Business marketing strategies today rely heavily on understanding search engine optimization. If you want to increase your sales and drive traffic to your website, you must know how to keep up with changing algorithms. Here are some things you can’t afford to do if you want to rise in page rankings.
Taking care of on-page SEO only
Although optimizing your website is a significant factor in raising domain authority, it is not the be-all-end-all of SEO. Off-site strategies are just as important. Your business needs to engage with users on social media and other websites; allocate time to creating keyword-rich content that links to your website.
Not managing your Google My Business listing
Claim and manage your Google My Business listing. Since Google emphasizes “near me” searches, this is the best way for you to capture local prospects. Provide your business info and pictures, claim your location, and make sure you read and respond to all the feedback about your establishment.
Neglecting website audits
Audits let you catch everything from title tags and meta descriptions to loading speeds, checkout processes, and more. When you review your website’s performance from the search engine or visitor’s perspective, you could catch things that you wouldn’t as an owner.
Does your website have an intuitive interface, and can people find what they need right away? Do you have a mobile version, and does it launch quickly? Examining things like these helps you tailor your website better to visitors and improve your digital marketing plans.
Burying important text in images
Although placing text in your images is a convenient way of making your page look great, it is nothing more than a temporary fix. Search algorithms cannot read words in images, and if you want websites to crawl and index your pages correctly, you would want to give them all the text necessary for it.
Buying backlinks to your site
Small businesses still buy backlinks, hoping that it will help them drive up their site’s relevance. However, this practice is outdated; Google actively pushes down the rankings of websites that use this technique. You need to earn links these days; they have to appear on websites with high authority and have good traffic.
Using too many keywords in your copy
Write your content for your audience. Although it is tempting to put the algorithms first and cram your post with keywords and phrases, this will turn off readers and make them skip your articles. As a result, your bounce rate could go up, which signals to Google that people aren’t finding your content important to them. Focus on creating thoughtful, appropriate content, and the rankings will surely follow.
Not knowing what people are looking for
Addressing people’s questions is always a great way of directing them to your site. When you search your keywords, check the “related searches” and “People Also Ask” sections of the results page. Use keyword research tools like Answer The Public as well; doing this improves your SEO and lets people associate your brand with quality, relevant information.
Conclusion
Many companies spend a couple of months building their website’s domain authority and then dropping all efforts once they see the numbers rise. Doing so guarantees that you won’t see sustained growth; for SEO to work, you have to be consistent and come up with fresh articles while ensuring your website fits what algorithms want to see.
Make your brand rise to the top when you partner with Cyrusson. We are a San Francisco digital marketing agency helping companies turn website visitors into fans and advocates. Chat with us about your business goals; get a free consultation today and learn more!