Search engine optimization (SEO) is a very powerful strategy for generating traffic to your website and increasing conversions. However, if not done correctly, it could end up being just a waste of time and resources.
Here are some of the common SEO mistakes you need to avoid at all costs:
1. Using the wrong keywords
When you are trying to rank in Google, be sure to use the right keywords. One common mistake is businesses optimizing their sites for generic keywords. For example, it would be difficult to rank for the term ‘law firm’ since it has a lot of competition from other firms all over the world. Instead, you should add the region where your firm is situated to the keyword (e.g. ‘Law firm in Atlanta). The more specific and longer your keywords are, the more likelihood that you will rank for the keywords.
2. Not writing awesome content
The statement ‘content is king’ still holds true today. Great content makes your business stand out from the rest and positions your brand as an authority in the industry. Quality content could be blog posts, informational checklists, product reviews, video tutorials, infographics or interactive quizzes. The more content you create, the more prospects and customers will want to visit your site and follow your brand. However, avoid plagiarizing content from other sources since this could get you penalized.
3. Not including calls-to-action
Once visitors land on your website, your goal should be prompt them to take a specific action before they leave. The best way to do this is by adding call-to-action (CTA) buttons to your pages. This could be anything from a ‘sign up’ button for your email list to a ‘buy now’ button on a product page. However, avoid having multiple buttons on one page since this will only confuse your visitors. To make your CTAs stand out on your pages, use distinct colors and place them in a prominent location.
4. Neglecting mobile optimization
In this day and age, people are accessing the internet using their mobile devices more than their laptops and computers. This is why you need to use a responsive design to ensure that the mobile version of your site is as good as the desktop version. To check if your website is mobile friendly, you can use Google’s free mobile-friendly test. You can also visit your site using your smartphone and browse around. Try to click on every link, image and button and see what happens. Are the pages displaying properly? Can you navigate smoothly from one page to another? If not, you have some work to do.
5. Not analyzing your results
You need to regularly measure and analyze your performance to understand whether your SEO efforts are paying off. You can use tools such as Finteza to analyze metrics such as visitors, page views, sessions, events, impressions, clicks and click-through rate (CTR). Web analytics will help you identify mistakes in your strategy and correct them in the future. If you notice something is working well, focus your efforts on it and scale as much as possible.
