Optimization is an integral part of any content marketing strategy as it is a powerful way to bring visitors to your website. The field is ever evolving and it’s often difficult for the average business owner to keep up with the latest updates. You need to make sure you’re not hurting your efforts by making mistakes. Here are a few common problem areas.

Mobile-Friendly Experience

Google has reported that more searches are conducted on mobile than on any other device and as of 2016. This is the primary device used to access the majority of websites. It has also been studied that people are five times more likely to leave a site if it isn’t mobile friendly. So it comes as no surprise that not enabling a smooth mobile experience for your customers will jeopardize your ratings on search engines.

Keyword Relevance

As the owner, you have the ultimate authority over defining your brand and product. But when it comes to marketing, you need to understand the preference of search engines and users for designated keywords.

In other words, you have to know what your potential customers will refer to your products as, rather than picking keywords based on what you think is most relevant. The content you create needs to align with the right keywords so search engines can make sure users find what they’re looking for.

Moreover, be as specific with the keywords as possible. Focusing on generic keywords may bring in a lot of traffic from visitors who have no interest in what you’re offering. Going for more specific phrases will lead to quicker rankings and more qualified traffic from potential customers who are actually interested in buying your products and services.

Tags and Meta description

Optimizing content does not finish once you include target keywords in your articles.

Title tags and meta descriptions are essential elements of SEO and are considered by search engines when crawling your website. Descriptive, unique titles and focusing on specific keywords that are specific to each page are highly important.

Meta descriptions are a 160 character sales pitch for your page within search results and you need to make each one as unique and persuasive as possible. Each page throughout your site should include a custom meta description that will make people want to click on your listing in search results.

Quality Links

There are a lot of easy ways to get a high volume of links in content, but you should grasp that the quality of external links are way more important than their quantity.

One link from a relevant, well-ranking popular blog with solid reputation will do more for your website than a number of low quality directory links. It’s ideal that the links you use are relevant to your website and industry. Make sure your page does not contain links to adult, pharmacy or gambling sites.

Load Time

Speed is an important ranking signal as it directly relates to bounce rates and time on site. When consumers visit a web page directly from search results, the search engines pay attention to how long they remain on that page and what actions they take.

If the user quickly leaves the domain, it tells Google that the search result was not relevant for the customer’s needs. If this trend keeps growing, search engines will take this to mean users are having a bad experience and your SERP will take a dip.

A key takeaway to remember is that SEO can be challenging and requires a large time investment and plenty of hard work. Search engine optimization is never truly completed since algorithms change and new competitors appear all of the time; so to be successful, a business has to keep changing strategies accordingly, and adjust with lay of the land.