Common SEO Mistakes by Small Businesses

Thanks to the combined power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning, you can now find and use many apps and services built to streamline your SEO efforts.

From keyword search tools and website auditing tools to image alt generator tools and plagiarism tools, there’s a world of free and paid resources to help you manage a one-man SEO team.

Plugins have advanced as they offer users many features to get them a better SEO score. Some of these features include:

• SEO Audit (title tags, meta descriptions, etc.)
• IndexNow (submits your website updates to search engines)
• Link assistant (internal linking automation, audit of outbound and broken links)
• Redirection (manage redirects, fix broken links, and eliminate 404 errors)

Your website is the digital version of your office or storefront. If it’s cluttered, confusing, or slow to load, potential customers will bounce faster than you can say “lost lead.” Google also prioritizes websites that offer a smooth and enjoyable browsing experience. 

Focus on the following factors to optimize your website’s user experience (UX):

• Page speed
• User-centric content
• Responsive design
• Web page & content structures 
• Navigation menu
• Website layout
• Website design

These items are crucial for Small Business Search Engine Optimization to rank higher on Google.

Google Search Console (GSC) is a free, and possibly one of the best, sources of data for website owners. You can use it to: 

• Get insights into your website’s search performance 
• Identify crawl errors
• Identify site maps
• Identify mobile users’ issues
• Identify top organic pages and their traffic source
• Analyze backlinks 
• Check Core Web Vitals scores
• Understand how users are interacting with your content

Setting up a GSC account is quick and easy. Just open https://search.google.com/search-console/about and follow the on-screen instructions to create an account and refine your SEO strategy.

The first step in creating valuable content is keyword research and competitor analysis. Identifying what topics you should (and can) cover will help you create an SEO Content Plan. Use that plan (or calendar) to create consistent, informative, and user-centric content.

From a search engine’s perspective like Google or Bing, the better your website content is, the better YOU are. This encompasses your small business’s topical and domain authority, relevance, and user experience.

Here are some factors to pay attention to if you plan on optimizing your website content:

• Put user intent first (what do people search for)
• Don’t stuff your keywords (dont go overboard)
• Use multimedia (graphs, photos, charts)
• Don’t beat around the bush when it comes to giving answers to readers
• Use bullet points, lists, images and videos, and short sentences to make your content more readable
• Update your content
• Organize content structure 

Having shitty Website Content is one of the most common SEO Mistakes by small businesses. So many people are trying to cheat and take shortcuts by using AI or ChatGPT to write content. Google does not like AI Content — they like unique and human-written content.

If you’re a small brick-and-mortar business, then Local SEO is your best friend. So if you haven’t put any effort into local SEO, it’s high time you do.

1. Start by claiming your Google My Business listing
2. Make your NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) consistent across the web
3. Fully Optimize your GBP then manage/update it weekly
4. Get local citations to improve your local ranking on SERPs
5. Ask customers to leave reviews if they were satisfied (or not)

Local SEO is one of our main and most popular services here at Momentum Digital. We work with many local services businesses and brick-and-mortar companies with packages as low as $500/month.

SEO is an ongoing process that needs constant adjustments, not a one-time solution. Search engine algorithms are constantly evolving, and your competitors are likely aiming for the same keywords. So the less up-to-date you are, the further you fall behind. 

So use any free (Google Analytics, GSC, etc,) or paid tool or service to schedule regular SEO audits and assess your website’s performance. Track your target keyword rankings, monitor backlinks, and analyze user behavior data to identify areas for improvement. 

You can also hire an SEO Freelancer or Marketing Agency to do this for you. This will ensure that you avoid the Most Common SEO Mistakes for Small Businesses, such as yours!