Is your SEO not working? Are you struggling to drive organic website traffic and improve search engine rankings? Perhaps you’ve tried fixing small SEO mistakes, like page speed optimization and meta titles, but still aren’t seeing results that move the needle. If you’re ready to learn how to fix SEO issues that substantially impact your overall strategy, you’re in the right place. Keep reading to learn the big SEO mistakes nobody is talking about and actionable solutions to help you fix them.
SEO Mistake #1: Your Keyword Research Isn’t Thorough
Keyword research is the foundation of any successful SEO strategy. It involves identifying the keywords your target audience is searching for and aligning them with your content. However, simply targeting popular keywords isn't enough. Understanding keyword intent is crucial. This means knowing the user's search intent behind a particular keyword and providing relevant content that fulfills that intent.
You also need to consider Keyword Difficulty scores, which tell you how competitive a SERP is for a given keyword from 0 to 100. Higher scores indicate a lot of competition, making it harder for websites with low domain authority to rank on the first page of search. Choosing keywords with scores below 50 gives you a better chance of your SEO efforts paying off.
To fix this SEO mistake, follow these four steps:
Understand your target audience: Gain a deep understanding of your target audience's demographics, interests, and pain points. This knowledge will help you identify keywords that align with their search intent.
Use keyword research tools: Utilize keyword research tools such as Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to discover relevant keywords and analyze their search volume and competition.
Consider long-tail keywords: Long-tail keywords are more specific and typically have lower competition. Using these keywords can help you attract highly targeted traffic and improve your chances of ranking in search results.
Analyze keyword intent: For example, are users looking for information, seeking to make a purchase, or comparing options? Aligning your content with intent will ensure you deliver the correct information to your audience.
By incorporating these strategies, you'll fix this SEO issue, increase your chances of ranking on search engines, and drive website traffic.
Pro Tip: Learn how to build a keyword map to ensure you’re targeting the best keywords every time!
SEO Mistake #2: You Don’t Have a Content Strategy
Hate to break it to you, but keyword research is not a content strategy. Neither is posting on social media, copywriting, or any other content deliverable. While content marketing is essential, a content strategy isn’t the what; it’s the how.
A content strategy is a comprehensive plan and repeatable system that determines how content is created, managed, and distributed to achieve specific goals. It involves strategic planning, research, and analysis to ensure the content produced aligns with your target audience's needs and supports the objectives of your business. A well-defined content strategy plays a crucial role in improving SEO performance in two ways:
Relevant and Targeted Content: A content strategy helps identify the topics, themes, and keywords pertinent to your target audience. You can create content that addresses their needs and queries by conducting thorough research and understanding user intent. This relevancy improves the chances of your content being discovered by search engines and displayed to users searching for related information.
Consistent Content Creation: Regularly creating and publishing high-quality content is crucial for SEO success. A content strategy ensures a constant flow of fresh content that is valuable and engaging for your target audience. Search engines favor websites that consistently produce new content, which signals relevance and authority.
To fix this SEO mistake, try this:
Start by defining your target audience and understanding their needs and pain points. Then plan a content calendar to ensure a consistent flow of high-quality content that aligns with your audience's interests. By creating valuable and engaging content regularly, you'll attract more organic traffic and establish your website as an authority in your industry.
Pro Tip: If you need help developing a content strategy that’ll help fix SEO issues, reach out to me today for a personalized plan and monthly support.
SEO Mistake #3: You’re Not Building Internal Links
Internal linking plays a crucial role in SEO. So when it comes to how to fix SEO issues, it’s imperative not to overlook the power of internal linking for improved website navigation and enhanced indexing and crawling.
Internal links help visitors navigate your website more easily, ensuring they discover related content, improving the user experience, reducing bounce rates, and increasing time spent on your site. This signals to search engines that your website is valuable and relevant.
Internal links also provide a pathway for search engine crawlers to discover and index your content. By interlinking your pages strategically, you ensure that all critical pages on your site are easily accessible to search engines, increasing the chances of them being indexed and ranked in search results.
To fix this SEO mistake, here’s what to do:
Start by auditing your website for existing opportunities to add internal links. Look for relevant anchor text within your content and link them to other related pages on your website. Then, create new blog posts and deploy an aggressive internal linking strategy between all posts. These efforts will improve the SEO value of your internal pages and encourage visitors to explore more of your website.
Pro Tip: Aim for 5-10 internal links for every 2,000 words on a page.
SEO Mistake #4: You’re Writing “Thin” Content
Content quality matters! “Thin” content refers to shallow, low-value content that fails to provide meaningful information to the reader. Conversely, search engines prioritize high-quality content that offers value and solves user queries.
This is even more essential since Google’s Helpful Content Update, which aims to reward high-quality content with high-ranking search positions. According to the update, content creators and SEOs should 1) Focus on people-first content and 2) avoid creating content for search engines first.
To fix this SEO mistake, “beef up” your content:
Fix these SEO issues by improving landing page and blog post content with these tips:
Incorporate in-depth examples and case studies to provide real-life scenarios that illustrate your points and add depth to your content.
Share personal stories and experiences that resonate with your audience, making your content more relatable and engaging.
Utilize relevant and up-to-date statistics and research findings to support your claims and provide credibility to your content.
Include visuals such as infographics, charts, and images to enhance the visual appeal and clarity of your content.
Break down complex concepts into easily understandable explanations to ensure your content is accessible to a wide range of readers.
Use storytelling techniques to create a narrative structure within your content, capturing the attention and interest of your audience.
Incorporate actionable tips, step-by-step guides, or checklists to provide practical value and actionable takeaways for your readers.
Conduct original research or surveys and share your findings to establish yourself as an authority in your field and provide unique insights.
Embed multimedia content such as videos, podcasts, or interactive elements to offer your audience a diverse and engaging experience.
Encourage reader interaction and engagement through comments, discussions, and social sharing to foster a sense of community and increase the reach of your content.
By creating rich and valuable content, you'll fix SEO issues and improve your chances of ranking higher in search engine results.
Pro Tip: Analyze the top three ranking articles for a given keyword and identify three ways to write better content than theirs.
SEO Mistake #5: You’re Not Cross-Promoting Your Content
Creating great content is just the first step; promoting in various ways across multiple channels and platforms is equally important. Your SEO not working makes sense if you approach it with a set-it-and-forget-it mentality. Creating more exposure to your brand will bring more visitors to the site. This can positively impact engagement metrics and help naturally build a backlink profile.
To fix this SEO mistake, incorporate cross-promotion in these ways:
Explore other channels, such as paid search advertising and social media promotion. Provide valuable insights, answer questions, and subtly promote your content or offerings on social media and forums. Collaborate with complementary businesses or influencers in your industry to cross-promote each other's content or products. Try your hand at guest blogging, co-hosting webinars or podcasts, or going live on social media.
Pro Tip: Make cross-promotion a central part of your content strategy.
SEO Not Working? I Can Help Fix All Your SEO Issues!
If your SEO isn't delivering your desired results, it's time to reevaluate your strategy and address these common SEO issues. Remember, while fixing minor SEO mistakes is important, the above points carry more weight and substantially impact your rankings. By implementing these fixes, you'll be on the right path to improving your SEO and driving more organic traffic to your website.
Don't let SEO mistakes hold you back from achieving your online goals. Contact me today, and let's work together to turn your SEO challenges into successes. With my help, you can unlock the full potential of your website to benefit your target audience, search engine rankings, and more!