Are you a business owner looking to improve your website traffic so that you are able to grow your company? Our team can help. We work with business owners to create an SEO strategy that allows for them to enhance the user experience on the business website while also dominating local Google searches. We do this by targeting the most important search terms and keyword phrases in your industry and applying these to each web page within your site.
Read below to learn about the 5 SEO mistakes your business is making according to Forbes:
SEO Mistake #1: Lack Of Clear Goals
Just like with any other business activity, you need clear goals for SEO. However, small businesses can fall into the trap of thinking that simply doing any SEO at all will be enough to improve their results. After all, more SEO equals more traffic, which equals more revenue, right? Well, actually, it’s not always that simple.
In order for SEO to actually improve your small business, you need clear goals in mind. Do you want to increase the quality of leads, the number of subscribers or the total revenue? Each outcome will require a different strategy. For instance, let’s say you want to increase the quality of leads (defined as people who are more likely to purchase your flagship product). Well, if you end up driving 10,000 additional visitors per month but they aren’t qualified, then it doesn’t bring you any closer to your goal. You’re left with vanity metrics—and these empty stats don’t pay the bills.
SEO Mistake #2: Ignoring The Long-Tail Keyword
One of the biggest mistakes that small businesses make with their SEO is avoiding the long tail. To clarify, the opposite of a long-tail keyword is a short-tail keyword, which will have tons of search traffic—for example, the keyword “manicures.” A long-tail keyword, on the other hand, might be “all-natural animal-product-free manicures near me.” See the difference? One is very vague, while the other is incredibly specific. The mistake is to assume that you only want to target the higher volume keywords thinking that they’ll bring you legions of great traffic.
In reality, the shorter and more general the keyword, the more difficult (expensive and time-consuming) it will be to pull traffic from it. As a small business, you want to niche down and focus on specific keywords that you can compete on without trying to win a race against a Fortune 500 company.
SEO Mistake #3: Ignoring Mobile Traffic
One of the deadliest mistakes a small business can make is to ignore mobile traffic in favor of desktop traffic.
If you have a B2B company, watch out. You could be lulled into thinking that your prospects browse the web exclusively from their high-powered laptops or workstation PCs. But the reality of modern times is that 58% of traffic comes from mobile devices. Your prospects are statistically more likely to pull up your website to research you on their phone during their lunch break or in their Uber, as they are to do it from a computer.
This means your website needs to be mobile-friendly and responsive. It should display professionally and be functional on every screen size imaginable. The last thing you want is to miss out on a sale just because your site wasn’t up to mobile standards.
SEO Mistake #4: Using Old-School Tactics
It’s so tempting to think that SEO is easy, especially when you hear of outdated tactics that sound effective on the surface. For instance, the act of “keyword stuffing” is a tactic that can be alluring. You simply insert your keyword as many times as possible in your content, in the hopes that Google views your page as the most relevant one for that search query.
Another related tactic is keyword cloaking—placing instances of your keyword in tiny fonts, or fonts with the same color as the background, to fill your content with the target keyword without giving off a spammy vibe to your visitors. The problem with these tactics, like many of their outdated cousins, is that Google caught on a long time ago.
These tricks simply don’t work anymore. And that’s a good thing—it means that small businesses that focus on what their users actually want will eventually win.
SEO Mistake #5: Thinking All Content Must Be Text
SEO means writing a bunch of blog posts, right? Well, yes and no. Written content is excellent—it’s easy for Google to understand the nature of what your website is about. That way, your small-business site can rank higher over time.
However, engagement is also a factor in SEO. Google considers “dwell time” (the amount of time a user spends on your site before clicking away) to be representative of the value of your page compared to others. This means you need to appeal to different preferences for content—video, audio and images, for instance. And don’t just use static content. Use dynamic, interactive content like quizzes and check boxes.
With today’s web technology, you can easily make your site more interesting than the competition by utilizing free tools and plug-ins. After all, your goal isn’t just to generate traffic. You want your visitors to stay around, engage with your site and ultimately become loyal customers or fans.
Work with our team to put an end to these 5 SEO mistakes your business is making.
SEO Marketing For Businesses in Houston, TX
Your website is more than an extension of your business, it is often your first chance to make a lasting impression on potential customers. Our team helps you to optimize your website so that you do not fall behind your competitors. As the gap increases between the amount of effort your competition puts into their online marketing and how little work you put into your website, the more difficult it will become to engage with customers online.
The Houston Small Business Marketing team works hard to help your business stay relevant in this online-focused world by tracking the latest strategies in online marketing for businesses. If you are tired of giving away potential customers to your competition, we can help you.
We dedicate ourselves to working closely with business owners to come up with a marketing plan that helps them succeed. We provide each customer with a free consultation for your website and social media to let you know how you can improve your ranking and reach your goals.
Houston Small Business Marketing
713-492-0025
1415 North Loop West #950
Houston, TX 77008
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