TOP 7 SEO MISTAKES
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is something every business needs to take seriously. Yet startups ignore SEO or worse working on SEO and making these SEO mistakes. 75% of all search users never scroll past the first page. There is a running joke about the best place to hide a dead body is on page 2 of google. When a startup or business launches a site they have filed of dreams type visions. If you build it they will come. Unfortunately that is just a dream. When you first launch your site odds are you aren’t even ranked in the top 100! How would anyone find you there? The number one spot in a search engine result gets 33% of the clicks. Where do you want to rank?
SEO MISTAKES #1 IGNORING SEO
In the first place, building a website and expecting people to show up is the number one SEO mistake I see startups make. Take some time to learn the SEO basics. Then set aside some time every day to work on SEO. I do it over my coffee in the morning. There are lots of SEO workshops around, like our SEO Crash Course, take one.
SEO MISTAKES #2 WRONG KEYWORDS
Secondly Choosing the wrong keywords can nullify your SEO strategy. Did you do your research? Do you know who is ranking for those keywords now? Rushing in and picking random keywords does not an SEO Strategy make. Competing for the keyword accountant against the whole world will probably leave wondering wheres the traffic and it’s impossible to rank on google.
SEO MISTAKES #3 NOT OPTIMIZING FOR VOLUME
Thirdly, You have keywords that are relevant and think you can compete. Great did you check the search volume? What is search volume you ask? Search volume is usually measured in searched per month. How much time do you want to spend optimizing your main page to rank on the first page of a keyword that gets 20 searches a month? Wouldn’t you rather spend the time ranking for a keyword that gets 1000, 10,000 or more searches month? Optimizing for volume means you aren’t fighting for a handful of clicks and are actually going after real traffic. Optimize your SEO for search volume.
SEO MISTAKES #4 KEYWORD STUFFING
Next, you found great, high volume keywords and now you stuff all your content with them. This worked back in the early days of the web but not anymore. If your page isn’t readable because you have filled it full of your keyword, you will be punished. Google, Bing, and the other search engines look for keyword stuffing and actually measure human readability. Your keyword should only appear a few times and be appropriate. Use the flesh reading ease test to test the readability of your copy and tools like YOAST WordPress plugin to ensure you aren’t over doing your SEO keywords
SEO MISTAKES #5 TOO MANY GOALS
Equally important, is the golden rule of SEO one keyword per page. This means optimizing each page for only one keyword. Not crossing the streams and sharing your google juice for that keyword across your site. In light of this it’s really important to have a good keyword strategy that includes a site map. understanding exactly what pages are optimized for what keywords and having it mapped out makes it much easier for you to add blog post and pages. Adding keywords to your map as you do.
SEO MISTAKES #6 BAD TITLE / META TAGS
When building a website many tend to rush through the title tags and meta tags. This is a mistake. Coupled with the technique of just putting your company name into the title / meta tags. This combination will just confuse search engines. Are all your pages about the same thing? The title and meta tags need to be descriptive. Be specific, use your keyword, but describe the element you are taging. Don’t just use the same tags for everything.
SEO MISTAKES #7 NO OFF PAGE STRATEGY
Lastly, you need to have an off page strategy. What is an off page strategy? it is all the things you can do outside of your website. Backlinks are the number one off page strategy you need to be working. Who is linking to you? Generally speaking, the more links to your site the higher you will rank. There are lots of ways to get backlinks. Guest blogging, business directories, sponsoring events, etc. Start doing your research now. Get other sites linking to you today
