SEO is an ever-evolving discipline. As technology innovates, so too do user habits and consumer practices. As such, it can be a challenge for businesses new to the field of digital marketing to know where to begin. SEO is definitely not a thing you want to rush into, lest you make a whole slew of mistakes that might do more harm to your brand than good.
To help you get started, the digital marketing experts at Shuttle have created this list of the most common pitfalls in SEO so that you can avoid them and make more out of your time and effort. With no further ado, here they are:
1. Spamming your content with outgoing links
Having outgoing links on your website is not too bad in moderation. Generally, they have no overall effect on your optimization. What you should remember, however, is that linking to other websites helps their SEO and not yours. It’s wiser to reach out to high-quality sites that are related to yours (but not direct competitors!) to see if they are willing to publish a guest post or link to your site in some way in exchange for a link on yours.
2. Using any keywords
Many think that they have to go through unsearched keywords to avoid clashing with the competition. The problem with this is that it fails to consider consumer habits. Will they actually try to search for those keywords in the first place? Why would it matter that you’re the top result for a keyword that nobody cares about?
While you would be competing with other businesses over the same keywords, it is a necessary obstacle that you need to face to reach more of your target market.
3. Taking it too slowly with backlinks
It is a myth that backlinking too quickly and in great amounts can get your website flagged. While it is true to a certain extent, results largely depend on the quality of the linking. What Google actually penalizes is black hat SEO methods, like buying empty domains whose sole purpose is to backlink to your site.
Basically, the protocols can tell the difference between a hundred shady backlinks from empty blogs and a hundred backlinks from vetted news sources and reputed websites.
4. Relying entirely on rankings
While rankings are among the most important measures of success in SEO, they are not the only ones. Rankings must also convert to traffic and sales. Users can find your website at the top of Google, but this might not immediately translate into sales.
The user experience must be taken into account. Look into your data carefully. How long do users stay on your website? How far into your website do they get before they leave? These are just some of the things you can take into account to figure out how you can do better. It might also be good to have a discussion with your digital marketing partner to see how the situation can be improved.
Final thoughts
The field of digital marketing has created ways to level the playing field between smaller businesses and bigger companies. One of the ways you can do this is through SEO. however, it is important to do it the right way so that you can be more effective and make the most of your marketing costs. If you’re looking for help with digital marketing for your Darwin business, send us at Shuttle a message. We are a close-knit team of creatives, designers, developers, and marketers that thrive on improving our client’s digital position.
