Optimizing to rank on Google’s first page is one of the marketing objectives of some brands. While some know the hacks to get it done, others rely on outdated tricks that rarely work for them.
Even those that know the hack still make some mistakes that hurt their search engine optimization strategy. They do a lot but the result isn’t what they expect.
In this article, we’ll look at the 7 SEO mistakes big brands make and how to fix them. This will be helpful to you as a brand owner who has a website, blog, or wants to start a blog.
7 Common SEO Mistakes
#1. Optimizing for the wrong keyword
Some brands fail to understand that not all keywords are created equal. They hardly take into consideration the search volume, search difficulty, cost per click, and SEO result clicks.
Also, they don’t factor in the domain authority of their website when deciding on a particular keyword to optimize. Some even go for keywords that are irrelevant to their niche.
All these hurt their SEO strategy thus giving such an advantage to their competition who understand how critical these factors are in SEO.
How to fix it
Make use of a reputable keyword research tools to carry out a thorough keyword search before you decide to create any content for your brand. Keyword search tools like Ahrefs, Keyword Everywhere, Ubersuggest, SEMrush, KWFinder, Wordtracker, and Serpstat are reliable.
Throw in a relevant keyword in your niche to identify the search volume, search difficulty, cost per click, and SEO result clicks.
Let me break them down for you.
Search volume: This is the average number of searches such a keyword gets in a month.
Search difficulty: This is how difficult it’s for you to rank for such a keyword. The lower the number, the better for new websites with low domain authority.
Cost per click: This is the average amount advertisers are willing to pay to target such keyword.
SEO result clicks: This is the actual number of users that click on the SEO results.
After you have checked for these, what will determine if such keyword is worth optimizing for are the search difficulty which has to do with your domain authority, search volume, and the number of users that click on the SEO result.
#2. Not auditing your site frequently
Not carrying out a thorough examination of your website can hurt your SEO. There are some issues your website might develop without you knowing. The only way to spot it is through auditing. Some of these issues are as follows:
- Slow loading time
- Duplicated meta description
- Duplicated keyword
- No meta description
- Short content
How to fix it
Make use of website auditing tools to analyze your URL. Enter your website domain and crawl it on any website analyzing tool. Within a few minutes, the details of how healthy your website will display for you to see. All critical issues will be highlighted and how to fix them will be shown to you.
You’re required to follow the directives given to fix them. The search engine algorithm gives priority to URLs with little or no issues. SEO tools like Ubersuggest, Ahrefs, Site Analyzer, and Mysite Auditor are reliable when it comes to analyzing the URL of your website.
#3. Poor internal link format
Internal linking is important as it helps your audience navigate your website while boosting the visibility of your key web pages. Search engines place a priority on a page if a lot of links are pointing to it. This helps in increasing the domain authority.
But some brands get this wrong. Their linking structure sucks hence search engines find it difficult to take note of important pages on their site. Sometimes they internally link to pages that are not related. Even when they are, it appears not to add value to the audience that clicks on it.
How to fix it
Ensure that any page you link to in your website provides value to your audience in accordance with the page they were on before they clicked on the link. It’s better not to link internally than to link to a page that is irrelevant to another.
It reduces the relevance of such a web page which makes it go unnoticed by search engines. Don’t force internal links rather make them natural with anchor text thus creating curiosity in your audience to learn more through them.
#4. Ignoring content creation best practices
You must be intentional when it comes to creating content for your audience. As a brand, your audience looks up to you for quality and helpful content all the time.
Search engines also use it to ascertain if you’re an authority in a niche or not. That determines if you will be ranked for a particular term. Search engines want to serve the best content which will satisfy the intent of a user.
Some brands don’t even know who their audiences are hence they don’t consider them and their pain point when creating content. This simply means they target the wrong keyword and people. Readability is another thing worth mentioning here.
If your content lack clarity, organization, logic, and simplicity, it’s a turn off for your audience. They’ll find it difficult to understand making them not stay long. When people spend more time on your content, it sends a signal to the search engine algorithm that such content is helpful to users hence the need to boost its visibility to other users.
How to fix it
Before you create any content, ask yourself what kind of problem will this content solve. How is the best way to create it so that your audience will read, understand, and implement what they have learned?
Identify the right keyword and make sure it suits your audience. Organize your thoughts in a simple and logical manner while providing all the necessary information that will help your audience solve his problem. Below are the 4 W’s that should guide you when creating content:
Who: Your target audience who are in your niche.
What: The kind of content they need to overcome a challenge.
Which: The keyword they will search for to locate my content.
Why: importance of having such content.
#5. Not tracking performance
If you don’t track the performance of the SEO strategy you’ve implemented, you won’t know if you’ve made progress or not. Users visit your website daily but you don’t bother to track their actions on your website. This’s a big SEO mistake you make as a brand.
The consequences are you won’t know how users interact with your pages, your bounce rate, keywords that drive them to your page, source of traffic. Others are your top-performing pages, the demography of your users, source of traffic, conversions. All these and other SEO KPIs are what you need to track to determine if there is a need to improve your strategy or not.
How to fix it
Google Analytics is one of the best tools you can use to track performance. It is free and simple for anyone to use. First is to sign up for Google Analytics then add the Url of your website to it. Within 48 hours, it will begin to track all the activities on your website. Evaluate the performance of your website on a week interval with the points we raised above in mind.
You can also use a marketing reporting platform to build your own dashboard.
#6. Poor link building
Link building is one of the ways to drive organic traffic and boost your SEO ranking. But it could be a minus if you do it the wrong way and some brands are caught up in this web. Linking to a website that is not in your niche is counterproductive. It’s like a medical doctor making reference to a farmer to get the best advice on how to survive cardiac arrest.
Injecting links to another website just because you want to get backlinks is harmful. Trust search engines like Google to spot such black hat SEO practices. Its algorithm is smart enough to identify such sharp practices and it will hurt your ranking in the long run.
Some even trade links thereby linking to websites when it’s not natural and relevant. Google sees such as spam is likely to deny such page visibility since it won’t satisfy the user intent.
How to fix it
Always link naturally to other websites and be sure such a link is relevant and suitable. Avoid injecting links instead connect with authority websites in your niche to link to them.
You can even attract quality links to your website through quality content. People want to link to contents that are in-depth and awesome. Carry out research and present your findings on infographics. People connect easily with visuals and the link to it easily.
#7. Not updating content
Not updating your previous content will earn you a low ranking on search results. Search engines like Google value fresh and updated content. Nobody wants to read outdated content. Your content which you’ve not updated in the last 5 years won’t rank well. This is because there are a lot of fresh content on the same topic which is more relevant at present than yours.
How to fix
Make it a priority to update all your content at least once every 6 months. As a brand, you can hire a content marketer to do that for you. Use Google Analytics to identify those pages that are ranking low and update them with the latest information. Notify Google of such an update by submitting the URL of those pages to Google Search Console. Monitor the outcome in a month’s time and you will surely see an improvement.
Conclusion
I believe by now you’ve discovered some of the SEO mistakes you make that hurt your brand. The solutions I offered will help you fix them so that you will continue to grow your brand with search engine optimization.
SEO is a game that requires you to be updated on the latest hacks so as not to lose your spot to your competition. If your strategy isn’t right, it will cost you traffic, leads, and even sales. Take your time to evaluate all the points made here and identify where you have got it wrong so as to take necessary action.
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About the author
Chuks Chukwuemeka is the Content Creator, Blogger, and Digital Marketer. He’s the founder of DepreneurDigest, an online business blog. He provides consultancy services to small businesses on how to grow their online presence through blogging.