Starting a business is a challenging endeavor even when each step is taken correctly. That said, there are plenty of choices a business owner can make to complicate the process of building a company. When beginning a new business, there are several mistakes that a business owner can make during the formation of their company. Take a look at the following common small business mistakes to ensure that you will not slip into any of these business pitfalls. 

Poor Research

Before investing money and countless hours into starting a business, it’s important to take a look at the market you intend to serve. One of the biggest business mistakes an entrepreneur can make is starting a company off on the wrong foot. You need to be aware of what your target demographic wants and needs. Make sure that your products or services are going to be useful and desirable before setting your plan in motion.

Not Creating A Business Plan

A small business venture can be one mistake after another if those in charge of starting it didn’t plan anything out. It’s a common misconception that running with an idea is the basis of starting a business, but it’s a mistake. Successful companies start with a well-developed business plan. With planning and direction, you can avoid making small business mistakes along the way. It may take time, and it may not be the most exciting part of the process, but business plans will help you many times over as your company develops. 

Poor Financial Planning

Most companies have a difficult first year, where they make little to no money. In addition, many companies do not make enough money for the first several years of operation. 

This means that business owners have to plan ahead financially. If you’re starting a business, be prepared to use your savings to provide for yourself and your family for the first year. On top of supporting yourself for the first year at least, you’ll need to make sure you have enough money to grow your business. 

Poor financial planning is one of the many mistakes to avoid when starting a business. Fortunately, there are solutions available. You might want to look into small business loans or startup grants to help your company get off the ground.

Failure To Invest in Marketing

Even if you have a fantastic idea for a product or service and you’re taking other important steps to start a company, you need marketing. Without an effective marketing strategy, your target demographic won’t be aware that your company exists. 

Though there are free marketing options, they take significant time to be successful. They’re a great addition to an already established marketing plan, but they should not be a standalone plan. 

A common small business mistake is neglecting to invest any money into marketing. If you want people to know about your company and services, spend money on professional marketing. Start before your company is even open for business. This way, you will have a head start and when your doors open, people will have heard about you.

Neglecting To Learn from Your Competition

One of the biggest business mistakes involves completely ignoring companies that you’re competing with. New businesses can learn a lot from older, more established companies selling similar products. For example, you may be marketing one of your key products at a certain price. If a better-known brand is selling a comparable product for 15% less than you, it’s going to hurt your business growth. 

In addition to being aware of what other companies are charging for their products, it’s good to know just how many comparable companies are out there. If you’re trying to open a clothing store and there are already 20 clothing stores in your area, you’re going to need to set yourself apart from the rest.

Knowing a lot about your competition helps improve the company you’re trying to run.

There’s a reason so many new businesses fail within their first few years. It’s not easy to be successful. However, by knowing which mistakes to avoid when starting a business, you can ease the process for yourself. Avoid small business mistakes and market your company in ways that successful companies before you have done.

If you’re starting a business and you’re interested in marketing your company, look no further than Think Big SEO. We’re industry experts and our team can help get your business out into your desired market.

It can be difficult to ensure that one specific dental office gains the most visibility when it comes to search engine results. This is especially true in large cities where there is a lot of competition in the dental industry. However, it’s not impossible to rank higher in search engine results and improve brand awareness by following a few simple dental SEO strategies. 

By improving your brand’s online presence and regularly publishing useful information on your website, your office is sure to receive more visitors and by extension, gain new patients.

Use Relevant Keywords

Part of making a dental office easy to locate on search engines involves using terms that search engines pick up on. By using popular keywords and optimizing search engine rankings, dental offices can make it to where their websites reach the first page of search results around their locality.

Most of the time when potential patients are searching for dental care, they are likely to key in location-based keywords along with their search. Because of this, it’s a good idea to optimize not only dental keywords but location keywords as well. This way, people searching for dental care in a specific area will find relevant results. 

Be sure to look through different keyword tools to determine which terms are being searched most often. Choose keywords that are highly searched with little competition so that your office is likely to have a higher search engine rank than others in your industry. 

Google My Business Listings

Creating a Google business listing is another way to ensure that patients and potential patients are going to see your company’s name when they’re searching for dental care. Because Google is the most popular search engine in the US, it’s in a dental office’s best interest to take all the steps needed to comply with Google’s algorithm. 

Create a Google My Business listing for your office and make it easier than ever for patients to find and interact with your office.

Post Reviews on Your Website

If you run an already well-established dental office, it’s a good idea to display reviews on your website. Take a look at what satisfied patients are saying about the office on third-party review sites and list them on your own site so that visitors will be able to check out the positive interactions other visitors have had.

