So, you’ve read our 5 Tips to Improve your SEO Ranking and learned the ‘do’s’ of SEO. But what about the ‘don’ts’?
If you have an online business, chances are you’ve heard of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). If you haven’t, SEO simply refers to the process of improving where your website appears in search engine results. It might not sound that exciting, but it can be really important in the growth of your small business!
Here’s what to stay wary of when employing SEO; keep these 4 common mistakes in mind and succeed where others often don’t!
DON’T skip meta titles and descriptions
Meta descriptions are used to describe a webpage within its HTML. This ‘metadata’ isn’t visible on the webpage itself, but is critical to search engines. Search engines use metadata to understand what information is present on a webpage, in order to rank it in relevant search results.
Meta titles are similar, in that they are also HTML, metadata elements, and relate the contents of the webpage. However, titles, as the name suggests, title a page, and are intended to be more succinct than the more extensive meta description.
In other words, meta titles summarise webpage content whereas meta description thoroughly describes it.
Meta titles and descriptions are the displayed elements of your webpage on search engine results pages- the ‘preview’ of the page.
Both meta titles and descriptions are vitally important to the success of your SEO efforts. When both are accurately and thoroughly written, search engines are able to display your webpage correctly and higher up in relevant search results, increasing your target audience’s exposure to your content.
DON’T forget to measure the metrics
Simply put, metrics are all the statistics and data you collect when measuring the successes and failures of your marketing campaign. Keeping track of exact figures is vital to see whether or not your SEO is actually working!
It may seem relevant to only track your search engine results ranking, as that is what SEO is out to improve, but other stats can be useful to keep an eye on, such as your conversion rate and your traffic. After all, if your SEO is improving your search engine results ranking, you can expect an increase in conversion rate and traffic too!
Keeping track of your metrics means your success rate can be quantifiable measured, and further, informed improvements can be made to your strategy.
DON’T sleep on SEO tactic evolution
Everything about the Internet is in a constant state of updating and evolving. Search engines are no different. They are forever tweaking their algorithms to make their search results pages more accurate and more relevant.
Using SEO tactics that were developed for previous incarnations of search engine algorithms is not only a waste of time, but also a good way to ruin your likelihood of high-ranking search results.
This is another reason to keep the previous tip in mind; staying aware of your metrics can help inform your own original SEO tactics and keep you from blindly following others’ outdated advice.
DON’T just write for the algorithm
Finally, whilst it’s wise to keep search engine algorithms in mind when employing SEO, it’s also important to remember your real audience – your potential human customers.
The constant updating of search engine algorithms is only done to accommodate the humans using those search engines. SEO provides users with better, more relevant content that satisfies their searches and questions. Remembering to write for your human audience then, is almost a guaranteed fail-safe SEO strategy.
Your ultimate goal with your content should be satisfying your potential customers and site visitors with answers to their queries.
Our Final Say
SEO can have a really considerable impact on the growth of your Amazon store or your e-Commerce business. Knowing what not to do is just as important as knowing what you should be doing.
Hopefully if you follow our tips, you can get some guidance on the do’s and don’ts of SEO! If you need more advice, check out some of our other guides.
Or, maybe you feel ready to outsource your e-commerce marketing to a professional service like ours. If this might be you, take a look at our services!