When it comes to online promotion, you cannot overlook SEO. Whether we are talking about a startup or a more established business, SEO is a service that can increase visibility and, at the same time, profit. However, if it is not done right, the results will be nowhere near your expectations.
Below, I will present 5 things that can harm your SEO strategy.
1. Targeting the wrong keywords
Picture the following scenario: a sedentary person suddenly decides to run a marathon. Do they have any real chance of finishing such a race? Of course not. They are not trained, they lack the stamina and they would risk getting injured.
It is the same with SEO: by targeting keywords that are too big, where the top positions are held by competitors who already have serious experience in the online promotion game, you will enter a fight you cannot win.
If we are talking about a startup, we are automatically talking about a new site, with no backlink profile. No matter how good the content is, Google will favor sites that have proven their relevance for those keywords over time.
The site needs “healthy” growth; everything happens gradually. In the first phase, promoting the site on more niche keywords is more effective. Even if they do not generate as much traffic, it is a first step toward the goal you want.
2. Irrelevant page titles and descriptions
SEO is a marketing strategy in which using all your resources efficiently is very well rewarded. On this principle, we should never neglect meta titles and meta descriptions.
Using keywords to create relevant titles and descriptions for the pages of your site will be a big plus for your business’s online visibility. At the same time, it will significantly improve the experience of users, who will have easy access to information about the services you offer. This will translate into a lower bounce rate, another significant ranking factor.
3. Chaotic site architecture
Some time ago, a menu at the top of the site with “Home”, “Services”, “About us”, “Contact” buttons and so on might have been enough. But web page architecture has evolved since then.
Just think of a user who has to do a lot of clicking and scrolling to find what they are interested in. Google appreciates sites that look good and work efficiently. These aspects are part of on-page SEO and user experience. A rigorous analysis of how users get to what interests them is very important.
Here is an example of how this can work: imagine I have a site that offers accounting services and I write an article about the importance of accounting services in relation to external audit. At the end of the article, I can insert a sentence like “if this information helped and you have more questions that need answers, you can contact us here”. Of course, it will include a hyperlink to the page of the services mentioned in the text, not simply to the homepage. This way, the potential client can move smoothly to relevant information on that site. And Google will take note of it.
4. Ignoring the data in Analytics and Search Console
Strategy is very important when it comes to SEO. And one of the best ways to check how effective it is, is to analyze the statistics. The numbers do not just record data; they give an exact measure of how effective the chosen strategy is.
You may indeed see traffic growth on your site, but the time users spend there is extremely short. Or the bounce rate is very high, which will have a negative effect on your page’s ranking.
In these situations, the traffic generated will rather be considered harmful to the site. User behavior will show that they did not find the results on your site relevant, and Google will act accordingly.
If this happens, you need a different approach to the strategy. Even if you only gain 10 extra visitors in a week, if they spend a lot of time on the site and visit several pages, the ranking benefit is much greater than that of 100 users who left the page in the first few seconds.
In other words, by looking at the statistics from as many angles as possible, we can find information that gradually improves the chosen strategy.
5. Unrealistic expectations
Understanding this point is very important. Since its early days, SEO has evolved alongside the constant improvement of Google’s indexing algorithms. Everyone wants fast results, but that is not how the SEO “game” works. After one week of a campaign, neither organic traffic, nor conversion rate, nor SERP positions will explode. Precisely because it is a complex strategy, an SEO campaign produces results after a few months.
Finding the right keywords, internal audits, on-page SEO, link building and everything else need time to turn into results. Although it sounds a bit discouraging, we have to see SEO as an investment both in marketing and in your own business. Results will not be long in coming, but the whole process needs time to unfold as naturally as possible, precisely in order to “convince” Google of your site’s quality and relevance.
In conclusion, SEO is an indispensable part of any content-based online marketing strategy. Although there is a mountain of advice on the Internet, a number of typical mistakes still slip through. That is why you need a good understanding of the challenges and of other people’s experiences. Precisely so you do not repeat their mistakes.
Specialists in SEO, GEO, performance marketing and web development, with 17 years of experience on projects in Romania and 23 other markets.
