Top 4 Search Engine Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Steve Hamm

In between website development and landing page optimization, your business has to focus on positioning itself as a local thought leader in your niche. Doing this involves targeted search engine marketing that appeals to your local consumer base. Yet in this context, it is possible to make mistakes when you are unaware of the ever-changing aspects of content development and search engine optimization.

Failing to Think Like a Consumer

You have found the ideal pay-per-click (PPC) term that encapsulates everything your business stands for. Granted, it is a high-cost term, but you are willing to spend the money. The problem arises when this particular term is not something that your targeted customer would be searching for. The failure to think like a consumer and instead target the industry insider is costly.

Insufficient Tracking Metrics

What constitutes an excellent return on investment (ROI) for your PPC strategy? What would you consider acceptable – but only just? If you do not work with tracking software and analytics tools that give you clear information about your search engine marketing ROI, it is impossible to further define your strategy.

Questionable Inbound Links

When another website links to yours, it signals to the search engines that you are an authority in your niche. The problem arises when the websites that do the linking are associated with link farms or pay-to-play pages. What you want instead are highly authoritative sites that affirm your standing. This type of link building calls for expertise and an insider’s look at what search engines promote or penalize.

Part-time Efforts

Search engine marketing is not a part-time endeavor. It requires expertise, industry knowledge, dedication to a content strategy and a continuous honing of marketing strategies based on metrics. Unless you are running a business where your staff handles all of the day-to-day aspects of production, consumer interaction, and associated tasks, it is a tall order to do all that and then add the online marketing to the mix. Leave it to the professionals for best results.

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