Every small business owner knows that having an online presence is essential, but having a website and social media is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to an effective marketing strategy. Strong search engine optimization should be an ongoing priority for growing your business, and even small mistakes can make a big impact. Want to know how to improve SEO for your small business? Avoid these common SEO mistakes:
SEO Mistake #1: Lacking Local SEO
What is the difference between local and organic SEO? Organic SEO attracts traffic to your website with high-quality content that ranks for relevant keywords, increasing visibility, engagement, and conversions. The goal is to optimize your website’s relevancy, trustworthiness, and authority through informative content that answers the search query and intent.
On the other hand, local SEO focuses on boosting your site’s ranking for local search results confined to your business’s local vicinity. Things like a GMB (Google My Business) profile, online citations, reviews, local content, and local links on your website are crucial for helping your customers connect with you and find a specific product or service, as well as practical information like directions or a phone number.
SEO Mistake #2: No Link Building Strategy
Another one of the most common SEO mistakes small businesses make is not utilizing backlinks as part of their SEO strategy. Doing on-site SEO, such as making content that’s helpful and engaging, using relevant keywords, and making sure your site is user-friendly, isn’t enough. Off-page SEO is just as important, and link building is one of the best ways to increase your website’s authority.
SEO Mistake #3: Not Customizing Website SEO
Small business website builders like Squarespace, Webflow, and Wix are bad for SEO. Why? There is a lack of technical SEO, the ability to customize URL structure, and excess code that results in performance and site loading issues, among many other problems. If you want more control over your SEO, these platforms will hinder more than they help.
SEO Mistake #4: Not Adapting Your Strategy for AI
AI is here to stay, and not adjusting your marketing strategy is one of the most costly small business SEO mistakes! AI search like Chat GPT or Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) is shifting the way we approach SEO, and yes, that means your website needs more than keywords and backlinks. Optimizing your site for both AI and SEO ensures your site will show up in generative engines and traditional searches, as well as keeps you ahead of the competition.
Our Digital Marketing Experts Can Help Grow Your Business
Many mistakes small business owners make when using SEO come down to this: You don’t know what you don’t know. You’re busy running day-to-day operations and managing employees, not reading up on the latest marketing trends and strategies for search engine optimization.
The good news is that there is a simple solution to avoiding these common SEO mistakes: hiring the digital marketing experts at IMEG. Unlike marketing agencies that simply manage your marketing, we take a results-driven approach to see what’s working and what’s not. Get in touch with our business growth experts to learn more about refreshing your SEO strategy!
