Delve into our comprehensive article that highlights the six common mistakes small business owners make when using SEO. This is designed to help you understand these errors in depth, why they can negatively impact your website’s search engine performance, and how you can avoid them. By steering clear of these pitfalls, you can effectively enhance your website’s visibility, drive more organic traffic, and ultimately grow your business.
1. Duplicate content
“Duplicate content is content that appears on the Internet in more than one place (URL),” said Moz.
Who wants to read the same content repeatedly? The answer highly likely is that nobody does and eventually the search engines too become fed up with visiting the same pages consisting of the same thing – eventually there is no more reason for them to want to come back to your website as you have met the spider or crawl quota.
Very simply, make sure your website content is original, relevant to the page and and useful for your visitors. Remember, content is king and it is always best to write for your human visitors and not for the search engines – a reasonable and realistic approach and one that Google encourages in its attempt to drive good user experience through to its customers.
2. Keyword stuffing
Keyword stuffing occurs when a written piece—such as a blog, article, or website page—is packed with the same keywords in an effort to increase a website's or blog's or article's rank in the search results for that particular search term. This is a common mistake small business owners make when using SEO.
A typical and simplified example of keyword stuffing:
“Lemon cheesecake is heavenly! I’m going to publish my family recipe for lemon cheesecake as it’s the most delicious lemon cheesecake ever. The lemon cheesecake recipe is going to appear in a book about lemon cheesecakes.”
Remember Google’s priority is all about user experience, and the above example would make most visitors turn tail and bounce off the site as it is so repetitive and clear in its objective – this was not written for a human but with the intention to manipulate the search engine for a high rank. Can you imagine if all we found on the internet were websites, blogs and articles full of stuffed keywords – nobody would want to read them and consequently what would the purpose of Google be? Certainly not to help the visitor make any educated decisions about a subject, product or service.
3. Not properly optimising the meta tags on your website
Search engine optimisation, more commonly known as SEO, is basically the intention to improve a websites visibility on search engines, with Google considered the most important and authoritive. The aim of SEO is to help your prospective clients, who don’t know you exist, find you with the goal of some form of action taking place e.g. to make a purchase, to opt in, to make a phone call, etc.
An experienced and proficient SEO consultant or company will take a rounded approach to your SEO campaign. Not only relying on a single tactic but including a longer term strategy, giving you a greater chance of achieving long-term results for your website and business. SEO is constantly changing and what strategy works for one company, mightn’t work for another, so a good SEO company will take your individual needs as a business into consideration when creating your online marketing strategy.
4. Link farming
Link farming is a bad SEO tactic that kills rankings. This strategy uses mainly groups of fake websites that link back to your website with the aim of trying to fool Google that your website is worthy of a higher rank, and therefore, a vain attempt to a better position in the search results.
Generally you can add your link (URL) for free. The pages are full of stuffed keywords and there is no authority, rendering them useless. In many cases they lead back from gambling sites, adult sites and other insalubrious spammy sites. It is better to consider organic links with quality that carry authority and offer genuine user value.
5. 'Black hat' tactics
Black hat refers to unapproved tactics used to gain rank up the search engines like spamming, keyword stuffing, doorway pages, cloaking and invisible text. If you intend to be a hero or the good guy in search engine optimisation, you should only use organic means to boost your site and avoid the above tactics, at the very least. There are certain limitations to the white hat approach in the beginning, but you can be sure that your reputation stays stable for the long term. People will refer to your company more as a reliable source of products and information and you can get to your target market without having to resort to unacceptable means. If Google does figure out that you are using these so-called black hat tactics, you run the risk of your site being sandboxed and losing all the rankings you have achieved.
6. Unrealistic expectations
One of the biggest issues we face with search engine optimisation is that results are never immediate and you have to patiently wait a few months before you see any effect of your hard and organic efforts. If your expectations are realistic and you understand the consequences of poor SEO practices and the good results that can be achieved through proper SEO tactics, then you will realise that results are not achieved overnight.
Today it is even more significant to find and apply cost-effective marketing strategies to your business to survive and rise above your competitors. For this reason, SEO shouldn’t be overlooked, and when done correctly and sensibly, is a cost effective and efficient tool in your marketing strategy that will produce good growth results in your business with minimal risk.
How We Can Help
In conclusion, the mistakes small business owners make when using SEO can significantly impact their website’s visibility. However, these mistakes are avoidable with the right guidance. The JDR Group, with its extensive experience in SEO, can help you identify and rectify these common mistakes, ensuring your SEO strategy is robust. Don’t let SEO mistakes hinder your business growth. With JDR Group, optimise your website efficiently and drive the results you desire.
Let’s make your business stand out in the digital world, contact us to learn about how we can help.
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