SEO is an ongoing process and the best way to drive traffic to your website – but many business owners fail to see the SEO results they hope for.
Without a sound SEO strategy, it’s easy to fall prey to some common SEO mistakes. If your goal is to be at the top of search rankings, you want to implement SEO methods that work and avoid the ones that don’t.
Here are 8 common SEO mistakes you want to avoid.
1. Operating Without Clear SEO Goals
Most business owners know the benefits of SEO, but they often go into it blindly, without understanding what they need or what they should do.
For your SEO efforts to pay off, you need a plan. You have to understand what you need and what you hope to achieve.
Are you looking for more organic leads, better quality traffic, or more conversions? Do you want to rank higher in search results? Think about where you are and where you want to be.
This can help you identify your priorities. Then, you can develop a plan and implement the right strategies to help you achieve your SEO goals.
2. Not Understanding Your Audience
A major intent for SEO is to allow the user to connect their search query to the most accurate, relevant information. Google favors websites that meet the user’s intent.
When embarking on an SEO campaign, too many businesses fail to recognize or understand their key audience. You want your SEO efforts to target the right audience.
You must center your content around their needs. Although you may know your products, it’s just as important to know how a user will search for them.
Knowing your audience is key for driving the right traffic to your website and converting those visitors into customers.
3. Leaving Out a Call to Action
When visitors land on your website, you want them to take some type of action. This may involve signing up for a newsletter, browsing through your blog, leaving their contact information, or making a purchase.
You don’t want them taking a quick look before leaving your website. This offers no benefit to your business.
It may seem obvious, but many businesses fail to add any sort of call to action to their website. And it’s a huge mistake.
Make sure you have ways for customers to interact with your website. Be sure to have calls to action such as:
- Read more
- Subscribe
- Buy it now
- Contact us
A call to action offers you the opportunity to connect with your visitors and establish a relationship. It’s a critical part of an effective SEO strategy you don’t want to miss.
4. Forgetting That Speed Matters
If a visitor doesn’t have a good experience with your website, they won’t stick around. In fact, if your site loads slowly, they may not ever see it.
Today’s consumers want things fast. They don’t wait. If your website is slow and clunky, it will seem unprofessional and outdated to savvy consumers.
Google wants to provide a great user experience and favors faster sites over slower ones. One way you can speed up your website is by optimizing your images.
Get rid of large images and high resolutions. Opt for smaller images that speed up load time. If you’re using WordPress, you can resize your images by installing a plugin.
Enabling browser caching and gzip compression can also help speed up your website. Above all, make sure you have a reputable web host. If you’re dealing with a slow server, your efforts won’t make a difference.
5. Neglecting to Include Quality Content
A big mistake business owners make is overlooking the value of high-quality content. Publishing subpar or plagiarized content is a bad idea and can lead to penalization.
Poor content will affect your search rankings and will turn off your visitors. They won’t take the time to read anything that’s not of value to them personally.
To avoid these issues, make sure all the content on your website is unique. You don’t want to duplicate any existing content.
You want clear, easy-to-read content on every page. Google favors pages that flow and content that’s easy for visitors to read.
6. Prioritizing Quantity of Links Over Quality
You may have heard that backlinks are the key to SEO success. But that’s not necessarily the case.
Remember that the quality of your backlinks is far more important than the quantity. It’s easy and cheap to buy backlinks. But beware.
If the links are poor in quality, it can hurt your SEO strategy. This is especially true if you become linked to penalized websites.
Take the time to develop a smart link strategy. Remember it’s the quality of your links, not the quantity, that matters most.
7. Failing to See the Value of Mobile
Mobile-friendliness is now one of the key ranking factors for Google’s algorithm. This means you need to optimize your website for mobile users.
Smartphones are everywhere, and people of every age use them for a variety of reasons. Many people conduct all their searches, research, and shopping from their mobile devices.
It’s a big mistake to overlook this growing trend. What looks good on a desktop doesn’t always translate to mobile. And this can affect the customer experience.
It’s more important than ever to make sure your visitors can access and navigate your website with mobile technology.
8. Optimizing the Wrong Keywords
Business owners aren’t always marketing experts. And it’s hard to understand the importance of choosing the right keywords.
You may go with words that have a very high search volume. But relevant, targeted keywords are the key to effective SEO.
A few common keyword mistakes include:
- Going with global keywords when you’re a local business
- Choosing generic keywords that don’t relate to your unique brand
- Focusing on information results rather than customer interest
- Attempting to target broad keyword terms
The goal is to narrow your keywords to ones that are relevant to your specific customers and brand.
Avoiding Common SEO Mistakes
If you’re struggling to understand how SEO works, you aren’t alone. Many business owners know the importance of SEO but fail to develop a solid plan for success.
The good news is you can avoid common SEO mistakes and improve your efforts for effective SEO. The ultimate goal is to drive traffic to your website, impress the customer, and make the sale.
We can help. Our digital tools can help capture your visitors’ attention and guide them to a sale. Take a moment to check out our website and quality digital products.