How To Tell You Have A Bad SEO Strategy

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by: Dev Sperling | search engine optimization

If you do your business’ SEO work, you’ll probably know by now that it’s complicated because it constantly changes. With that, it can be hard to tell if what you’re doing is helping or harming you. Today we’re covering four tell-tale signs you’re making bad SEO efforts for your business.

You’re not using specific keywords.

You may think you know the keywords that apply to your business, but if you are putting in too general of keywords into your content, you’re not going to be found by the people hoping to discover your business. Get specific as possible with who you service and what you offer. Opt for long-tail keywords, which are longer, more specific keyword phrases. Long tail keywords get lower traffic, but will usually have a higher conversion rate as they are more specific. Long tail keywords should be utilized by companies that offer specialized products or services.

You’re applying black hat techniques instead of white hat techniques.

Blackhat SEO techniques are techniques that focus on search engines instead of human interest. They include keyword stuffing, spammed blog posts, link farming (the creation of websites just to increase the popularity of a link), hidden content, and duplicate content. Blackhat techniques go against search engine guidelines and should not be practised. Instead, businesses should utilize white hat techniques, which obey search engine guideline and center on human interest. White hat techniques includes back linking, link building, using relevant keywords, and writing content for humans. White hat techniques will also provide users with the best user experience possible.

You’re not utilizing social media.

If you haven’t created social media profiles for your business yet, then you need to hop on that now. Everybody is on it today and it can help improve your SEO because when people share your content it backlinks to your site. Additionally, more and more people are using social media to help them find services. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram are the most popular social media accounts, but don’t forget to post content to your Google + account as there are numerous opportunities to reach your audience there too.

You expect instant results.

To get good SEO results, you need to be patient and evaluate your efforts. Compare your efforts to organic trends every now and then, research what competitors are doing, and analyze your data in Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Above all else, realize SEO  takes time and if you put in the work you will see improvement soon.