5 Key Signs You’re Doing SEO Wrong

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

While there is no set “right way” to run an SEO campaign, as each site will approach it differently based on their needs and goals, there is a wrong way to manage SEO. Are you guilty of one or more of these 5 things? It may mean that you are mishandling your SEO campaign.

1. All you can focus on is ranking number 1 in Google.
There are dozens of reports that will explain what percentage of clicks the first listing in Google gets compared to the second listing, so I’m not going to say it doesn’t matter where your site ranks. Obviously the higher you rank in the SERPs the better. What I am saying is that you shouldn’t only worry about rank position. The search engines are trying to personalize search, and that means that results will sometimes vary person by person based on search history, location and other factors you can’t account for. Rank is important, but don’t pigeonhole your vision so it’s the only thing you care about.

2. Your blog is dead in the water.
If you launched a business blog and haven’t written a new post in 6 months, it’s time to reevaluate your SEO. SEO thrives on the consistent production of great content that strives to connect with, engage and educate your target audience. A stagnant blog will only hinder the overall success of your SEO.

3. You treat your social profiles like ad space.
Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn (the Big 3 of social networking sites) are not new places for you to advertise. If you want any real value coming out of your social profiles and social media marketing, you have got to start building relationships with your customers and creating an online community for your brand. Use your social profiles to promote and share content, address customer service issues, engage in conversations with your target audience and more. Don’t just turn your Facebook page into a static ad for your products, no one cares and you’ll never see much value from it.

4. Any link is a good link no matter where it comes from.
Links are the bread and butter of SEO, but not all links are created equal. Don’t compromise the integrity of your site and overall SEO campaign by engaging in black hat link building tactics like link exchanges or blog comment spamming. 10,000 links from low-quality, spammy sites aren’t nearly as valuable in the long run as 1,000 links from high-quality, relevant sites. Quality over quantity it what matters when it comes to link building. Sometime the easy way to build links will land you in hot water with the search engines.

5. You think SEO is free.
“Free” is relative. If you are handling your SEO in-house, how many man hours are being put into your SEO? Does that employee have to sacrifice some of their other daily activities in order to handle your SEO? Did you spend money to send them to a workshop or training webinar? Did you purchase SEO software to help streamline the process and automate some tasks? If you’re outsourcing your SEO you obviously have to pay your new SEO provider to do the heavy lifting for you. SEO isn’t free once you really think it, even if it doesn’t cost anything to build a social profile or launch a free WordPress blog.