If you’re familiar with digital marketing, then you know SEO is an important tool to boost your business’s searchability and visibility online. By using SEO, you can improve your website’s ranking in Google’s Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) and reach top rankings in the search engine; therefore, boosting your content to a wider audience. Which seems easier said than done! 

With the influx of marketing tips and tricks online, it can be challenging to discern between what is helping and what is hurting your SEO strategy. In this blog, we’re going to go over the SEO tips that aren’t helping your brand online.  

1. Duplicating Your Competitor’s Link Profile

In the digital marketing realm, emulation is a common technique that businesses use to get a leg up on their competition. Or so they think! Competitive analysis is a great technique and can yield impressive results; however, emulating your competition isn’t guaranteed to make your business rank higher in search engines. The goal here isn’t to depend solely on emulating your competitor’s content, but instead, creating a link profile that your competitors can’t turn around and copy.

2. All Backlinks Are Created Equal

One of the most important tools in SEO marketing is backlinks. Essentially, backlinks are a way to tell Google that another resource finds your content valuable and worthy of linking back to their own content. As a website gains additional backlinks, search engines deem them valuable enough to rank well on the SERPs. 
 
While backlinks are important, using too many of them can actually hurt your online rankings––especially if you depend on them as your primary source for marketing. Though Google relies heavily on link building, it’s important to remember that not all backlinks are created equal. 

3. Write for Something

SEO is one of those things that sometimes sounds like ‘nerd talk’ or technical jargon––aka it’s a niche topic and not everyone understands it. Over the years, we’ve seen people try to outsmart Google by using keyword-stuffing, spamdexing, black-hat SEO, and producing content with too many keywords.  

But your customers aren’t dumb! They can spot a fake from a mile away, and that’s a good thing. You owe it to your customers to speak to them in your own voice, not some AI-generated mumbo jumbo. Essentially, speak to your customers as yourself.

4. Analyze Leads Solely Through Call Tracking

We don’t at all question the value of call tracking phone numbers––it’s a great way to provide insights on an otherwise low visibility channel. Customers love calling businesses because it’s an efficient way to communicate to a person, rather than fill out a form online and wait to be contacted. It’s personal! However, excessive usage of call tracking can lead to significant information inconsistency issues.  

Since the consistency of business information is one of the most important components of high ranking factors on Google, it’s best to keep your call tracking numbers consistent. 

5. Great Content Is Sufficient Enough

As a marketing agency, we love good content. What’s more? We know when and how to use content within our marketing strategy. While it’s true that content plays an important role in the SEO world, great content is not sufficient enough for having a site that ranks well. Even the best content won’t keep your website afloat if your site has poor site navigation or poor optimization.

So yes, we love great content, and Google does, too! However, great content should not be the piece of your SEO strategy that is keeping your business afloat online.  

From low-quality backlinks to keyword stuffing, you can find poor SEO tips all over the internet. These five tips are a great start for brands who are looking to build their brand online and land high rankings on Google. When in doubt, reach out.