In addition to using third-party review sites, it’s also wise to ask patients to fill out reviews about your office. People typically enjoy being asked about their opinions, especially when it comes to a positive experience they’ve had. Most patients will be willing to take a few minutes out of their day to say something positive about the office they visit. 

By posting reviews on your website, potential patients feel more confident when it comes to making the decision to book an appointment. Because so many other patients have had good experiences at a given office, it becomes much easier to believe they’ll receive the same positive treatment.

Create Engaging Web Content

Many office managers think that creating a website and business page for a dental office is all it takes in order to keep receiving new patients. However, search engines are far more likely to rank a website higher if it has shown usefulness. If a business page is never updated or changed, there is very little reason for patients to keep visiting, so it’s important to keep them engaged.

Create blog posts or video presentations about different topics related to dentistry. By publishing new content frequently, search engines get the impression that a site is providing helpful information. When patients and potential patients visit the office’s website and take the time to view the newest content published, search engines are able to see that patients are engaging with what they’re reading. 

Additionally, it’s a good idea to make certain services available online so that patients are more likely to keep visiting the office’s website. For example, making it possible to contact the office, book an appointment, download forms, learn about the staff, or check out information about services gives patients a reason to explore the company’s web pages.

On top of regularly publishing content related to the dental industry, it’s important to optimize the content so that search engines can easily find it. Use on-site keywords in blog posts so that Google knows what your pages are about. Keep an organized toolbar on your website that makes content easy to find. Keep location and contact information listed in the header or footer of every page, and finally, take advantage of meta descriptions and keyword use when it comes to site photos and other pieces of media.

Stay Active on Social Media

Most of the time, people do not think about dental offices when they think about social media presence. However, it’s a good idea for practically any business to have profiles on social media platforms, and it’s even better for those businesses to stay active on social media. 

If your office has social media profiles linked to and from your website, it’s a great way to keep attracting new patients. Whether they find your social media accounts through your website or whether they find your website through your social media accounts, you’re still providing valuable links to your business. 

By regularly posting pieces of news about your office or industry, you’re making it more likely that social media users are going to see your company’s name and become interested in your services.

Search engine optimization isn’t an easy task when it comes to competing with other offices in your area. However, taking the time to make sure your office’s website is properly optimized will help make competing a little easier and even out the playing field between your office and other offices in your city. 

Search engines are one of the most common ways that internet users find information, so taking the steps needed for search engine optimization is one of the best practices an office can take when it comes to increasing the visibility of their brand.

Search engine optimization is not always a straight-forward, easy process, especially for business professionals who are working in a competitive industry like healthcare. When it comes to standing out among competing medical practices in one’s industry or locality, it’s in an office’s best interest to utilize efficient SEO practices. Proper SEO for doctors and doctors’ offices can make a world of difference in brand visibility so it’s important to understand how to improve a practice’s search engine rankings.

Website Design and Functionality

When potential patients are searching for a new medical provider, they often visit a practice’s website before ever contacting the office or booking an appointment. Because the practice’s website is going to give individuals their first impression of the office and medical professionals working therein, you’ll want your website to be as inviting and sleek as your office. 

Be sure to have your website list information as clearly as possible, and have several tabs that will lead to different pages within the practice. For example, it’s a good idea to have a staff page that introduces the professionals in the office, lists their credentials and notes their specialties. It’s also wise to have a contact page, an established patient booking page, and a blog.

This way, patients can have an all-in-one experience when they visit the practice’s website. They’ll be aware of which insurances are accepted, which paperwork is expected upon the first appointment date, and the blog can provide them with useful information about your office’s field of expertise.

It’s also worth noting that patients should be able to access the office’s contact information on any page of the site, so be sure to have contact information clearly listed in the header or footer of each page.

List Your Patient Reviews

If the office is already well-established, it will be relatively easy to either find or request patient reviews. Listing positive reviews on the practice’s website can help potential visitors begin to trust the medical professionals working in the office because they can clearly see that many others have already done so. 

Either search through Yelp or other independent review sites or ask patients to fill out review pages before or after completing a visit. Most of the time, satisfied patients will be willing to take a few minutes out of their day to write a review, especially when they feel that their opinion is being considered. 

It’s a good idea to use reviews from several sources in order to increase authenticity. Use an even mix of first-party (direct) and third-party (pulled from external sources) reviews.

Appeal to Your Locality

For most offices, it’s ideal to attract locals to their practice. Unless you’re running a highly-specialized office, the visitors you’re most likely to have come into the office will be local. That said, it’s in an office’s best interest to appeal to local visitors. 

To do so, optimize your website’s content by frequently using the name of your region, county, or city within your site’s content. For example, if you’re blogging, include the name of your area in either the title or heading of your posts (when appropriate).

