We’re approaching that point in the year when many of us vow to form new habits, turn over new leaves, or otherwise make greater strides toward personal and professional goals. Maybe some of your own 2020 business resolutions involve growing your business or expanding its digital footprint. One specific suggestion we’d make to resolve is to step up your SEO game; a good beginning is to identify and sidestep some of the most common pitfalls and errors.

Here are just a few examples of SEO shortfalls to steer clear of in the months to come.

Common SEO Errors to Avoid

Failing to Satisfy Search Intent

By now it’s well known that the best way to improve SEO rankings is to supply Google’s algorithms with content that is valuable and helpful. And yet, this isn’t as simple or as straightforward as it might sound. After all, you can write exemplary content and it will still fall flat if you’re not properly honing it, targeting it to the right audience.

The important question to ask yourself is: What is the search engine user thinking when they input a particular query? Your content should be written not merely to be “helpful” in the abstract, but to provide specific answers and solutions to the people in your target audience.

Sticking to Tired SEO Techniques

At the risk of stating the obvious, the Internet is quite a bit different than it was 10, five, even two years ago. Google’s algorithms, in particular, have evolved to an extraordinary degree. It makes sense, then, that some of the SEO techniques that worked back in the day might be antiquated today.

Specifically, we’d note that recent Google updates like BERT put a big emphasis on writing content using natural, conversational language. It’s no longer effective to write robotic, keyword-jammed content. A more organic approach is mandatory if you want to see real results.

Failing to Educate Yourself

Along the same lines: You’re not going to make it very far in SEO if you don’t take the time to be informed about the latest techniques, methodologies, and algorithmic updates. Indeed, as the Internet adapts, you’ve got to adapt with it.

That’s something the enCOMPASS team can help you with. We follow the latest SEO happenings closely, and we make a point to keep our clients in the loop about any new developments that may impact their efforts. To that end, we invite you to reach out any time you have questions about the state of SEO.

Ignoring Structured Data

We recommend structured data for a couple of reasons. One, it makes your content more user-friendly, and easier to skim, search, and digest. And two, it can help you achieve better rankings, sometimes even allowing you to rank above the first official search listing.

So what do we mean when we talk about structured data? Consider any of these content types:

• How-tos
• FAQ pages
• Product reviews
• Events/event pages

Again, feel free to consult with the enCOMPASS team for specifics.

Focusing Exclusively on Text

It’s said time and again that video is the future of the Internet. It may be a cliché, but there’s really a lot of truth to it. Indeed, videos now appear in many standard Google searches, and sometimes even show up in voice searches. What’s more, it’s often easier and less time-consuming to rank a video than to rank a blog post or written article.

The bottom line? Your SEO activities shouldn’t focus on text to the exclusion of video and other content types. Developing a more diverse content portfolio will be essential in 2020.

Ignoring Mobile Users

Depending on which statistics you want to trust, mobile devices account for either just under or just over 50 percent of all search queries. Either way, it’s a huge demographic, and not one you can afford to ignore. Indeed, if your site is unfriendly to mobile users, Google is likely to penalize it.

Hopefully by now you’ve invested in a website that’s designed to be fully responsive, meaning it looks great on all device types. If you’re not sure that your site has a mobile first design, now’s the time to double and triple check!

Not Setting Clear Goals

One more error to avoid is investing your resources in SEO functions without ever pausing to define success.

You won’t know whether you’ve achieved your SEO objectives unless you first determine what those objectives are, and put into place the right monitoring tools and benchmarks for evaluating your progress.

Making a 2020 SEO Resolution?

If you’re eager to make (and keep) a 2020 SEO resolution, we’d love to hear about it, and to help you however we can. Reach out to the team at enCOMPASS any time you’d like to have a chat.