SEO is becoming one of the most essential things anybody can do for their online business. Companies that get SEO right dominate the search engine results page, so much so that its becoming rarer and rarer to have an individual answer your question on a forum (like in the 2000’s and early 2010’s). Instead, companies are providing searchers with answers to the problems they flock to search engines for, and they’re making a lot of money as a result. If you’re a business and you do DIY SEO but it doesn’t work, check you’re not making these mistakes.
- Not Getting Keywords Right
They’re one of the most important things in SEO for a reason. Doing your keyword research thoroughly is your duty as an SEO webmaster. You need as much insight as possible about your niche so you can make a list of the most relevant topics. After this you should search the topics in various search engines and look at the keywords that crop up. You can use free tools to compare keyword rankings, which should inform your selection. Make sure you have some long-tail keywords, as these are often less competitive but also are going to be very important as we enter the era of voice searching.
- Making Bad or Infrequent Content
Your content should provide value to viewers — forget about keyword stuffing and grey hat SEO techniques. Those will be short-term solutions anyway. Google algorithms change regularly, but their mission always stays the same. Search engines care about the value that you bring to viewers, so if you copy and paste content or if it is clearly just an SEO trick, you will suffer. Many people don’t have time to write high-quality content frequently (uploading content sparingly won’t do much good), so instead opt for article and blog writers that are SEO literate and reliable (which you may find very difficult to get on Fiverr, etc.).
- Not Bothering with Tags and Meta Descriptions
You should have a good understanding of what tags and meta descriptions are. These need to be optimized, otherwise you might not be prioritized on the search engine results page. You need to optimize all tags, including image tags (which just takes a few seconds but are essential for good image search engine optimization). Alt tags should be used for any content that a search bot can’t just read — that means videos, infographics and podcasts. If you don’t bother with tags, you can have the best video, image or podcast in the world but very few people will be able to find you.
- Ignoring an SEO Audit
SEO audits are essential if you have been trying to get your SEO right and haven’t been seeing any results. Even if things are going well, you should be auditing your site maybe once a month. This is imperative for you to work on adapting your strategy, as well as getting to know your visitors and changing your site to prioritize their experience. Audits serve the additional benefit of letting you know which content is valuable and which isn’t, helping you to direct that which you feature on your site.