Nowadays, most businesses are smart enough to integrate their SEO strategy in their overall marketing plan. However, where most businesses fail at it is when they begin to think that SEO is common for all. Most of them copy what the others are doing and follow some set pattern and guidelines. The good news is that it is actually the basis or the foundation for SEO-related activities. The bad news is that it is not enough. You need to customize it and tweak it according to the needs and requirements of your business. Here are a few common SEO mistakes that businesses make which denies them a stellar first-page finish.

Ignoring Social Media

What many people fail to understand is that SEO and SMO are two sides of the same coin. They go hand-in-hand and their coordination is imperative to get a good result. Nowadays, popular search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing give a lot of importance to social media linking to establish a brand’s popularity. Social media websites are also a great platform to put forth fresh, original content by your company in order to appear as “thought leaders” in the field. And we all know about Google’s preference of “big brands”, thanks to the Vince update, and that a major role in determining a big brand is done by its social media popularity.

Underestimating Local SEO

According to a recent study, 30% of the searches on Google are location-based. Most of those searches come from a mobile device. Geo-specific targeting plays an important role in order to drive traffic to your website. You need to list your business in relevant industry and geo-specific directories. You need to pay special emphasis on geo-specific keywords. You also need to optimize your website for mobile, by making it responsive.

Duplicate Content on Website

Posting duplicate web-optimized content all over the website just for the sake of increasing the amount of optimized content and the size of the website is simply another way of stuffing keywords all over it. It greatly diminishes user experience, which will be cracked down by Google Panda and duplicate content is a new algorithm included in the latest update of Google Penguin. The result is predictable – oblivion in the world of Google.

Not Posting At All

Consistently posting fresh and informative content that is likely to be shared increases your website’s organic search, which is a determining factor in calculating the ranking in popular search engines. In order to do so, you must maintain a blog on company’s website and regularly dole out fresh content through it. You can also, in addition to the blog, maintain a news feed and update it with news flash, latest announcement and press releases by your company.

Inconsistent SEO Activities

Researching keywords and optimizing your site for the web are the first steps in any SEO campaign. From then onwards, it is a relentless routine of regular posting of fresh content, content marketing and link building, and social media posting. This should be done in addition to continual improvement in the design, layout and user experience of your website. SEO gives best results in a long term; it is not a hurried process that will lead you to overnight success.

SEO is an indispensable process in the overall marketing strategy and a sure shot method to attain online success. Work upon it regularly, avoid these common mistakes and you are sure to reap the benefits in the long run.