6 Common SEO Mistakes Businesses Make

Marketers get it. It isn’t enough just to have a website. Businesses need good SEO to show up and rank high in the search engines. While there are many factors that determine search engine rankings, here are six common mistakes businesses make with SEO.

1. Not Enough Content

They say content is king. Relevant content is a critical part of good SEO.

2. Underutilizing Keywords

Keywords are the search terms that website visitors use to find what they are looking for in search engines. Good website content should be relevant, and should also contain the keywords visitors will use to find you. Keywords should be present in page titles, headings, content and alt tags.

3. Missing ALT Tags

Images have ALT tags, or meta descriptions, within the code of a website. Since images don’t have “text”, ALT tags give search engines a way to make images searchable content. With the exception of accent or background images, every image on a website should contain an ALT tag using descriptive content and relevant keywords.

4. Bad Page Titles

In addition to other content, page titles help search engines match a user’s search terms with relevant content on the web. A common mistake many web designers make is to use an ambiguous page title. For example, a hotel’s Rooms page should have a more meaningful page title than simply “Rooms”. Instead, a better page title might be “Hotel Rooms Downtown Chicago, IL | ABC Hotel”.

5. Missing Links

Incoming, outgoing and back links are all important parts of the SEO equation.

6. Ignoring the Reports

Analytics tell us how a website is performing. These reports can show what pages are being visited most and for how long. We can determine where visitors are from and the keywords used to find your website, as well how website behavior converts into sales or other conversion goals. Reviewing analytics reports on a regular basis helps us determine what keywords and content to adjust on a website and improve its performance, such as reducing bounce rates.