(Newswire.net — October 26, 2019) — Unfortunately, some marketing for small business can make some serious mistakes when trying to optimize their websites and online content for search engines.
Nothing is more disappointing than watching your website search results fail to climb. The good news is we’ve compiled a list of the most common SEO mistakes businesses make so you can avoid making those same mistakes yourself.
- Not optimizing your website for the right keywords. When you’re optimizing your website for search engines, you want to be sure that you’re not optimizing for the wrong keywords. How can you have the wrong keywords? Well, you don’t want to optimize your website for global keywords when your business only offers services to local customers. And you don’t want to optimize your website for generic keywords that might attract visitors with no interest in the products and services your business offers. Avoid keywords that are too broad. You want to be as specific and realistic as possible.
- Using the same anchor text for your internal links. It’s good to optimize your anchor text when you’re using internal links. But you don’t want to use the same anchor text for each and every internal link you make. Not only does it look odd to visitors who may not even be aware of what SEO is, but it will also send a red flag to search engine crawlers. That said, be sure you’re using variations of the phrase you’re using in your anchor text. For instance, if your anchor text is “Philadelphia pet supplies,” try using mixing it up with “pet supplies in Philadelphia” and “Philly pet supply.” Try not to use the same keyword for your text more than half the time.
- Not getting professional help when you need it. One of the biggest things you can do when you’re struggling with optimizing your website is to reach out and get help from a professional SEO reseller. As you can tell from the common mistakes on this list, optimizing your website for search engines isn’t as easy as it looks. An SEO reseller can help you get the jump on SEO so you can worry less about finding the time to boost your content marketing efforts and focus more on your business.
- Not focusing on link quality. When you’re working with SEO, you’re not just trying to get a lot of links to your website. You’re trying to get high-quality links. A link from a popular website can do more for your business than 100 links from a low-quality website. Unfortunately, high-quality links can be difficult to get. But the good news is that, when you work for them, they can be a more reliable measure for the quality of your website’s content. Focus on getting links that are relevant to your industry.
- Not focusing on high-quality content. To get high-quality links from popular websites, you need to develop content that’s relevant to your industry, unique, and well-developed. Poor content can keep your website from being spotted by search engine crawlers, and your target audience won’t see you as an expert in your field. High-quality content is a great way to use keywords, reach a wider audience, build links, and establish your business as someone worth working with. Develop content that will make you proud to have it on your website.
- Not creating link-worth content. It’s not just high-quality content you want to worry about when you’re publishing blogs to your website. You want to be sure the content you’re creating is something worth linking to. Blog posts that are informational about your industry may receive more links because it’s a quality source for other businesses and entrepreneurs. However, blog posts that are focused on one specific product that you have may be less likely to receive links because that topic is too niche. That said, you can still publish niche blog topics to your website, but be sure that you’re also creating content that others in your industry can share and link back to.
- Not using unique titles. Each page you have on your website ought to have a unique title. This is because page titles are used as the text when the page is shared via Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr. You want to use titles and meta descriptions that are not only unique to that specific page but also to your website. Don’t use the same title for every single page on your website.
- Not optimizing your website for local search. It’s a good idea to optimize your website for local search when your business focuses on customers in a specific region or city. Search engines handle local keywords differently than they do global keywords. Use region-specific keywords in your meta descriptions, title pages, and in your online content. Include your company’s address at the bottom of your web pages, too. Be sure that your business is listed with other local websites and businesses on websites like Yelp and Google Places. This will help your target audience find you better, which can increase your search rankings and online traffic.
- Not using analytics to see what converts on your website. Improving your search engine results isn’t just about being seen. It’s also about increasing your conversion rates. Local keywords may increase your online traffic and boost you to the first page of Google. But that SEO ranking doesn’t mean anything if you’re not getting the conversions you want. To determine which keywords are getting you the best conversions, make sure that you’re using an analytics package to track your conversion rate for each keyword. You can compare your conversions to determine which ones produce the best results. From there, you can better optimize your website as a whole.
The last thing you want to do is make a mistake that will cost your website your search engine results placement. By avoiding the mistakes listed above, you can improve your chances of ranking higher and boosting your online traffic.