What are Top SEO Mistakes?
Many small businesses are making simple SEO mistakes which impacts web traffic and conversion rate possibilities. In this post, I will cover the top SEO mistakes made and provide insights into how to fix them.
Keyword Research
I am constantly amazed by the number of clients that do not know what their customers are searching for! Keywords are paramount and help enable prospective customers to find you online. However, there are several keyword variations that many fail to research.
I highly recommend trying to go beyond what you think users "should" be searching for. For example, do not rely on your customers knowing your internal or even industry-known jargon. It doesn't matter what the correct industry terms are, for a product or service, if your customers call it something different.
The wide adoption of social media has led to slang terms being commonly used in search phrases. It is important to quickly identify slang terms related to your business. If you are a vacuum supplier, are you ranking for "hoover"? If you are a plumber, are you ranking for repairing a toilet and "loo"?
Lastly do not neglect misspelt search phrases. I am not suggesting creating tons of content with misspellings, but it is something to be mindful of if your audience is frequently searching for "wrong" keywords. Social media and forums such as Reddit are great sources for checking users mislabelling your product or service.
Focusing on Competitors
I work with clients who are obsessed with their competitors. They continuously track their competitor's new pages, features and services etc. Whilst it can be useful to occasionally review this data, remember just because your competitor is doing it doesn't mean it's working for them!
Instead, I recommend obsessing over what competitors are doing badly. Take advantage of their poor SEO. For example, do not just concentrate on keywords that rank higher than you. Establish what keywords they are failing at and target those.
Review their unpopular pages and ask yourself "what are they doing wrong that I can do better"? The most common issues are:
- Low Word Count – Is Google having trouble understanding what the content is about?
- Content Quality – Is the content high quality and unique?
- Internal Linking – How many other pages are they linking to?
- Navigation to the Page – How easy was it to navigate to this page from their home page?
We can help you exploit your competitors weaknesses. Let us generate reports for you.
Public feedback can be a great way to find out what your competitors are doing poorly. The easiest & quickest way to check is by viewing Google, Facebook and Trust Pilot reviews. App Store reviews are also useful especially if your business sells services rather than products. Be sure to sort by worst reviews to uncover your competitors flaws.
Online Platforms
A lot of companies over–focus on Google SEO, only. I strongly urge you to explore and join other online platforms. I have put together a list of the most popular platforms for you:
- Etsy
- Amazon
- Facebook Marketplace
- Gumtree
But don't stop there, consider industry–specific review and shopping sites too. For example, if you are in Tech, you should check out Which.co.uk, TechRadar.com & TechCrunch.com etc.
One important note is Amazon, Facebook & eBay have their own search engines and therefore algorithms. You will need to independently research and test different results to see which performs best in terms of conversion rates.
If you want to attract local customers, you need to ensure you utilize & optimize all local SEO tools that are available:
- Google Business
- Bing (Amazon Alexa uses Bing for Search)
- Apple Maps
- Live Social Shopping; Instagram (Shopping) & Facebook (Shops)
- Interestingly, YouTube is currently testing shopping links straight from videos
If your local SEO is performing well, you should be converting lots of sales for a product-oriented business or generating many web leads for a service-based business.