Avoid These Critical Small Business SEO Mistakes
Is small business seo important? Consider this – did you know that online searchers are more likely to click on organic listings than paid ads? Study after study shows that the top three listings for any given keyword get the most traffic. That’s why it pays to spend time and money improving your small business SEO. With a targeted SEO strategy that includes seo content writing, you can boost your website’s rankings and start getting more relevant traffic to your site.
Unfortunately, the SEO industry is chock full of half truths and outright lies about what SEO is, how it works and how an agency can help you. As web copywriters, we often get referrals from SEO agencies who want to integrate content into their offerings. Most of these arrangements work out just fine, but a few times it’s been clear that these clients were being led down the wrong path.
As a small business SEO buyer, what can you do to protect yourself? It all comes down to education. The more you know about the SEO process, the better you’ll be able to spot a scam SEO company. The same goes for managing SEO in house. You need to know the most common SEO mistakes so you can avoid them.
1 – Misunderstanding the SEO Equation
This is one of the most common SEO mistakes, and more often than not it’s caused by SEO service providers. While I would love to tell you that SEO content and SEO content alone will get you ranked, that’s just not the case. I might sell more web copywriting packages but it wouldn’t do my clients any favors. Although there are several components that go into the algorithm that search engines use, you need to have the basics covered – on page and off page. Your site content needs to be optimized for your keywords and you also need to have links coming into your site with those keywords. Any SEO company that tries to emphasize one over the other is doing you a disservice. And if you’re doing SEO in house, be sure to balance your on page optimization with off page backlink building.
2 – Keyword Overkill
Too many keywords is just as bad as not enough. Businesses that have attempted to do their own small business SEO copy normally have sites that reflect their keywords but not the message that they are trying to convey. A sentence stuffed with three or four keyword variations is not going to appeal to your reader. This seo mistake can hurt your bounce rate, damage your online reputation and make you wonder if SEO is really worth it. Use keywords frequently and naturally, but don’t go overboard. A qualified SEO company will be able to spot right away if you’ve made this mistake. If they encourage keyword stuffing, or return SEO content that doesn’t read well ask for a refund. For in house SEO management, read your content outloud before you post it to be sure you’re not making SEO mistakes.
3 – Building the Wrong Backlinks
Not all backlinks are created equally! Building backlinks to quickly or from the wrong sources is one of the most common SEO mistakes. If you’re hiring a reputable SEO company, they should be able to tell you where your backlinks are coming from and ensure that they will give your SEO a boost rather than drag you down. The old principle like attracts like is applicable with link building. If you’re getting backlinks from sites that have been labeled as SPAM by the search engines, you’re more likely to get the same label. Your SEO company should be looking for links from related and trustworthy sites. The same goes for your in house SEO efforts. Build your backlinks wisely and you won’t have to worry about being dinged for their bad behavior.
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