Additionally, be sure to have the practice listed in local business directories so that patients who are searching for the services your office provides will easily be able to locate the practice’s contact information.

Keep a Blog

Blogging is one of the best ways for a business to stay relevant and remain at the top of search engine listings. By regularly publishing useful content, search engines are seeing that your practice’s website is active. Because the pages are active, the site is likely to be valued higher in search engine results. 

If you’re frequently creating content that references your field of experience, as well as the area in which your office is practicing, your website is telling search engines that it contains useful information for people in your area. 

You’re likely going to have patients and potential patients visiting your website to learn more information about the type of care your office provides, as well as useful advice regarding the illnesses or disorders your office primarily treats. By providing patients with engaging information, you’re not only more likely to keep your current patients, but you’re also likely to attract more patients to your practice when established patients share useful content with their friends and relatives.

Use an SEO Plugin

Perhaps one of the most important aspects of SEO for doctors and their offices is search engine optimization as a whole. This includes utilizing the right keywords and making web content as easy to locate online as possible. 

While search engine optimization can be difficult, especially for individuals who are not as internet savvy as some, there are a few ways to get around the challenges of using SEO.

For one, conducting keyword searches relating to the content your office is planning to publish is a great way to ensure that your pages are going to show up in search engine results. Additionally, using keywords in the right way will add another layer of help. Don’t overstuff keywords into your content or use keywords that don’t fit for the sake of getting a higher rank, because it won’t help. Keywords must make sense within the content they’re used, and they should only have about 1-2% density.

Finally, if the practice is struggling to master SEO, there are various SEO plugins and tools that can help make the whole concept of SEO a little easier. With a tool or plugin, practices can follow simple steps to optimize their site’s content and improve search engine rankings without having to be an SEO expert.

Some plugins to research and consider are:

• Yoast SEO
• SEO Squirrly
• All-in-One Schema
• SEMrush Writing Assistant

Because SEO for doctors and doctors’ offices can be a big deal when it comes to maintaining the number of visitors that frequent your practice, getting it right can seem like an insurmountable task. By researching SEO techniques, practices can improve their rankings but fortunately, doctors’ offices do not have to struggle alone when it comes to perfecting their SEO ranks. 

At Think Big Marketing, our team of SEO professionals can help any business improve their SEO rankings and increase the number of patients coming into their offices. Feel free to reach out at any time for a consultation.

Search engine optimization is not an easy process to perfect, especially due to the fact that search engines frequently change and update their guidelines. However, SEO is one of the most important factors to consider when it comes to online businesses increasing their company’s visibility and attracting new clients.

Though SEO requirements and metrics change from time to time, it’s important to stay up to speed and continuously adapt content to where it fits the needs of viewers exploring real estate web pages. To improve SEO rankings, it’s a good idea to follow several basic SEO-related steps that experts advise in order to improve an investor’s visibility.

How To Improve SEO As a Real Estate Investor

For any real estate professional who wants to stand out above their competition, especially in competitive markets, it’s crucial to have a bulletproof SEO plan. Because real estate investors all over the country are competing for client visibility, it is in a company’s best interest to take every imaginable measure in order to ensure that their web pages reach the top of search engine results, and serve the purpose of providing engaging, helpful information to every visitor.

Utilize Proper Keywords

Keyword use is perhaps the most crucial aspect of search engine success. Potential clients are going to key certain words into their search engines and it’s up to real estate investors to ensure that the keywords searched will match with the keywords used on the investing company’s web pages.

To get higher search engine rankings, it’s important to be aware of which terms are commonly being searched and which terms connect closest to real estate investing.

Fortunately, it isn’t all guesswork, because there are several search engine keyword tools available to help narrow down the choices a business could use in their content. Try using Google’s Keyword Planner, Ahrefs Keyword Explorer, or SEM Rush for keyword assistance.

When utilizing chosen keywords, be sure to add them in a web page’s content, image tags, meta descriptions, URLs, and page titles. Avoid overstuffing content, though, and ensure that information presented sounds organic. 1-2% keyword content is a good rule of thumb.

Mobile Optimization

Consider the fact that a lot of potential clients are going to be searching for information using mobile devices, so it’s important to optimize web content for mobile devices. Making sure that investor pages display properly on smartphones and tablets can be an excellent move when it comes to improving company visibility and attracting more clients.

Clear, Concise Content

Frequently publishing high-quality content is another important part of attracting new clients to investor sites. Each piece of information needs to be valuable and engaging, especially when trying to attract homeowners looking to sell. Because real estate is typically a serious transaction topic, site visitors typically do not want to sift through distracting fluff pieces while trying to find helpful information.

