Any small business owner acknowledges the complexity in the marketplace they are in. Launching and sustaining a small and successful business can seem easy, but it is tougher. This has become even more competitive today because all of them are trying to get access to the market using the internet. There are many businesses out there that have grown their business and increase their sales by using online marketing, and you can do. There is a lot that goes into an online campaign, but having a great strategy is the most important of them all. Trying to start a campaign with a plan will lead to poor or no results at all.
SEO has proved to be one of the most popular forms of online marketing. There are many reasons why more and more people are choosing SEO as a marketing tool. There have been many changes in the world of SEO over the years, and it has become even more important. If you have not started SEO then you are losing a lot of traffic and customers to your competition. You should try to start as soon as possible because it will not start working overnight, you will need to invest time and effort if you want to see great results. The good thing is that all will be worth it.
When getting started in the world of SEO, many businesses make certain mistakes. In order to see great results, you should try avoiding these mistakes. Below are the 5 common easy to avoid SEO mistakes in small business.
- Too general audience
If you want to succeed in any online promotion campaign, you will need to have a properly defined audience you can focus on. The internet is very big, and it has a general use. If you want to be able to reach the right type of people, you need to define the target audience of your business in a more specific manner. To know who the “ideal customer”, use your imagination, Start by asking yourself these questions;
– is the customer male or female?
– Where do they live?
– What is their education level?
– What is the financial situation?
– What is it that they want or need?
– What is their biggest problem?
You should keep asking the questions till you are able to perfectly picture your ideal customer. Once you have the image in your head, you can then move to the next step of attracting and targeting traffic to the website.
- Using the wrong keywords
Keywords are the most important part of SEO, and this will always be the case. Keywords are important for the search engines because it enables them to know what the page is about. The search engine will crawl in the site and will get a rough idea.
There are many small businesses out there that have failed in using the right keywords, and they end up ranking for different keywords and phrases that are not going to help them in any way. Ranking for the wrong audience means you have wasted your resources on something that won’t have any impact on your business, and soon it will negatively affect your SEO efforts. This usually happens because they did not take the time to do proper keyword research, which is an important part of any small business SEO campaign.
Proper keyword research will help you in picking the best keywords that are going to have a positive impact on your campaign and business. The best tool to use is a Google Keyword Planner which can be found in Google Adwords. This tool will go a long way in helping you with your keyword research.
- No mobile optimization
More people are using their phones to access the internet that PCs. Google has stated the importance of mobile optimization because it is one of the factors used in rankings. Small business neglect this at their own peril. Google wants the best user experience, and this is why they favor sites that are able to load properly on mobiles.
Mobile optimization is a must if you are interested in ranking in the search engine results page. There are some small business owners who have no idea on how this is done, but that should not be a problem. There are many tutorials that you can find online that will be able to guide on how to do it. If you are not interested in doing this, you can hire a digital marketing agency to help you out with the entire campaign.
- Not having high-quality content
Content is king today. There is a good chance you have heard this before. It is true. The content you provide will be the thing differentiating your business from the rest. Content will be key in helping you with positioning the brand in the market and also defining your value proposition.
Quality content can be in the form of blog posts, informational checklist, video tutorials, calculators, interactive quizzes, and much more. The more quality content you are able to create for your target audience, then the more they are going to follow the brand and visit your website.
A common mistake people make when it comes to content is focusing too much on quantity than quality. This is never a good idea. It is far much to have less content that is of quality. Search engines will be able to differentiate high-quality content from poor-quality content.
- Poor social media presence
Social media has proved to be an effective form of marketing online, but it also helps with SEO. Social media will be part of your SEO strategy because search engines will be able to analyze how people are interacting with the brand on social channels. Having a strong social engagement will go a long way in helping you with your SEO campaign.
Small business can make the best out of their SEO campaigns, provided they are able to avoid these common mistakes. If you are not sure about anything, then consider hiring a digital marketing company experienced in the area of business you are in.