Mistakes Small Business Owners Make when using SEO

Many small business owners who run their businesses on their websites tend to neglect SEO or do it themselves, but most times, they don’t get good results, and often run to paid ads.

It may sound complicated when keyword research, link building, website optimisation, and other aspects of SEO are discussed.

SEO encompasses everything that helps search engines understand your website and increase your visibility through search, so it’s a marathon, rather than a sprint.

Is your website not getting enough visibility through search engines, here are likely reasons you’re not getting good results with your SEO efforts.

 

You choose difficult keywords

This is one mistake most SEO beginners and inexperienced business owners make when doing SEO: choosing keywords to rank for based on search volume.

When I started blogging 10 years ago, I targeted keyword phrases that had at least 10,000 monthly searches, thinking that writing 100 articles on such keywords, and building links would get me thousands of pageviews monthly.

With the number of people doing SEO today, even zero monthly search volume keywords are being competed for.

Therefore, instead of targeting ‘plumbing services’ which is too broad, start with “affordable plumbing services in Atlanta”

 

Not understanding what searchers want

Before, Google ranked sites based on keywords. Now, Google understands search intent and ranks webpages based on it, and not what searchers actually typed in the search bar.

To simplify this, a page titled “Top Plumbing Services in Atlanta” can rank for “Best Plumbers in Atlanta”, “How to get good plumbing service in Atlanta”, “What are the best plumbing services in Atlanta”.

Therefore, if you create a page and get target keywords in the title and headings only without answering the questions people are asking in your article, you won’t be able to rank the page.

When doing keyword research, you need to consider the search intent as well before jumping into conclusion that a keyword is less competitive.

 

Publishing generic content that says very little

Many business websites have loads of articles that look good but offer little useful information.

For example, you have an article titled “10 Benefits of Hiring a Professional Plumbing Company”, and have several paragraphs talking about saving time, providing quality service, and safety.

There is nothing particularly useful or original about that information.

Search engines now value expertise and experience in content publishing.

 

Publishing AI-written content without useful information

AI-generated content usually lacks expertise and experience, and sometimes, facts.

Therefore, publishing AI-generated content without human touches, facts, or experience is like rehearsing hundreds of contents already in the search results.

Search engines wouldn’t find your content useful, and your webpage would not rise in the result pages.

Treating SEO as a Sprint

SEO is not what you do once, and get good results. It requires monitoring and improvement rather than one round of edits followed by months of inactivity.

 

Forgetting to interlink related pages

Most small business owners run SEO themselves, so it can be difficult to handle SEO properly.

The more pages you publish, the more you need to find related pages and interlink them.

This helps your visitors to find other pages on your site, and ultimately, other information about your business.

It also helps search engines discover and understand your website and services.

 

Not adding your Business to Google Business Profile

Google My Business, now Google Business Profile is a popular business listing you should get your business on, especially if it’s a local business that targets a particular location.

Setting up your GBP is not enough, ensure your details are accurate, and the same with other directories and Business lists.

Small Business owners with no dedicated marketing or SEO team often get inconsistent results with SEO.

Check that your business name, category, services, address, phone number, operation hours, and other important information are accurate.

 

Having a website that is not mobile-friendly

Most people access the internet with their smartphones, so it’s likely that 7 out of 10 visitors access your website on mobile.

If your website now loads properly, but not on mobile devices, it can make your visitors bounce off before checking your services.

Common problems with websites that are not mobile-friendly are the following.

• Text that is too small.
• Buttons that are difficult to tap.
• Pages that take too long to load.
• Pop-ups covering the main content.
• Menus that are difficult to navigate.

Forms that do not work properly on mobile devices.

 

Using poor page titles and headings

A page title should tell both Google and the visitor what the page is about.

The same principle applies to your headings. A heading such as “Our Services” is less informative than “Emergency Plumbing Services in Atlanta.”

Titles and headings should describe the page accurately instead of being stuffed with keywords.

 

Not having or checking the search engine webmaster tool

Popular search engines like Google and Bing have a webmaster tool that provides website owners with information about how their sites appear in their search engine.

It can help identify search queries that generate impressions and clicks, pages that are indexed, indexing problems, and other search-related information.

 

Allowing important pages to remain inaccessible to search engines

Sometimes the problem is not the content itself, search engines may simply have difficulty finding or indexing some of your pages.

Possible causes include incorrect indexing settings, technical problems, broken links, poor site structure, or accidental instructions that prevent search engines from accessing certain pages.

You need to audit your website periodically and check whether Google is actually indexing all your pages.

 

Creating duplicate or nearly identical pages

Duplicate content can occur in several ways. If you write about different products from the same manufacturer, the manufacturer’s description is likely going to be identical.

Also, if you operate in a micro niche, or deal with specific products or services, it’s likely your content will be similar.

While not every instance of duplicate content is a serious SEO problem, it’s better to make every piece of content unique so it’s easy for Google and visitors to understand.

 

Trying to make one page rank for everything

You cannot put all your services on a single page and expect it to come up for every possible search related to the services on search engines.

You should rather dedicate a page to every service or product, then write about different aspects of the service or product on separate pages and interlink them.

 

Assuming backlinks will come once you have good contents

Forget the old-school SEO methods and practices: publish great content, and bloggers will cite it and offer your site links.

99% of business owners and content publishers genuinely promote their resources, develop relationships within their industry, earn mentions where appropriate, and look for legitimate opportunities to get their work in front of relevant audiences.

 

Buying cheap or spam backlinks

Gone are the days when people spam their webpages with article submission, profile, bookmark, web 2.0 links and rank.

These used to be cheap backlinks that ranked low in competitive search terms in the past.

Now, links from unrelated, low-quality, automated, or spam-filled websites can create problems rather than solve them.

 

Ignoring business information outside the website

Your business’s online presence is not limited to your own website, you should pay attention to what others publish about your business.

Customers may encounter your business through Google, social media, directories, review platforms, maps, industry websites, and other sources.

If your business details are contradictory, it can create trust issues for your potential customers.

 

Focusing too much on word count and keyword density

I’m surprised some people still make the mistake of having high keyword density to influence search ranking.

Also, a few years ago, SEO gurus speak volume about long-form content as the ultimate method of ranking several related terms.

While it’s good to cover any topic in detail and answer relevant questions that searchers are asking, no preferred word count guarantees better search performance.

The same applies to keyword density. You should not count how many times a keyword appears and try to reach an arbitrary percentage.

 

Expecting SEO results immediately

SEO can take time, especially when your website is new or operates in a competitive market.

That does not mean you should blindly wait forever. If you’re doing everything correctly, you should begin to see improvement gradually.