For this reason, it’s inadvisable to publish content that exists for no other reason than to use popular keywords as many times as possible. Treat every site visitor as a potential client and present them with information that is going to encourage them to stay on the site longer and seek even more content.

Social Media Presence

One of the best ways to carve out a niche as a reputable, engaging real estate investor is to take advantage of social media’s reach. Develop a social media presence on a variety of different platforms. Create an account on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and use these mediums to post interesting content on a regular basis. In addition, social media accounts can be used to share original content published on other platforms. For example, blog posts, videos, and educational information can be linked to an audience via social media.

Speed Optimization

It should go without saying that every internet user wants to surf web pages that load quickly and make information easy to locate. Real estate investing sites are quite obviously included in this preference, so it’s in an investor’s best interest to have a fast, interactive website waiting for potential clients to explore.

Optimize business pages for speed and interactivity so that visitors are instantly able to find the information they need. A slow website means a missed opportunity.

Video Content

Not only do search engines recommend web pages that host or link to video content, but site viewers tend to engage with videos related to the subject matter they’re searching for. Typically, it’s easier and more interesting for audiences to absorb information through video format than it is to read long-form blog posts, so having supplementary video content is a great way to improve audience engagement.

Real Estate Blogging

Despite the fact that visitors tend to prefer videos over long-form blogs, it’s still a great idea to frequently publish blog posts. Many visitors still enjoy reading blogs and creating blog content is a great way to make use of popular keywords.

Site visitors tend to trust a company when it regularly publishes helpful information about topics related to the industry at hand, in this case, real estate. Feel free to get creative with the subjects of each blog post, so long as the posts are still related to the real estate industry.

Real Estate SEO Tips Based on Location

Location is an important factor to consider when working as a real estate investor. Businesses need to be able to ensure they’re visible and accessible to their target demographic. While each aspect of search engine optimization will improve local visibility, there is an additional step to take that will very likely result in a company gaining more organic traffic and therefore, more local clients.

Register with Business Directories

If a real estate investor wants to gain organic traffic from a specific location, it’s crucial to improve visibility in the area of their choosing. For example, if a company is based in Kansas City, it’s important to take the steps needed in order to achieve a high search engine ranking for searches that take place in Kansas City.

To improve brand visibility in a given area, it’s a good idea to register with real estate business directories in a given locality. Investors should take time to research legitimate business directories in a chosen location and reach out to register with the directories’ business listings. This way, when potential clients are searching for help in their area, the directory may very well point the individual in the right direction.

In order to succeed as a real estate investor in a competitive industry, properly optimizing web content for search engines is a necessary step to take along the way. Each piece of content should be engaging and useful to site visitors. Additionally, proper SEO content will increase brand visibility and as such, help investors gain a steady stream of clients. Though it can be challenging to perfect SEO strategies, doing so is a requirement when it comes to business success.

Fortunately, business owners don’t have to develop their SEO strategies alone. At Think Big Marketing, we have a team of SEO experts that can’t wait to help business owners improve their SEO practices and increase traffic to their sites. Feel free to reach out to us at any time.

Much of the time, search engine optimization works similarly for a variety of platforms and web pages. However, when it comes to WordPress, there are several things to consider and work on to receive the highest SEO ranking possible. WordPress as a platform often comes with various tools and plugins that users can take advantage of in order to improve SEO rankings and make SEO compliance easier. Take a look at the methods you can use to improve your WordPress site’s SEO ranking.

Pay Attention To Site Structure

Search engines give the highest site-wide rankings to the pages that are listed in a site’s navigation bar, being that these pages are linked from every other page on a certain site. This means that when a site displays a handful of useful internal links, it is seen as a source of organized content.

Keep in mind that it’s important to have only a certain number of pages listed in your navigation bar, typically between 5 and 15. This way, your navigation bar will not appear to be too empty or too busy. With just the right amount of working navigation links listed on clean, organized pages, SEO rankings on your site are sure to climb. In addition, this number of choices will engage your visitors without overwhelming them.

Organization and Speed

Along with a neat navigation bar, it’s also important to keep website content organized in a clear, concise manner. Categorize your information, check internal links and backlinks to ensure that they’re in working order, and continuously monitor your site’s speed. This way, you can offer visitors a streamlined user experience.

Aesthetic Value

In addition to ensuring that your website is in great working order, you’ll want to see that your pages are easy on the eyes. Having a professional appearance and pleasant user-feel is going to greatly improve the odds of visitors staying on your site. Pay attention to color schemes versus text colors, highlight colors, and overall layout. Avoid choosing colors that make text difficult to see.

