In beginning your SEO (search engine optimization) campaigns, it’s important you work with a qualified Atlanta SEO agency to achieve lasting online marketing results. We believe that not setting up your site for on-page SEO is the equivalent of purchasing business cards and not passing them out to anyone.  You want people to be able to find you online the same way you want them to be able to find you after you meet them in person. Our team has great experience in all facets of SEO, and in this latest post, we’ll explain the top SEO mistakes growing companies make.

1. Choosing the wrong keywords
   The keywords you select for your campaigns should be relevant to your business and have a high search volume. Make sure you work with an expert who uses the latest keyword selection tools to help you make your decision on target keywords. Also, make sure that the products and services pages on your website are the terms that your ideal customer would use to search for someone like you.

2. Creating irrelevant content

Another common mistake we see is companies creating content that is not related to their target keywords. Many companies develop blogs based on things they like to talk about (which is fine sometimes), but ideally you want to have themes in mind for your audience to help them meet their needs and solve their challenges.  Blogging without a theme in mind will limit the results through Google as the search platform won’t recognize the topic being linked to the content.  We recommend developing an editorial calendar with target keywords and a frequent publishing schedule.

3. Not using title tags and meta descriptions
   Your content’s title tags and page headers help the Google algorithm determine which content to deliver in response to a search query. Your meta descriptions don’t influence search rankings, but they do impact a potential customer’s desire to click through to your page. If you don’t add tags and headers to your content, you may find that the content isn’t indexed, while not including meta descriptions may decrease click-through rates.

4. Not investing in mobile
   Your site content must be designed to be easy to read across all devices. Google is now lowering the rankings of sites that aren’t mobile-optimized. It is important that you work with a qualified Atlanta SEO agency to ensure your site performs well on mobile devices as well as desktop systems.

5. Not connecting with social media influencers
   Your target audience is more likely to trust content if it’s disseminated through influential social media users. Making high quality, share-worthy content and then using relationships with power users to share content across social media can increase SEO rankings significantly. Build these relationships as best you can, but realize that it doesn’t happen overnight.

6. Not having an SSL certificate
   On October 24th, 2017 Google began phase two of its plan to label all HTTP pages as non-secure. Visitors using Chrome are now reminded that your site is not secured by HTTPS. Google introduced SSL as a weak ranking signal way back in 2014. At the time, Google hinted that they might decide to strengthen it as a signal because they wanted to encourage all website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS. Well, the time has come to make the move. Moving your website to HTTPS could be the factor that allows your site to rank higher than a competitor.

7. Forgetting to measure results while practicing patience
   Analytics are critical to the success of SEO campaigns. Only by deploying the leading tools, such as Google Analytics across your campaigns can you make progress over a long period of time. Analytics tools can help you determine what works and what doesn’t within your campaigns. This will help you save money on ineffective strategies.

As a leading Atlanta SEO company, we’re here to help guide you in achieving success with your digital marketing strategies. To discover more about our services, call us today for a consultation.

About the Author

Todd McCarty, WSI, has over 25 years of experience in Marketing and has worked for some of Atlanta’s leading companies in marketing leadership roles.