Now we know the main basic factors that make up two of the three factors that search engines use to rank you. We will go into the different aspects of these two areas in later posts, but first lets see if there is anything you can do to help. One of many questions will be “can I do anything myself?”. Well, the answer is obviously a resounding “yes”. There are many things you can do that aren’t technical and will definitely help, but first lets look at what won’t!
Common DIY SEO mistakes
Work as a team with your SEO company:
So if you are working alongside a professional SEO company remember that the key tactic here is to be part of a team. It’s not the amount you do that will help. It’s what you do. Talk to each other and let them guide you in what you are doing. Do not work independently, after all, you are paying them for their knowledge so carrying on “solo” is obviously a mistake. Being part of a team is bound to lead to better results.
Letting friends help with SEO or Web Design:
Other common mistakes are letting a “friend” who is “good with technical” stuff work on your site (or offsite). Another previously mentioned mistake is that of doing something which is considered good too many times (like blog commenting or social posts). Instead of doing these at a moderate rate and making them unique, instead you copy and paste the same thing over and over telling Google that you are trying to manipulate it. This is one of the main reasons why Google and others sit and wait on what they see to make sure it is considered worthy of helping your site (white hat) and adding to your sites authority as opposed to suddenly it being repeated endlessly and being considered spammy (black hat).
Copying someone else SEO as it worked for them:
This is probably the easiest mistake to make for the uninitiated. Just copying what someone else is doing may obviously seem like a good idea, but unless you know everything that they are doing you will only be copying part of a strategy (which is no strategy at all). It will all come down to the details rather than just hearing the basics of what they did. Every site, history, competition and area of business are unique and so the strategy for your site should be equally as unique. Whilst the fundamental principles and rules of SEO are the same for everyone, the application of these is not.
Buying large amounts of links:
Links work right? They are one of the strongest ranking factors right? What can go wrong? Well, whilst this is all true, unfortunately so is the opposite. This is the most punishable and constantly changing factor in your rankings also. We will look at links in detail in a later post, but for now just don’t buy random links. Ever. Ok?
What you can do to actually help your SEO
There are some very simple but important things that you can do that will boost your domains authority. The main one being Google’s recent favourite of content. “Content is King” we heard Google say for the past few years (as it relentlessly punished links). Adding unique, relevant and engaging content to your site is key. After all, who knows more about your business than you? You might know how to optimise this content and some of it might compete, but it’s still adding rather than taking away.
The next most helpful factor is if you are good at social media which sends “social signals” to search engines (like tiny beacons saying that you are active and important rather than static and possibly out of business) then you can take sole charge of this area, letting your SEO team concentrate on the factors that contribute most highly towards your rankings.
We’ll look at the details of how content, links and the other major factors work soon which will help increase your ability to help your own SEO.