Take Advantage of WordPress SEO Plugins

Before determining which SEO plugins to use on a WordPress site, it’s worth noting that there are A LOT of SEO features and plugins to choose from. Because of this, it’s worth conducting research to determine which plugins and features are going to fit your site’s needs. Depending on which templates you’re using or what your SEO goals are, you might benefit from using one or several of the following SEO tools.

• Breadcrumbs NavXT
• Yoast Plugin
• Open Graph
• Schema Plugin
• Meta Descriptions
• Easy WP Meta Descriptions
• Remove Category from URL
• Ultimate Nofollow
• XML Sitemap
• Redirect Plugin

Consider Content Length

While it’s important to consider content length, it should not take precedence over quality. In order for content to receive high SEO ranking, it must provide value to visitors who are absorbing it. Often, 2,000+ word items receive the highest content ranking, however that is not always the case. Short content can receive higher rankings if the content is of good quality. 

To determine ways to settle on content length based on the subject matter you’re planning to cover, you can take the following steps.

• Take a look at other top-ranking content that utilizes the keywords you’re planning to use. Give the content a quick examination and note the lengths of the different pieces you read. Averaging this length for your content is ideal.
• Keep your promises. If you’re offering your viewers a quick lesson about a certain topic, make it quick. Don’t lure your audience in with the promise of an easy-to-digest piece and then blindside them with a novel’s worth of information. 
• Gauge your own writing style. If you can explain a topic without investing as many words as another writer, do so. If you feel that the information you’re reading has left out key pieces of information, create a longer piece. Do anything you need to do to produce high-quality content.

Use Keywords in the Right Places

Search engines view keywording the same way on WordPress sites as they do for various other pages. This means that it’s in your best interest to strategize your keyword use. For example, include keywords in your article’s title, headings, meta descriptions, image alt text, and throughout the body of your content. Though keyword use is important, do not force words in or overstuff keywords into your content. A good rule of thumb is to have your keywords take up 1-2% of your content.

Fortunately, SEO ranking has evolved over time and the focus is continually centered on site quality. Because of this, WordPress site users can improve their ranks among search engine listings simply by striving to create great content on a well-designed site.

Thanks to the way that mobile technology has evolved in recent years, more people are using handheld devices to conduct searches than ever before. Smartphones and tablets bring unprecedented convenience to the lives of ordinary people, and they allow individuals to absorb information wherever they are. 

That said, mobile technology has changed the way that search engines work. As such, it’s important for businesses to embrace these changes and adapt their SEO marketing strategies so that they align with the behaviors and preferences of mobile users.

What is Mobile SEO?

The term “mobile SEO” describes a type of search engine optimization, but instead of optimizing for desktop and laptop computers, special attention is paid to improve the viewing experience and site interactions on smart devices (phones and tablets, for example). Because so many users are viewing content via a portable smart device, business owners are now more interested than ever before in designing sites with stellar mobile SEO. 

Over half of internet users choose to browse on portable devices, and while it may not seem like a significant difference between SEO types, the mobile-friendliness of a site is highly important for business owners who want to improve site interactions for all of their visitors. 

What Separates Mobile SEO from Standard SEO?

To understand the difference between mobile SEO and standard SEO, business owners must first acknowledge the main difference between the two types of devices: size. What makes smartphones and tablets more portable than laptops and desktops are their compact sizes. A smaller size means a smaller screen, and with a smaller screen, content that is not optimized for mobile-viewing might appear bulky and disorganized on a small screen. 

Additionally, browsing behaviors differ from one device to another. While desktop and laptop users tend to spend more time browsing through search results to find the information they’re interested in, mobile users are looking for fast, conveniently-placed information. This means that formats and page layouts for mobile users need to be organized in a way that offers the user all the information they need quick and easy.

Due to operating on a small device with smaller screens and controls, mobile users do not want to feel like they’re wasting their time having to constantly adjust their screens and renew searches to better narrow down the information they want to absorb. That said, mobile SEO marketing requires a more precise approach compared to standard SEO practices.

Mobile SEO Tips

Because mobile SEO works differently than standard SEO, mobile SEO marketing requires a different approach if business owners want to keep their pages properly optimized. 

Mobile SEO Format

For one, content formats for mobile devices should be crawlable so that users can quickly scroll to the information they want. 

Voice Search Optimization

Also, many mobile users are taking advantage of the hands-free benefits of voice searching, so it’s important to consider the way that people speak when it comes to optimizing mobile content. Pay attention to meta titles, being that they’re short, and ensure that they align with terms that mobile users are likely to search for.

Site Performance

Site performance is another key factor when it comes to mobile SEO marketing. Mobile users want their information fast and will likely be less patient than desktop users when sites do not load as quickly as they need. Consider using an Accelerated Mobile Page (AMP) service so that mobile content loads quickly and mobile pages operate just as fast as desktop pages. 

