Search engine optimization best practices often preach major do’s and major don’ts for both small and big businesses. When not followed, these factors could lead to lower online sales and ineffective SEO campaigns. While you witness your competitors commit these top mistakes, why not be the better company and make sure that these common search engine optimization practices are avoided to maximize your SEO campaign? Business Insider lists the five search engine optimization don’ts for small business. Here they are:
1. Targeting the same keywords your competitors are focusing on. Being familiar with the competition is always a good internet marketing strategy, especially when it comes to search engine optimization. However, targeting the keywords your competitors are using is a bit extreme. Firstly, who knows if these targeted keywords actually work for them? If they don’t, this could only lead to a waste of time and effort, not to mention costs. Sure, knowing what keywords your competitors are targeting will give you a glimpse of what you might have missed but will it make sense for your business? Will it help convert clicks into conversion? Blindly targeting a competitor’s keywords is an very hassle-free search engine optimization strategy but copying another business’s entire marketing plan is impossible, if not unethical.
2. Link-building strategies that lead only to the website’s homepage. Granted, we want to have as many relevant traffic directed to our company’s website but there are other optimized pages that could work for SEO. Search engine optimization becomes useful to searchers because you offer the most relevant page possible and this does not necessarily mean the website’s homepage. What online visitor would want to land on a page that has clothes and accessories if he or she was searching for shoes and footwear? For Google to direct search users to the most relevant pages on your website, building keyword-targeted links to that specific page should be practiced.
3. Reciprocal linking. Link exchange is somewhat a gray area as there are search engine optimization experts who consider this practice black hat SEO, unless reciprocal linking is done ethically – personally emailing the website’s owner or moderator to offer link exchanges. This practice should be avoided because it does not drive valuable traffic to your website as clicks only occur because of the “I’ll link to you if you link to me” type of deal. Additionally, link farming or participating in schemes to exchange links with others will cause Google to penalize your website, which you definitely would not want to happen.
While copying a competitor’s targeted keywords, homepage link building, and reciprocal linking are a few of the top search engine optimization practices that should be avoided, Business Insider names more. Stay tuned as we finish this two-part series on the most common search engine optimization don’ts that small businesses should shy away from.
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