Online marketers understand the importance of SEO so they spend a lot of time and resources optimising their websites and horizontals so that search engines can direct users to their business. However, even with this sort of concentration, marketers will often make these five very common mistakes:
Focussing too much on SEO
This is a common mistake. Optimising your website purely for SEO to the detriment of your content will mean that you won’t be able to retain the traffic you gain from a great SEO strategy. In any case, a fantastic SEO strategy should mean one that doesn’t compromise the quality of the content on your website. Avoid stuffing your stories and articles full of keywords and make sure to use them only when relevant.
The right words
Keywords are important, but are you using the right ones? Are you using jargon or language that everyone can understand? Sit down and have a brainstorming session to figure out what users are actually typing into search engines. Know your audience. Don’t overcomplicate things for the sake of it; you want your business to be accessible to your clients.
Ignoring analytics
Learn to decipher your analytics. Google, Facebook, Twitter, crunch the numbers and figure out what is actually working, and which strategies or campaigns have the highest conversion rate. Tracking the users who come to your site will give you a better understanding of which keywords are bringing the most traffic, and more importantly, what factors actually help retain browsers. Using this analytics data to your advantage can help you optimise your website as a whole.
Link quality
Backlinks, and internal links drive SEO. You need to pay lots of attention to these and make sure that they are all working. Regularly checking that there are no broken links on your website will put you in Google’s good books, and will mean your ranking won’t be diminished as a punishment. Yes, it may be tedious, but some thorough housekeeping is in order to avoid falling in the ranks.
Speediness
Did you know Googles uses site speed as an SEO ranking factor? Many online marketers often neglect this small, but very important factor. Users don’t have a lot of patience, especially mobile users, so on top of a losing in rankings because of slow loading speed, you’re also losing potential customers. Frequently check your website’s speed with tools such as Google’s PageSpeed Insights.
