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07/25/2012
SEO is a complicated thing. There are a lot of tiny factors that all can have a huge impact on the success of your business website. Unfortunately, that means that it doesn't take much for things to go wrong.
There are certain SEO mistakes that small business owners are especially guilty of. Blame it on the fact that you put most of your focus on running a business, not on worrying about your business website. For whatever the reason, there are some SEO mistakes that small business owners make again and again. Are you guilty of any of the following?
Thinking that SEO is a quick, one-time job.
SEO is a long-term investment in your business. It's not an overnight project that brings immediate results. You need to be patient and you need to keep working on it. Your initial SEO work will hold you for a week or two, but then you need to get back to work, creating new content and promoting your site socially.
Focusing on on-page SEO, and neglecting off-site strategy.
SEO is more than just the strategic use of keywords on your website. It's social. The best SEO strategies include the use of social media sites, link building practices, and building relationships with people online and offline. Your offsite strategy is just as important, if not more so, than whatever SEO techniques you are using on the site itself.
Not knowing your essential keywords.
Out all of the keywords that bring people into your site, which ones bring in the most relevant traffic? Which are the keywords that you wished your site ranked #1 for? If you don't know which keywords are the most important for your site, you won't be able to use them in your SEO efforts, which means that your incoming traffic won't be as focused on your product or service as you'd prefer.
Not putting your PPC data to good use.
If you are using PPC advertising for your company, the data you receive from that is priceless when it comes to SEO. PPC data tells you exactly which words people are using to find your website and buy your products. Use these keywords in your SEO. In fact, there is a very good chance that these are the essential keywords we discussed above.
Forgetting to put customers before search engines.
SEO is essential to your success as a small business, yes, but nowhere near as essential as your customers. Don't spend so much of your time worrying about search engine strategy that you neglect your customers. Make sure that any changes or additions you make to your site will also benefit your audience. If there isn't a clear benefit for them, there probably isn't a benefit for SEO, either. Search engines want you to put the users of your website first. Putting your effort into creating the best site possible for your customers will probably result in a website that already has great SEO in place.
Do any of these sound familiar? What steps are you taking to avoid making these common mistakes?
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