There is no denying that search engine optimisation is critical for all companies today. It does not matter whether you run an accounting firm, a confectionery business, or you provide services to start-up businesses, you need to have a strong online presence. If you don’t, you are only going to let the competition get ahead of you, which is something no one wants. The trouble with online marketing, though, is that the face of it is changing all of the time. Therefore, it can be difficult to know whether you are doing things right or not. A lot of people have adopted outdated practices and they do not even realise it. With that being said, continue reading to find out everything you need to know about the common SEO mistakes that a lot of business owners are making today.
Not realising that website performance has an impact
What a lot of people do not realise is that the way in which their website works has an impact on their search engine ranking. A lot of people believe that their search engine ranking is only dictated by the content that they post. However, this could not be further from the truth. If you think about, Google wants to present the best possible results to all of the people that use the search engine. They are not going to want to present websites to people that are slow to use, difficult to load, and have security issues. Because of this, working on improving the way in which your website functions is actually going to have an impact on your search engine ranking.
You need to make sure that your website is quick to load. With every second longer that your website takes to load, this is going to be a chunk of customers that you are going to be missing out on. This means that more people are going to be leaving your website, and this sends a signal to Google, which will cause your search engine ranking to suffer as a consequence.
Trying to do SEO in-house without the experience
In addition to this, another mistake that a lot of people make is trying to handle SEO themselves rather than getting an expert to handle this. While it is understandable that you may want to cut costs by keeping as many elements of your business in-house as possible, you should not be cutting corners when it comes to the marketing and branding of your business. You need
Using outdated SEO practices
As mentioned in the introduction, one of the biggest problems today is that a lot of businesses are using SEO techniques on their website that are out-of-date. It is understandable that this would happen. After all, online marketing has changed considerably over the past decade. It is annoying that you would have invested in SEO services and now they are going to be invalid. In fact, they could even be hurting your company. This is why it is so important to make sure that your SEO strategy is up-to-date.
So, how do you know whether or not your approach to SEO is behind the times? Well, let’s take a look at some of the SEO strategies that we used to use but would now be hurting your brand image online if you were still to deploy them. A good example of this is keyword stuffing. In the past, people used to stuff keywords into their articles for the purpose of getting to the top of Google. It did not even matter if the content made sense, so long as all of the keywords were stuffed into it. If you were to use this approach today, you would end up being punished by Google. This is deemed a black hat technique now. This means you are manipulating Google’s terms and conditions in order to cheat your way to the top. While you could end up experiencing results in the short-term, it will really hurt your brand image and search engine ranking in the long-term.
Prioritising quantity over quality
Another mistake that a lot of people make when it comes to SEO. they focus on quantity when it comes to link building especially, and quality goes out of the window. However, quality is always more important. It is better to have ten high-quality links from authority websites directing to your site than it is to have lots of spammy links. You need to ensure that all links pointing to your websites are of
Using social media in the wrong way
Social media represents a huge opportunity for companies today. However, there are a lot of businesses that are not using social media in the way that they should. There are many different mistakes and blunders that are being made in this regard,. One of the main errors is trying to be a jack of all trades and a master of none. There are so many different social media websites out there today and so it is impossible to be present on all of these websites, and you certainly should not try to be. If you do, you will never be able to dedicate enough time and effort to any of the sites, and this will dilute all of your efforts. Instead, it is better to choose two or three social media websites at a maximum and focus on these. Facebook is the only platform that crosses all borders in terms of audience and demographic. Twitter is great for news and regular posting. Pinterest has a predominately female audience of college age. Of course, LinkedIn is ideal for the professional market. These are all factors that you are going to need to consider when determining whether or not a social media platform is right for your business. Once you have chosen the right platforms for your business, you will need to post on a regular basis. You can use social media management tools to assist yu with this.
You are also going to need to make sure that you construct your posts in the right way too. Another one of the big mistakes that brands make is simply posting an endless stream of promotional content. This is not what social media is about. Social media is a platform for connecting with your customers and building honest and loyal relationships. It is not a place for in your face advertising. Instead, you should use social media to engage with customers and to talk to them in a friendly way. Do not be afraid to show off your personality as a brand but make sure that it is consistent across all of the platforms you are using. You can also use social media as a customer service platform, answering questions and helping people out. When it comes to marketing via social media, the best way to do this is indirectly. Social media competitions work really well. You will get your audience to share a post if they want to enter a competition. This means they are going to be advertising your business to everyone on their social media accoutns and then this has a snowball impact.
As you can see, there are a number of different mistakes being made by business owners when it comes to the world of SEO today. If you have noticed any of the errors that have been mentioned above, there is no need to panic, but there is a need to take action. After all, if you don’t you are only going to end up falling further and further down the search engine results pages. This is the last thing any business wants. Plus, this can be very difficult to come back from. After all, competition is fierce!
