Any seasoned digital marketer knows that inbound marketing and SEO are only successful when consistently prioritized and tended to. Like a finicky house plant, you need to trim dead leaves, treat symptoms of blight before they take over, and provide the right mix of water and fertilizer to create the perfect conditions for growth. With inbound marketing and SEO, there’s no “set it and forget it”—you’ll see no growth if you take that approach.

 

What does that mean, exactly? For businesses that want the most ROI from their marketing, it’s important to help steer your marketing team on goals and priorities. Identify what works as well as what doesn’t. Here are a few budget-draining mistakes that can easily be avoided in your inbound marketing and SEO: 

This blog post will explore what mistakes to avoid and how making these small tweaks can have a major impact on your business and progress toward goals and KPIs. 

Not prioritizing on-page SEO 

All too often, we see businesses leaving on-page SEO as an afterthought when it should be a focal point for inbound marketing and SEO teams. Meta descriptions, alt tag descriptions, and optimized title tags seem like small-stakes items but can have a huge impact on your overall SEO. 

 

What to do instead: When producing site content, whether it be blog posts or website pages, be sure to take the time to thoughtfully and strategically plan out all corresponding metadata. Add keywords or phrases to the beginning of your meta description and be sure to include descriptive yet optimized alt tags for any and all images. The benefits are two-fold—your website will be better optimized for search and your team will save time when uploading and scheduling content. 

Optimizing your content for machines, not human beings 

In 2022, Google rolled out the helpful content update, which prioritizes content written for humans over content that is written specifically for search engines. It's a site-wide update, meaning that if you are found to have high amounts of unhelpful content, your whole site will be penalized. Google is specifically going to target websites that are:

  • Producing content on several unrelated topics, hoping that something will “stick”
  • Using extensive automation or AI to produce content 
  • Summarizing what others have to say without adding additional value 
  • Writing content that promises to answer a question that has no answer (such as suggesting a release date for a product when one hasn’t been confirmed) 

What to do instead: Stick within your expertise or niche and be sure that all of your site content has one main purpose. Are you trying to educate leads about your product or service? Are you trying to establish yourself as an industry thought leader? Be sure that you’re choosing content topics that fit into your website purpose/goal, not just because they’re trending or “expected.” 

 

And above all, be helpful. Answer the questions that your audience is asking and provide them with additional resources whenever appropriate. 

Using outdated keyword research 

It’s hard to know where, exactly, to invest your marketing dollars. And we get it: keyword research can often feel like an “intangible” investment. However, keywords are an essential step in the content-creation process—and one that changes and evolves frequently. Revisiting your business’s keywords is a necessary exercise to keep your inbound marketing and SEO fresh and focused. Using the same keyword research from a year ago means you could be missing out on new ideas, important trends, or topics that have since become unobtainable to rank for from a competitive standpoint.

 

What to do instead: Plan to revisit your keyword research on a regular basis. Annually is fine, bi-annually is even better. The best way to keep your inbound marketing relevant is to home in on the trends and topics that matter and revisit the ones that are no longer serving your business. 

Not taking full advantage of social media 

Social media will continue to be a cornerstone of inbound marketing and SEO for the foreseeable future. With that in mind, it’s crucial to take the time and resources to develop your social presence effectively. Is your business scheduling social media posts en masse? You’re probably missing out on opportunities to talk with potential and existing customers. 

 

What to do instead: Social media algorithms are constantly evolving, but they all have a common goal: engagement. By scheduling all your posts ahead of time, you’re completely removing opportunities to engage with followers 1:1 and react to trends in real time. Instead, you should encourage your team and followers to have conversations in the comments of your posts. Post long-form native video content to attract more eyes. Develop a social media “personality” so your business stands out from the crowd. Simply being present on social media isn’t enough— your business should aim to become a destination.

 

Learn more: Social Media Planning for B2B Companies 

Get inbound marketing and SEO help 

Hopefully, we’ve provided you with a few good pointers on what to focus on (and mistakes to avoid!) for your inbound marketing and SEO efforts. If your business is strapped for time and short on marketing resources, outsourcing your digital marketing to a team of experts ensures you’re reaping all the rewards of your content while freeing up time for other key business initiatives. 

 

If your business is in need of inbound marketing and SEO assistance, get in touch with us today.