With more businesses attempting to leverage a powerful presence online, major search engines like Google have become a competitive arena where businesses are competing for top rankings and high visibility. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has proved itself one of the most lucrative and effective marketing approaches a company can do to get bottom-line results from rankings. Whether you’re a large corporation or small mom-and-pop business, SEO can really make a remarkable difference in your online business. Part of a great SEO strategy is steering clear of the following SEO mistakes. In no particular order, here are 5 SEO Don’ts that are crucial to avoid:
• 1. Generating Weak Content. Here’s the exception to the “no particular order” mentioned above. Producing poor content had to be first because – you guessed it – content is king. It always has been and always will be, especially with everything happening with the Google Panda updates lately. Your website needs to be chock-full of information that’s actually useful and beneficial to the online community, not just centered on churning out SEO food like too many websites are doing. Pages that boast high quality content are also appealing to natural inbound links, which are vital for SEO success.
• 2. Using a Bad Linking Strategy. Natural inbound links coming to your website are the best kind of inbound links that will get you results. You won’t get the top rankings you’re yearning for if you’re engaged in weak link-building strategies like buying links or trading links. An effective inbound linking strategy takes time and effort to implement. The best way to get these natural, high-quality inbound links that are so essential for SEO? Great content (refer to Tip #1).
• 3. Conducting Poor Keyword Research and Selection. Thorough keyword research and careful keyword selection is crucial for SEO success. Too many businesses aren’t performing the proper keyword research and selection necessary for a dynamite online presence. It’s best for your business to optimize for more refined keywords and keyword phrases. Keywords that are more narrowed and more specific to your business’s industry are not only less competitive, but will help you see more targeted traffic, and that’s the best kind of traffic.
• 4. Neglecting Upkeep of Your SEO Strategy. SEO is a powerful marketing method that delivers results when done right. However, SEO is NOT simply a project you implement once and are done with. Great SEO strategies are constantly being improved, updated, and modified. Google’s algorithms are constantly changing (we’ve seen this with the Panda), so your SEO strategy needs to be changing along with it.
• 5. Employing Black Hat SEO Tactics. This is probably one of the most vital SEO mistakes websites make. Black hat SEO tactics may seem tempting at first since they can bring you organic search rankings fast, but your instant SEO success won’t last long. Google almost always (okay, always) discovers websites employing shoddy black-hat strategies and are subsequently punished and banned altogether. In the end, black hat SEO tactics will completely backfire, so avoid tactics like cloaking, invisible text, and keyword stuffing at all costs.