You have read tips on what to do and what to expect when it comes to running your own SEO team but what about the things to avoid? It is best to learn from the mistakes of other people so that you don’t have to experience them yourselves. Every mistake that you make can mean a lost client or worse, actual money being drained from your bank accounts.
Here’s what we think are the top 5 worst mistakes you can ever make if you are running your own SEO company.
Mistake #1: No sense of ownership for the results
Mistake #1: No sense of ownership for the results
If there is no one person owning the data that comes out of SEO results, then you are screwed. Someone can easily blame another team member and the blame-passing never ends. At one point, one person must be held accountable for the SEO numbers and analytics per client of yours. That is simply non-negotiable. Then it is up to this person to help improve the numbers if it is negative or help maintain the velocity if things are doing well.
Mistake #2: Not using Google’s Rich Snippets tool
Most of your SEO changes takes time to take effect but there are a few things that you can check within a few days like the rich snippets support for Google hits. You must use this tool provided by Google so that you can provide quick links, at the results level, to important sections of your site. For example, if you are selling women’s shoes, you might want to have rich snippets for:
• Running shoes
• Same day delivery feature
• SALE items
Mistake #3: Not knowing your top 5 conversion words
If you and your team do not know the top 5 words that lead the most conversions (not necessarily the most traffic) into your pages (or your client’s pages) then you are in trouble. How do you know which are your top 5 conversion words (words that lead to sales)?
• List words that you aspire your team to be associated with
• Create a focused list of words that correlate to one another
• Check out your closest competitors words when you search them on Google
Mistake #4: Not investing in a good domain name
We cannot stress this enough – a lame sounding domain name is a recipe for disaster. Domains with hyphens, variations in spelling or worse, are difficult to read (think if you print the URL on a shirt – is it easy to read?) are less likely to be remembered by your customers. While we live in an age where you just have to click a link, it is STILL an advantage to have easy to remember domain names. Invest in them!
Mistake #5: Overdoing your SEO efforts
Lastly, overdoing your SEO efforts can land you in the blacklist of Google. Don’t keyword stuff, don’t overdo your link building at the expense of losing quality content.
