According to Dictionary.com, Search Engine Optimization consists of “the methods used to boost the ranking or frequency of a website in results returned by a search engine.” In simpler terms, SEO helps your website show up earlier in search results without a paid ad campaign. Many companies make decisions about their websites with SEO in mind, but they are often making simple mistakes that are undercutting their efforts. Here are three mistakes that cause businesses to lose website traffic.
1) Skipping An SEO Strategy
Like any other tool, Search Engine Optimization for marketing requires a comprehensive plan to ensure success. Failing to create and implement an SEO strategy is one of the biggest mistakes any business owner can make. A quality strategy helps to increase organic traffic to your website through the use of on-page, off-page, and technical components.
On-page SEO includes things like the use of keywords in title tags, content, and URLs. A sufficient SEO strategy will incorporate a variety of thoughtfully chosen keywords in the title, content, tags, and URLs on a website. These keywords will also be used to label pictures. Using a keyword tool can help you identify keywords with the highest search volume, as well as keywords with lower competition will help you improve your organic search engine results pages (SERPs) rankings.
Links on other websites that direct readers to your website are called backlinks. Backlinks are the primary source for off-page SEO. Developing relationships with bloggers or businesses with ties to your business can help you with your strategy. Since they have a vested interest in the same industry in which you conduct business, it is likely that using a backlink to your website would fit in with their content. Pursuing these sorts of relationships is a vital part of any comprehensive SEO strategy.
The final type of SEO, technical SEO, includes the performance of the website and its code. Since this type of SEO is behind the scenes, it is easy to overlook. Slower websites with code that doesn’t optimize mobile access suffer in SERP rankings. SEO strategies that prioritize website speed and optimized mobile access will see increased website traffic.
2) Choosing Inappropriate Keywords
Keyword choice is an aspect of SEO strategy that has more flexibility. Businesses that have poorly chosen keywords tagged to their content suffer when it comes to website traffic. This can be for a number of reasons including that keywords are not related to their business, they have low rankings, or other such issues. Businesses can choose keywords that are closely related to their business offerings, with a variety of ranking levels.
3) Not Analyzing SEO
The most detrimental mistake a business can make is not completing an analysis of their SEO strategy. Without performing an analysis, you can’t know if the strategy is effective. Businesses that don’t analyze their SEO miss out on the opportunity to repeat the things that boosted their website traffic most, or improve upon the things that didn’t perform as well.
A good analysis will tell you which keywords are driving the most traffic to your website, as well as if your backlink traffic is lacking. Analysis will also identify issues in website coding and speed that are hindering your SEO goals. The team at Visual Rankings can help your business develop and analyze a SEO strategy that works for you. Contact us today!
