8 Common SEO mistakes and how to avoid them
Every business knows they should be doing SEO (search engine optimisation), but most aren’t sure exactly what they should be doing and when. This leads many businesses to ‘dabble’ in SEO practices - d
Before we go too far let’s cover what SEO actually is
It's a way of making sure that your website shows up when people search for things on the internet. When you type something into a search engine like Google, it looks through all the websites on the internet to find ones that match what you're looking for. SEO helps make sure that your website is one of the first ones that comes up in the search results, so more people can find it and visit it.
Why should SEO be on your radar?
SEO can bring many benefits to small businesses, including increased website traffic, higher brand visibility, improved customer engagement, and more. By making sure your website is optimized for search engines, your business can reach more potential customers and increase sales. Additionally, SEO is a cost-effective way to advertise since it works with organic search results instead of relying on paid advertising. With the right strategy in place, businesses of any size can see a significant return on investment from their SEO efforts.
For us these are 8 of the most common SEO mistakes
1. Failing to pay attention to metadata
2. Slow site speed
3. No location-specific information
4. Not checking how mobile responsive your site really is
5. Never checking and fixing broken links
6. Outdated content
7. Your URLs are vague
8. You don’t know where you stand
We cover these in full detail in our long form article. Listen to the audio version here or click the button to read it.
Don’t just take our word for it…
Here we share some related reading that we found interesting on the topic of clickbait headlines and brand reputation.
According to Google Trends, there are 3.5 billion searches per day, 1.2 trillion searches per year, and 90,460 searches per second. That's an astonishing amount of queries being handled by Google every single day!
Why SEO is important for small businesses by Kuldeep Kumar
What is small business SEO? by HubSpot
Digital trends for SMEs in 2023 by National Retail Association
What not to do…
You cannot cheat at SEO. Google will punish you
Did you miss the memo? Last year Google rolled out 10 major updates to keep online content safe for everyone. If your website was punished for participating in annoying black-hat tactics like page experience and spammy link building then it’s time to understand why! It's time to sharpen up your SEO practices; don't spend any more energy on fake reviews or creating thin content - things could get worse if they're not changed now. Instead, focus on what works (and is allowed!) by following Google’s guidelines at all times – that way, you'll be helping yours website succeed now and into the long-term!
The lesson? Keyword stuffing, duplicate content, poor quality back links, broken page links, mishandling of H1 and H2 heading tags, or poorly written and semi-relevant blogs are all issues that will affect your SEO performance. If you or an outsourced partner are deliberately following bad practice to try and “game” the Google algorithm then stop! If you don’t know what these things mean then it’s time to swot up or to bring in a partner (like us) to make the most of the opportunity.
> Understand how your site is doing with a free SEO audit
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