4 Common Keyword Mistakes to Avoid for Small Businesses

Small Businesses Keywords

As the world moves toward digital, businesses are starting to grasp the importance of building an online presence. With billions of sites to compete with, however, getting noticed is getting harder. 

That’s why implementing a successful SEO strategy is essential.

SEO increases awareness and conversions, leading to a higher return on investment. In fact, 70% of marketers have claimed that SEO does more for their profit margins than other marketing tactics like pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. 

SEMrush

The only problem is that a lot of businesses are implementing SEO the wrong way. Read on to learn common keyword mistakes being made by small businesses. 

1. Not Measuring Keywords

It’s easy to want to guess which keywords work instead of investing in keyword analysis and research software, but you’re only wasting time and money. 

When measuring keywords, you need to pay attention to search volume and keyword difficulty. These tell you how many people are searching for the keyword and how much competition surrounds that keyword respectively. 

Proper keyword research looks for a balance of high search rates and low competition. 

2. Only Using Short Keywords

Length for keywords is another important consideration. A short one or two-word keyword is easier to use than longer ones, but long-tail keywords are the way to success. Long-tail keywords are keywords with 3+ words per keyword and are generally phrases. 

Longer keywords are better for SEO because they match closer to the full phrases people are searching for. This means they increase your ranking and your chance of getting clicks. 

The more visits your site gets, the more you can use your SEO strategy to boost your ad strategy. For example, you can use retargeting ads to increase conversions among your site visitors. A Facebook ads guide can help with this. 

3. Forgetting Search Intent

One of the most common keyword mistakes is forgetting to consider customer search intent. 

Everyone who searches the internet is looking for answers, ways to solve a problem, or trying to learn something. 

Think of the problems discussed when communicating with customers. If you can learn what solutions your business provides, and use keywords that reflect the search for that solution, you’ll increase your SEO ranking in no time. 

This should also drive the type of content you provide in your regular blog posts.

4. Not Utilizing Location

For small businesses especially, using location in your SEO strategy is essential. 

This is because many small businesses serve a limited geographic region, and the goal is to reach potential customers in that region. 

You can use your city and state within your keywords to increase conversion rates. This is because people looking for services often search for businesses near them. 

Avoid These Common Keyword Mistakes and Boost ROI

Nowadays, businesses recognize the importance of SEO but don’t know how to implement it successfully. All too often, they invest in content creation, only to have common keyword mistakes put that money to waste. 

If you’re ready to stop wasting money and start making it, be sure to avoid the 4 mistakes above. 

For more informative articles, please check out the rest of our website.