When you look over your SEO efforts from last year, was it a year of wins or a year of regrets? If you made any of the following mistakes, it was probably a year that you’d like to do over again:
Poor Quality Content
Unique content is the most valuable tool in your SEO toolbox so if your website is light on content, you need to invest in some quality content-based SEO. These are the best ways to beef up your on-page content:
Poor Quality Content
Unique content is the most valuable tool in your SEO toolbox so if your website is light on content, you need to invest in some quality content-based SEO. These are the best ways to beef up your on-page content:
- Add a blog and regularly update it with informational keyword-rich posts
- Include text on your homepage (trust me, no matter how pretty it is, there’s always room to add some valuable content)
- Write brief category page descriptions aimed at giving search engines a clue as to what your main pages are all about
- Create thorough product descriptions that have the information shoppers are searching for
- Use your About Us page to sell your business and also appeal to search engines with descriptive content
Lack of Rich Media
Videos, infographics, and other rich media are more popular than ever before, which means that having these items on your sites will appeal to your audience. Creating something on your site that users want to watch or read and then share will boost traffic to your site and serve as a positive social signal to the search engines.
Some companies incorporate these types of media into their editorial calendar regularly by creating a weekly video or a monthly infographic to showcase. But if this seems like too big of a commitment, start slow and work these more labor intense features into your other published content as great one-off additions.
Failure to Integrate Social
Integrating your SEO efforts with your social media efforts is key in making sure that you’re getting the most out of your efforts. If you’re doing social media and not using it as an opportunity to promote your own content, you’re really missing out on a chance to get maximum mileage out of your content! And if you’re creating content and not pushing it through social channels, you’re handicapping your content’s chances to go viral. It’s only through using both of these strategies that you’ll be able to really win the SEO game. But aside from just the SEO benefit, your audience will also benefit because they’ll have a chance to be exposed to all of your quality content.
Too Much Reliance on SEO
This may seem like an odd point considering the fact that all of the other mistakes were about missing out on SEO opportunities, but relying too much on SEO can be just as dangerous to the future of your business. Anything you do to improve your SEO efforts should also focus on improving user experience. Developing a strategy that just chases the latest SEO fads and ignores the real people who drive your business is a big mistake. (It can also be a waste of time and energy.) Find a good balance between catering to the search engines and also your customers, and remember that good SEO is, by definition also good for real users.
Obviously, you can’t go back in time and avoid these mistakes, but it’s never too late to avoid making them again. So this year resolve to step up your company’s SEO efforts and create a plan that you’ll be proud of when 2017 rolls around!
Kate Pierce is the owner of LionShark Digital Marketing LLC, a West Michigan internet marketing company. Her areas of expertise include Paid Search, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Web Consulting for small businesses, Copywriting and Local Online Marketing. She lives in the Grand Rapids area with her husband and enjoys cooking, watching sports and spending time outdoors. Like a true digital marketing expert (i.e. geek), she loves talking about marketing theory and SEM trends… so don’t say you weren’t warned!
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