Table of Contents

    Categories

    Visit Our
    YouTube Channel

    Want To Listen
    To Our Podcasts?

    The Top Five SEO Mistakes That Companies Make

    Ally Cole

    Ally Cole

    Updated: Jan 17, 2022

    seo-mistakes

    Search engine optimization (SEO) can help companies in search queries if done properly. On the other hand, if shortcuts are taken, it can end up hurting the SEO in the long run.

    1. Talking about everything

    On your website, it should be clear what you do and who you are targeting; write content to cater to both. For example, if you are selling running shoes you should be writing articles that have to do with running and how good running shoes can make you perform better. If you start pushing out content on the newest styles for women’s high heels, it will not be congruent with the rest of your brand. This will then confuse the image you are putting out to Google, therefore, hurting your ranking.

    2. Any backlink is a good backlink

    This is the same idea as any attention is good attention, but that is not always the case. With backlinks, you want to place them on credible sites that are relevant to your industry. If someone is just trying to build up their backlinks and asks their neighbor who owns a cupcake shop to put a link to their shoe shop on their website, this is not going to help you with Google ranking. If anything, this will hurt you in the long run.

    3. Forgetting about keywords

    Keywords are something to always keep in mind when you are writing content. There is a line between keeping keywords in mind and just carelessly filling the content with your keywords. Going back to number 5 on our list, you want to make sure you are writing about what is of interest to your target audience. You do not want to take this to the other extreme where you only focus on keywords. Now, looking back at our running shoe example; you do not want to write, “When running you need a great pair of running shoes. Running shoes help a runner run much better.” This is not an interesting read at all, and people will click off the page once they start reading the content. This will affect your standing for Google as well.

    4. Talking to no one

    Think about who you want to target and write content they want to read. Most people do not want to read a long advertisement for your company. While it is very important to have content about what you do and who you are, that should not be the only thing you write about. Create content about things in your field that you have special expertise in. Bring value to the table so people want to learn more about you and what you do.

    5. Not regularly cleaning your backlinks

    Building good SEO is not a one and done project. One of the easiest things you can do is check all of the links on your website and make sure they work. This will help the user experience because nothing is more frustrating than when you think you found the information you are looking for just to realize the link does not work when you click on it. This does not go unnoticed in the Google algorithm as well. On top of this, you want to make sure you clean the content on your website because there is no reason to have outdated content. For example, you do not want content that is titled “The Best Running Shoes of 2015” still on your site today because it is no longer relevant. The difference between good SEO practices and bad SEO practices is not a huge jump. It is all about going the extra mile and thinking about how you can create a better customer experience on your website.