your friend and just mention the keyword naturally.

Expecting Instant Results

SEO is not a pay-per-click system. You will not achieve quick results, and this annoys many beginners who become either depressed or desperate and leave the project within just two weeks. It takes several months of constant work to get tangible results in increasing your traffic organically. Monitor your achievements on a weekly basis, but assess your success over a longer period.

Copying Competitors Instead of Referring

Analyzing the things that rank well for similar content is a good practice. Copying the structure word by word is definitely not the way to go. Search engines will notice duplication in the pattern. Plus, your audience deserves some original content instead of a rewritten version of content that they have seen somewhere else.

Forgetting Data Analytics

It is amazing how many people start their projects without even setting up any analytical tool. If there is no data, then you are just making guesses instead of learning. Start tracking from the very beginning, even if it’s just a simple project. Watching how people interact with your page will teach you a lot.

Working in Isolation

You can't become an SEO expert only by studying how to do things at midnight, after reading articles on it. It is incredibly helpful if people are there to check up your work, show you where your mistakes are, and tell you what actually works in practice. It is the reason why mentoring plays such a critical role in learning SEO. If you are looking for a digital marketing course in Kozhikode with a lot of practical assignments, here is exactly what we offer you at Growth Academy. Our students work on actual SEO projects mentored by our experts, which means that those mistakes will be caught immediately and won't bother you for a couple of months.

Choosing the best digital marketing institute in Kozhikode doesn't mean choosing based only on the curriculum. You need to make sure that by the end of the course you will be able to conduct an SEO campaign independently. Mistakes are a part of your development process – and it is ok. What really counts is to have a proper mentoring system to help you correct them immediately. Each and every expert was once a newbie struggling with a confusing dashboard. Be patient with yourself, trust the process and go on, you will achieve your goals down the road.

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