SEO and SEM are not simple things. To be effective, you must have a deep understanding of how search engine algorithms work, how to create great content and how to build links. No one said it would be easy. And it’s easy to make mistakes that can hurt your business badly. The purpose of hiring an SEO company is to correct the mistakes that you are doing with SEO.
Here are five mistakes that we often see in our work with clients:
Not having a strategy
The most common mistake is not having an ongoing strategy. As with any marketing effort, you need a set of goals and objectives before you start. Your SEO efforts should be a part of your overall marketing plan and budget.
Not knowing your numbers
How do you know if your efforts are working? The answer is simple: You measure them! The first step is to know your baseline metrics such as organic traffic, average position on keywords, average time on site, bounce rate, etc. We recommend using Google Analytics for this purpose since it’s free and provides excellent reporting for almost any metric or dimension that you would want to look at. If you haven’t installed Google Analytics yet, here’s a step-by-step guide for installing Google Analytics in WordPress (but it works for any website).
SEO can be complicated and frustrating. It’s also a critical tool for improving your website’s visibility — which is why it’s important to avoid some of the most common mistakes.
There are many ways in which you can optimize your website, but if you’re not careful, you might end up causing more harm than good. Here are some of the most common SEO mistakes that people make:
Ignoring mobile devices. You need to optimize for mobile devices or risk losing a huge chunk of traffic. Google penalizes sites that aren’t mobile-friendly, and visitors aren’t going to stick around for long if your site doesn’t look good on their phone or tablet.
Neglecting meta tags. These tags control how search engines display your site in their results, and they’re important for getting people to actually click through to it. Every page needs unique meta tags — use them to describe what’s on the page and include at least one relevant keyword per page.
Using the wrong keywords. Keywords are the words and phrases people actually use when they search, so it’s necessary to do keyword research before finalizing any content or design decisions.
One of the most common mistakes when it comes to SEO (search engine optimization) is picking keywords that are too general or too competitive.
When you’re trying to reach the top of Google’s search results, you’re competing with millions of other webpages for the same keywords. If you choose keywords that are too general — like, say, “credit cards” — your page is unlikely to outrank established websites like creditcards.com for those terms.
The good news is that there are plenty of ways to tweak your keyword strategy so you avoid this pitfall and maximize your odds of success.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a critical part of any marketing strategy, but it can be difficult to find reliable information about how to do it well.
There are many “best practices” that are outdated or simply don’t work, and there are plenty of rumors that end up costing companies time and money.
The truth is, SEO isn’t rocket science. From the SEO basics to local SEO best practices, you don’t need an advanced degree or a lot of time to set up a strategy that will help your business grow.
We’ve also found that SEO success comes down to a few basic principles:
- Start with good content.
- Get links from other good sites.
- Be patient.
Most businesses get their SEO wrong because they’re trying to trick search engines into ranking them higher than they deserve to be ranked. There are many black-hat tactics that will work for a short period of time, but Google has become very good at catching these tricks and penalizing businesses for using them. Read more about doing white hat techniques.