Local Optimization

To really drive mobile SEO forward, try optimizing for your locality. Because mobile devices are so portable, users tend to conduct searches when they’re on the move. If they’re seeking out a service that you provide, they are likely in your area, and they’re looking for a place nearby to frequent. 

Avoid Pop-Ups

Pop-up ads can be difficult to navigate through for mobile users, especially when they take up the entire screen and cannot be closed easily. Rather than clicking on the ad, mobile users are more likely to navigate away from the site and search for a page that’s less of a hassle to view. Either avoid using pop-up ads for mobile pages altogether, or make sure your ads are very easy to close.

Mobile SEO marketing is not necessarily a simple process to learn, but by following industry tips and practices, business owners can help improve their sites’ performances to make them more appealing to mobile users. 

If your company is struggling to implement mobile SEO strategies that work, feel free to reach out to us anytime. We can help optimize your sites for mobile and desktop users alike so that no matter how individuals are searching for your content, they’re able to view and interact with it as conveniently as possible.

Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers, or BERT is a recent algorithmic update that Google adopted to improve machine learning and natural language processing. With these changes, search engines are better able to understand the context of the terms written in search queries across the United States. 

By the term ‘context’, the BERT update intends to understand the meaning of the same term when used in different scenarios. For example, if the search query contains the word “crane,” the search engine would be able to gather context clues from the rest of the keywords listed to determine whether the person searching is interested in the aviary sort of crane or the mechanical sort. 

How does BERT work?

In order to understand how the BERT update works, it’s crucial to first understand how traditional search engines interpret queries. 

Originally, search queries were interpreted by reading words in an ordered sequence, from left to right or combining left-to-right with right-to-left reading. With Google’s updated BERT algorithm, the search engine can consider the context of keywords used by checking surrounding words for clues. This means that BERT does not necessarily have to consider the words immediately to the right or left of the word in question in order to determine the intended meaning.

With this update, Google can provide information that the person searching is interested in, with a higher degree of accuracy. Instead of pulling keywords from a query and assuming that there is only one meaning the searcher could have in mind, the new update makes it to where search engine users do not have to ‘hold the engine’s hand’ in order to find the information they’re looking for.

BERT’s Impact on Search Engine Ranking

As of now, the BERT update is only being utilized for search engine queries rather than website content. Despite this, BERT may still significantly impact the way that websites rank when it comes to certain keywords. Because the algorithm intends to better understand double meanings, the top search engine results will be more closely related to the search engine user’s intent. 

Because of this, websites that contain the same keywords that are being searched, but do not match in context, are unlikely to rank very high on the search engine results. Despite the fact that the query keywords match the content’s keywords, they may not be a match when it comes to the user’s intention. Search engine results will now focus more on how relevant the information is, rather than how many of the words searched show up within the content that the search engine pulls from the internet.

How to Improve Your Rankings 

There are positives and negatives when it comes to improving a website’s search engine results with the BERT algorithm in place. Google states that there really is no way to optimize SEO ranking for BERT, however, there is no way to manipulate the search engine results to fit a single company’s needs. 

Yet, companies can attempt to improve the content hosted on their web pages so that it is more detailed and might be more relevant when it comes to what’s being searched. Rather than posting vague content, it’s a good idea to make sure that users know exactly what they’re getting into when they see search engine results.

Additionally, businesses can improve their search engine rankings in the following ways:

• Improve site speed: Google aims to connect people with content that fits their needs, and the search engine prefers doing so with websites that perform well. Speeding up a website can improve ranking because users are able to find what they’re looking for fast and simple. Consider utilizing an AMP, static site generator, and/or a content delivery network.
• Keep content relevant: It’s important to provide information that is clear when it comes to intent. Users do not want their time wasted browsing information that does not fit their needs. Stick to the topics you’re planning to cover and keep your information detailed and your keywords related to the content on the page.
• Publish honestly: Do not attempt to trick search engine algorithms. Keyword stuffing is not a smart practice and while it may earn a page more visits, it will also cause users to navigate away as soon as they discover that the content has nothing to do with what they want. Dishonesty does not improve SEO ranking long-term.

Though BERT is new and somewhat confusing, a company’s willingness to adapt to it is going to be the most important factor when it comes to continually ranking high in search engine results.

Search engine optimization can be challenging, especially for small companies that are relatively new to interacting online. Building a customer base and funneling new leads to your sites is not easy when your company is surrounded by competition, but successful businesses tend to maintain and grow their base by engaging in smart SEO practices. 

Discovering the right and wrong way to optimize your site’s content takes time, and even established companies make mistakes when it comes to SEO. To avoid falling into detrimental SEO traps, it’s important to avoid the most common mistakes that other companies make when it comes to optimizing their content.

