Unless you’re an online marketing guru, you may not know all of the ins and outs of search engine optimization (SEO). With ever-changing algorithms, it’s hard to know if your SEO tactics are still sound. The problem is that incorrect SEO techniques can jeopardize your business’s online visibility. Yet, even as SEO continues to evolve, it still stands as one of the most widely-used marketing strategies.
Since this marketing strategy is used by most online businesses, it’s important to get it right so that you can stand out amongst the vast number of search engine results and become the top plumber in your city.
Here are 7 SEO fails to never make again.
Using Article Marketing
Around 10 years ago, article marketing was all the rage. During this time, content creators would write an article, spin it, and then publish the various versions across the web. Keyword stuffing and content spinning worked – Google loved it! Chances are if you used the Internet in 2008, you would frequently find content from Article Base or E-Zine Articles.
These days, in 2018, article-spinning sites can’t boast the high rankings they once had. But why? Because Google is always getting smarter and changing its algorithm to ensure users are presented with reputable, high-quality content. Put simply, Google’s algorithms are now able to pinpoint “spun” articles and, in turn, give them a much lower ranking.
The Fix
The easiest fix? You guessed it…don’t use article marketing! You can get better results by devoting your time to creating informative and unique onsite blogs and authoring guest posts. This type of content can enhance the time users spent on your site, which will in turn positively affect your SEO rankings. The more people you can get to visit your site, the higher chance you have of converting them into paying customers.
While it’s important to post content on your own website, there are also benefits to writing content for other business blogs in your industry or niche. Guest blogging exposes your business to new audiences and helps you develop new relationships with others in your industry.
Using the Wrong Keywords
A big part of optimizing your content is using the right keywords, which can improve your website ranking in search engine listings. When choosing keywords, content creators may neglect search engine preferences and misuse long-tail keywords.
You may define your offering in a unique way to set your company apart from competitors (like using creative product or service names), but chances are that potential customers won’t search for those unique keywords. There’s no point in ranking for terms that people aren’t searching for. To optimize, use keywords that not only relate to your product or service, but that your target audience won’t have to think too hard about!
The Fix
If you want to create “wisely-optimized” content, your best bet is to research, plan accordingly, and be patient – results will not appear overnight. There are a number of tools and apps that can help you pinpoint which keywords are relevant to your company and product, which keywords are most commonly searched, and which are currently trending.
Before creating and publishing content, give a few of these tools a try to ensure the keywords you’ve selected make sense:
- Google Trends
- Google AdWords Keyword Planner
- SEMrush
- Hootsuit
- Moz Keyword Explorer
Keyword Stuffing
When it comes to SEO, always choose quality over quantity. While you may think that using a keyword more often will increase your ranking and drive more traffic to your site, these black hat techniques are no longer viable. In layman’s terms, Google considers keyword stuffing a big no-no. In fact, the search engine mogul says that keyword stuffing can negatively impact the user experience and is likely to harm your site’s ranking.
The Fix
Focus on the context of the content surrounding the keywords that you want to rank for in search engine results. For example, if you’re focusing on the keyword “voice search,” then you want to structure your content around topics related to this technology, such as mobile Google search, Apple watch, Siri, Alexa, and Cortana.
By including these topics in your content, you’re able to build more contextually rich content. This allows you to organically use your keywords. That, in turn, can mean improved rankings from search engine results.
It’s also important to avoid overusing keywords in your content. Before posting a new blog on your company site, read it out loud first. Does the content flow? Does it read naturally? Keyword-stuffed content tends to sound awkward or forced – it offers a bad read overall.
As a rule of thumb, aim for a keyword density of 1%-3%. This ensures that Google doesn’t flag your content as irrelevant. It also increases the chances that readers will find value in reading it.
Not Using Analytics
SEO is about directing traffic to your site, but what good is daily traffic if it doesn’t produce conversions? While you want to target the keywords and phrases that are driving the most traffic to your site, it can be extremely hard to rank for them because they’re highly competitive.
In turn, your content may never end up on the first page of the search results because the keywords you’re using are just too competitive.
The Fix
To get more valuable traffic, you’ll need to focus on more specific keywords and phrases. But this may result in less visibility, right? In a sense…but the traffic you do drive is likely to be more valuable. Traffic coming from longer tail keywords or more targeted phrasing is likely to be of higher value and more likely to convert.
Because these phrases are “lower-traffic,” they’re often less competitive, which means you have a higher chance of landing a first page ranking. Since the results on page 1 get around 92% of all search engine traffic, it’s important that your content appears here, preferably in the first three spots.
Skipping Titles and Meta Descriptions
Optimizing your content is more than just scattering keywords throughout the body of the text. It’s even more important to include these keywords in your title tags, as well as your Meta Descriptions. These two components are essential SEO elements, and if skipped, can reduce or even eliminate traffic to your site, leaving your content unseen.
The Fix
The fix here is simple: have a gripping title that clearly expresses your page content and always include a Meta Description! Ensure that both of these tags include one of your main keywords. For tips on creating eye-catching (and search-friendly) titles and Meta Descriptions, check out Moz’s detailed page on Meta Descriptions.
- Not Optimizing for Local Search
Looking to become the top plumber or pet sitter in your area? Optimizing your content for local search is vital if your business focuses on customers within a certain town, city or region. With local search, there are some additional rules and trends you’ll want to be aware of as these keywords are handled differently than global keywords.
The Fix
Understanding the factors that drive your ranking in Google’s Local Search results is a must. To start, be sure that your title, Meta Descriptions, and content reflect your local region. It’s also important to include your phone number and address on your pages, especially in the header or footer so that this information is displayed in result listings. This data is also useful for Google My Business listings which tie into Google Search and Google Maps.
Following “Dated” SEO How-To’s
Information on the Internet can live forever – which can be great when it comes to building your business. However, this can also work against us, especially if you are just learning the ropes of SEO.
Search Engine Optimization changed drastically over the last two decades. The problem is that the Internet not only offers outdated information; it’s also home to false information about SEO strategies and techniques.
The Fix
Since it can be hard to weed out the best (and most current) advice, be sure that your sources are reputable and most importantly, up-to-date. Even information from a few years ago can be rendered completely impractical due to Google algorithm updates. SEO is always changing, so you’ll want to stay on top of things by reading trusted sources like Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, and news from Google itself.
SEO Is Hard – We Can Help
SEO is one of the most promising, yet ever-changing marketing techniques used today. Ensure your content gets the views it deserves by implementing proven SEO strategies to drive traffic and sales. Our team specializes in the latest SEO techniques and a wide variety of other digital marketing strategies. If you need a little help, look no further than National Positions.
