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Businesses must implement a plausible SEO strategy to attract more website traffic. However, they must also be careful to avoid making SEO mistakes while doing that. Regarding the correct SEO strategies, some are unique for all businesses. Still, some are specific for every business, depending on its size, goals, niche and competition. If you run a preschool business, keep reading to learn more about the 10 SEO mistakes to avoid when running such a business.
The first SEO mistake businesses tend to make is not planning an SEO strategy. Then, they need to do the keyword research right and thus use inadequate keywords. What also counts as a common SEO mistake is poor on-site SEO and too broad an audience. Additionally, the need for more high-quality content is also a frequent occurrence we should try to avoid.
Additionally, it’s common for people to make two other SEO mistakes: not having a presence on social media and not optimizing their website for mobile devices.
Also, what counts as an SEO mistake is thinking that SEO is free or cheap or that you can achieve extraordinary results using shortcuts with SEO ‘hacks’. And lastly, disregarding the importance of technical SEO is also a mistake people often make.
1. Not Planning Your SEO Strategy
One of the first mistakes preschool (and other) businesses make is not planning their SEO strategy but just jumping in and making changes.
If your preschool business already has a website, you should start with an SEO audit to see how you are doing. You can use the insights from the SEO audit to improve your optimization.
You can hire a professional to do it for you, but if digital marketing interests you, you can do it yourself too. There are some free trial version tools you can find online. You need to enter your business URL in one of these tools, and it will provide you with a summary. The most popular tools are Ahrefs, Moz and SEMRush.
2. Using Inadequate Keywords
The next common SEO mistake businesses tend to make is using inadequate keywords.
Using the wrong keywords is the same as not using any keywords – you don’t get the proper effects. Keywords are a vital element of SEO. They are essential for search engines and web crawlers as they use the keywords to understand your offer.
To conduct proper keyword research and find relevant keywords, you should use tools such as Google Ads, Google Keyword Planner, Keywords Everywhere and SEMRush to detect the keywords parents use when searching for something preschool-related.
What you should avoid is keyword stuffing, as it can have detrimental effects on your reputation, according to Google.
On the other hand, what you shouldn’t forget is optimizing your website for local searches. Ensure you include keywords such as ‘childcare center near me’ or keywords with geolocation. You should appeal to local people and their searches, as they are your main target audience.
3. Poor On-Site SEO
Another frequent SEO mistake people need to make is better on-site SEO. When researching via search engines, your web content must be searchable and recognizable to visitors. To do that, you need to optimize your website with proper on-site optimization. That means every page on your website should have a meta description, a proper title tag and the keyword the content is about. That helps search engines rank you for the right searches.
What is also important to include are internal links and image alt descriptions, which provide additional help to search engines in understanding your content and indexing your web pages.
4. Too Broad of an Audience
Your target audience is one of the first things you need to define regarding SEO. A clearly defined target audience for your preschool is vital for your online marketing strategy.
As the internet is a massive base, you must narrow your target audience to reach the right people. You should learn more about your target audience – who they are, where they live, what exactly they are looking for, their age, gender, interests and so on.
You can use that information to target them intentionally with adequate language or message that appeals to them.
5. Lack of High-Quality Content
A blog section on your website is also quintessential for building your online presence. But, the blog must be approached rather seriously as it is a key aspect of a successful digital marketing strategy.
Your blog needs to be updated, dealing with relevant topics and informing, educating or entertaining the readers. Simply put – the content needs to be valuable. Your blog should include high-quality images and graphics.
The blog section on your website is an excellent and plausible way to build trust and credibility with your current and potential future community members. It is so powerful that it can set your preschool apart.
If your content is quality and relevant, it will make an impression on the readers, which will, in turn, help your content and, thus, your business rank higher in search engines.
6. No Social Media Presence
Even though being present on social media doesn’t directly influence your business’ ranking on search engines, we use it to build authority for a website. In that way, you can drive unpaid traffic.
You can share many amusing things on your social media channels, such as your preschool’s website content, including blogs. Parents can then share this, too, if they find it worthy so that you can increase both your social media and website visibility.
7. No Mobile Optimization
Nowadays, it is simply unimaginable not to have a mobile-friendly website. More and more people use their phones to conduct most of their online searches.
It is a significant disadvantage if your website isn’t optimized for such searches. So, if your website still needs to be optimized for mobile phones, optimize it ASAP.
Regarding Google and indexing, this search engine favors mobile-friendly websites. Google also has a testing tool that lets you know about the mobile-friendliness of your website so that you can try it.
8. Thinking SEO is Free or Cheap
Even though there are certain things you can do for free or low cost in SEO, they should only be used as an additional asset to achieve the most optimal results. Optimizing pages and resources take time, money and effort.
People have this misconception that SEO is cheap and fast, probably due to how PPC advertising works. Nevertheless, it is more accurate to say that SEO is one of the highest ROI inbound marketing strategies. You should know that investing in SEO doesn’t pay off right away – it takes time to see results.
9. Using Shortcuts with SEO ‘Hacks’
Developing a successful SEO strategy takes time and effort. So, it’s pretty tempting to think that shortcuts might do the job equally well but faster. This is especially true for small businesses that are limited with their budget and other resources.
Be careful when it comes to using SEO ‘hacks’ as they can’t provide you with the same results as a well-developed and established SEO strategy can. Some hacks can even harm your SEO efforts.
10. Disregarding the Importance of Technical SEO
Another thing that many people disregard and consider unimportant is technical SEO. Technical SEO is essential as it helps with crawlability and indexability of your website. At the same time, it ensures that everything else is optimized to maximize your search rankings.
Technical SEO includes things like ensuring you have a proper sitemap submitted for indexing with Google and other search engines.
Developing a plausible SEO strategy for your preschool is of utmost importance in achieving success in the long run. Be mindful of these SEO mistakes and avoid making them, it will save you time and money.
Final Thoughts
Preschool businesses need to implement a robust SEO strategy to attract more website traffic. However, they should be careful not to make common SEO mistakes such as inadequate keyword research, poor on-site SEO, too broad of an audience, lack of high-quality content, no social media presence, and no mobile optimization.
In addition, preschool businesses need to plan their SEO strategy and conduct an SEO audit to improve their optimization. They should also use proper keywords and optimize their website for local searches, define their target audience, and have quality content.
Finally, preschool businesses need to have a presence on social media and optimize their website for mobile devices, avoiding shortcuts with SEO hacks, and not disregarding the importance of technical SEO.
I'm a lover of all things technology. My favorite topics to write about are web design, SEO, and business marketing.