1) Optimizing the Wrong Keywords

If you find that you’re doing your best to create useful content but your site visitors spend very little time on your pages and are not converting, you may have optimized the wrong keywords. Even with great content, choosing the wrong keywords to optimize can lead to conversion issues. When it comes to long-tail keywords, it isn’t uncommon to run into challenges associated with:

• Using too many broad keywords
• Ignoring your click-through rates (CTR)
• Failing to segment your keywords geographically
• Ruining your content by adding clunky phrases to match keywords
• Choosing keywords that are not relevant to your target audience

It’s in your best interest to carefully research the SEO phrases you plan to use. Try using keyword tools to help you come up with better keyword usage. Google’s Keyword Planner is a good place to start.

2) Considering Only On-Site SEO

While it’s extremely important to optimize the content on your own website, it’s also beneficial to have optimized content on other websites that fit your industry. Networking and being able to publish your content on other companies’ websites will help convert new customers to your pages. Take time out of each month to speak with other business owners so that you can share keyword-rich content on each other’s websites. This will allow you to draw in conversions off-site.

3) Ignoring Conversion Optimization

Businesses need to pay special attention to their conversion opportunities as well as basic SEO. Unfortunately, many companies ignore this crucial step when they should be giving their leads everything that they need in order to become loyal paying customers. In addition to SEO, provide site visitors with evidence of your products’ benefits. Encourage them to check out reviews that happy customers have posted, offer them client case studies that show the success stories related to your product, and give them reasons to become customers.

The importance of getting leads to your website does not end with a simple visit. You want to encourage them to visit and stay long enough to experience what your company has to offer.

4) Failing to Write Engaging Content

Having a good deal of content on your site does not always mean that you have optimized well. It’s important to create high-quality pieces of information rather than simply shelling out post after post of lackluster content. If you’re seeking decent search engine optimization, your content needs to be engaging, informative, and somewhat long. 

Blog posts should be at least 300 words (preferably more), and content needs to be uploaded frequently. 

Additionally, your content needs to be readable. While it can be tempting to load your blog posts with as many keywords as possible, it may be a bad idea in the long-run. Keyword-laden blog posts are difficult to read, and they come off as spammy to site visitors, so it’s in your best interest to take the time needed to create content with keywords that fit organically.

5) Resorting to Black Hat Tactics

To add to the keywording mistake that site owners tend to make, it’s also not uncommon to see business owners knowingly or unknowingly violating search engine guidelines to reach the top of Google’s SEO ranking. 

Black Hat tactics refer to practices that violate guidelines in order to influence search engine results to lean in favor of a certain website. These tactics include keyword stuffing (as mentioned above), link farming, hidden text, comment spam, and purchased links. 

While these tactics might seem like they yield quick results, they are too risky to be worth the short-term gains. Google monitors websites that show up on search engine results and may penalize or even ban sites that attempt to manipulate results in their favor.

In a competitive industry, it is usually quite difficult to make your company stand out above the rest in search engine results. Keep in mind that the quick, easy way to do things is very rarely the best way to go about bringing new leads to your website. Avoid making common SEO mistakes when marketing your company, even if it means that your site is taking longer to get noticed. Engaging in fair SEO practices is the best way to succeed long-term.

If you sell stuff on the internet, then you’re probably intimately familiar with signing up for paid advertisements. Facebook, Google, and plenty of other outlets have likely seen their fair share of your banner ads and flash sales. 

And don’t get us wrong, paid advertising is great, but it’s only half of your marketing story. If you run an E-commerce site, you need a customized SEO strategy. Plenty of the 3.5 billion Google searches that go through every day are people looking for your products, and you need to make sure they find you. 

“SEO is too slow” 

This is a common reason why some companies shy away from SEO practices when SEO is the very thing their business needs the most. SEO is a long term strategy, and unlike straightforward ads that get immediate results, an SEO campaign can be a much slower burn. 

And that’s a good thing. 

In the digital age, we’ve come to value immediacy, often at the expense of longevity. Unlike paid advertising, which sees immediate, measurable results, an SEO strategy can take some time to really get going. The tradeoff is that SEO is scalable over time. Every piece of organic marketing you create is even stronger because of all the work that came before it.

“SEO is too complicated”

Successfully wrangling your SEO needs can seem like an insurmountable task. You’ve got to research keywords, create content, build links and make sure your website is up to snuff. No wonder it’s easier for so many companies to write off SEO entirely and opt instead for the safety of old fashioned advertisements. 

But like anything that takes time, you’ll find that SEO and organic marketing can be more satisfying and ultimately healthier for your bottom line. 

