Popular Marketing Posts
Starting A New Business? Some SEO Pitfalls to Avoid
Most business acknowledge the value of a strong SEO strategy. Unfortunately, not all businesses know how to put SEO to good use.
In fact, it’s common for smaller and newer business to unknowingly stand in their own way.
Most small business SEO mistakes are relatively easy to correct.
Nevertheless, they first need to be identified and accepted.
So with this in mind, what follows is a brief overview of the five most common new business start-up errors, as far as SEO is concerned:
1. Starting too late
While it’s technically never too late to get started, early SEO implementation is always better. Ideally, new businesses should be focusing on SEO long before they even open their doors. It’s a case of hitting the ground running, rather than attempting to play catch-up at a later date. Later is better than ever, but early SEO implementation always delivers the best results.
2. Overlooking analytics
Often times, small businesses set their SEO strategies in motion and wait for noticeable results to filter through. Perhaps oblivious to the fact that all information they need is available in the form of analytics. Even the most basic web analytics are better than no analytics at all. Rather than leaving things to their own devices and see what happens, it simply makes sense to monitor the ongoing effectiveness (or otherwise) of your strategy.
3. Set it and forget it
This is perhaps the single worst approach to SEO for businesses of all sizes. SEO must be viewed as a continuous process, in order to extract any value from it whatsoever. Heavy competition and the fact that algorithms are constantly changing further emphasizing the importance of continuous optimisation. Irrespective of how hard you work in the early stages, you cannot leave an SEO strategy to its own devices and expected to bear fruit.
4. Hiring the wrong people
You’d be forgiven for thinking that hiring any SEO would be better than hiring nobody at all. In reality, this simply isn’t the case. Entrust a substandard SEO with the job and you could be pouring your money straight down the drain. If you plan to hire help, it’s up to you to carry out as much research as necessary to pinpoint the perfect partner to suit your requirements. If they’re not able to help you meet your objectives, why bother?
5. Attempting to trick the system
Black-hat SEO has had its day. It was once possible to essentially ‘fool’ Google into giving you a prominent spot in the rankings, but not anymore. These days, any attempt to play Google for a fool is guaranteed to result in penalisation. Nevertheless, a huge proportion of smaller businesses believe that by tricking the system, they’ll fast track their journey to the top. Often wondering what went wrong when they hit rock bottom.
6. Lack of patience
Last but not least, it can take a surprisingly long time for an SEO strategy to deliver the goods. It simply isn’t the kind of process you can expect to bring you fame and fortune overnight. To expect too much is to set yourself up for disappointment. Patience is an absolute must for anyone looking to capitalise on the power of SEO.