“SEO is a big business thing”

Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, small businesses need SEO even more than their larger competitors. A carefully-formulated SEO strategy can be used to secure your foothold in local rankings or help you dominate a specific niche. 

Remember, with SEO, it’s not always a direct competition between competitors. There’s room to carve out your own corner of dedicated internet traffic. 

Conclusion

If SEO hasn’t been a part of your marketing plan yet, then you’re sailing with half a ship. It might seem like slow going at first, but investing with SEO is what’s going to get your E-commerce site to the top page of Google, and in today’s world, that basically makes you king. 

If you’re a business owner with a website and a ‘DIY’ attitude, then you must have possibly asked the question, “Can I do my own search engine optimization [SEO]?” multiple times.

Maybe you even hopped on Google and searched for “How to do your own SEO.”  It’s probably how you came across this article.

Well, our simple answer to your question is…Yes, you can do your own SEO. 

However, we’re not telling you to go jump into it right away because a wrong approach can do more harm to your business than good.  

Yet, we’ve tailored this article to be your handy SEO for beginners’ guide just in case you still want to take that plunge.

Keep reading to discover if doing your own SEO is truly worth it.

First, What Is SEO All About?

Before you decide to do your own SEO, you need to make sure that you understand everything it entails. 

Plus, you’ve got to get your thinking right before you even try to do anything to improve your search engine rankings. 

With that said, SEO involves everything from link building, market research, site restructuring, content creation, coding, content mark-up, public relations up to an effective strategy.

Now, that we’ve got that out of the way, here are a couple of questions you should ask yourself before you begin:

How Much Time Can You Dedicate to Search Engine Optimization?

For you to achieve SEO success, you’ll need to think through your timeline. You need to decide if you can devote 3 to 6 months to it and stay until you see the results. Or if you only have about an hour per week to do that.

Most businesses looking to improve their online rankings have a problem with the fact that it usually takes longer than expected for them to see any tangible results.  

The secret here is for you to stay consistent, remain patient, and be clear on how much time you can dedicate to your SEO success. 

Can You Match the Pace of the Ever-Changing Algorithms?

SEO rankings and algorithms keep changing and sometimes, this can be a daily change. 

While the idea of always ranking as No. 1 on Google for your products or service offerings can be nice, it’s also a bit of a mirage. Because it goes beyond just knowing how to do your own SEO as you could just wake up one morning to a new change or update.  

Your business needs to stay relevant and to do this, you have to understand your target audience and the search terms/keywords they use. If you don’t, then you won’t be able to navigate through the constant changes that would make you achieve a successful SEO strategy.

Do You Know All the Terms?

SEO can be confusing. In the SEO industry, there are many terms that you’re likely to find mysterious as a beginner. 

Words like Page rank, Headings, Index, HTML, Link Building, Metadata, etc. might sound like gibberish. But these seemingly ‘gibberish’ terms are vital to your online success.

Most likely, you’re going to end up spending about a year or more trying to understand the complexities of SEO before you can even make a change in your search rankings.

How Would You Know You’re Getting Good Results?

If your answer here sounds like, “Oh, I’ll just Google my company,” then we’d like to inform you that doing that isn’t the best strategy to knowing if your SEO results are successful. 

There are tools that you need to have, like Google Analytics, for better readings. You need to watch trends, conversion and bounce rates, organic search traffic, and so on.

If you’ve got these sorted, you’re onto a good start but for more effective tracking, hiring a reliable SEO company will be the best option. 

Who Would Track Your Rankings?

Let’s say you’re willing to put in all the time, work and you’ve outlined your goals. That’s great. But it doesn’t end there. You still need to know who would be in charge of updating and monitoring your SEO results.

If it’s you…then do you have enough knowledge and experience to do it effectively? Of course, reading a couple of articles, getting some training, or attending a course is a good start.

But would you [or whoever on your team] be able to produce tangible improvements in your search rankings?

This brings us to our last point.

Why Not Hire an SEO Company?

Your own question might be, “Why hire an SEO company to do my SEO when I can?”  Well, the investment would be worth it in the end. 

The right SEO services will bring your business good SEO which, in turn, brings your customers to your business and vice versa. Over time, hiring the best SEO company will pay for itself.

Final Thoughts.

If you’re bent on knowing how to do your own SEO, then we’re sure that you have the right answers to the questions we asked. Also, bear in mind that the learning curve of search engine optimization for beginners can be steep. 

Plus, it’s time-consuming. And if you don’t have access to the latest SEO and marketing trends, it’s challenging as well.

You need to make sure that you consider all this before you put your business at risk just because you’re trying to understand SEO.

But with an SEO company, you can devote your time and effort to another part of your business.

Explore Our SEO Services Today.