Search engine optimization (SEO) is a highly beneficial, but very complex tool that is essential for successful online marketing in Phoenix and other cities throughout the country. Search engine algorithms have a huge variety of components methodically weighing a number of factors when applying rankings to your websites, so fully understanding how to properly optimize your sites is crucial.

While some business owners do have a fair amount of online marketing knowledge, most have put so much time and energy into running their businesses that they just haven’t had the opportunity to learn all that they need to market their businesses online. For this reason, many business owners seek outside help from companies specializing in online marketing in Phoenix and other cities to ensure that the job is being done correctly.

Those businesses that run their own campaigns for online marketing in Phoenix can easily make mistakes due to the complexity of the search engine algorithms. The following are 12 of the most common SEO oversights seen in online marketing in Phoenix and other cities around the country:

1. Secure Web Hosting/Server. Every business should have virtual secure web hosting or a server of its own. When a business shares a server with other sites, search engines tend to devalue all the websites, regardless of whether or not the site is of high quality. To maintain a good standing with search engines, it is essential that you include secure web hosting in your campaign for online marketing in Phoenix.
2. Domain Name Resolution. Users can enter your website into the search bar in three different ways: www, non-www and homepage name. Therefore, it is essential that you create 301 redirects for the two variations that you are not using as your domain so as not to confuse search engines into thinking you have multiple sites.
3. Sitemaps. Sitemaps are the tool that search engines use to find the content on a website that it may have missed while performing a basic crawl, so it’s important that you create one and update it when any changes to your site are made. Without a sitemap, search engines will be much less informed on where everything is located throughout your site.
4. Robots.txt File. It is important to note that robots.txt files do not block your pages from being found during a search. Robots.txt files are actually put into place to prevent crawling and indexing of site content by search engines, but the URL may still be indexed if it is found on other pages online. To prevent indexing, you must block folder level sections in the robots.txt and input the no-index page code on the page level.
5. Speed. Your website should aim for a page score above 90, meaning the download time is one second or less. With increased speed, businesses see some improvement almost instantaneously in their campaigns for online marketing in Phoenix. While above 90 is your goal, also be sure that you don’t fall to a score below 85. Users that have to wait more than 3 or 4 seconds for a page to load will quickly hit the back button, damaging your SEO.
6. Site Crawl Tools. Websites can have a number of issues, such as improperly written anchor text, broken links and too long or too short meta and title tags. These issues can be very difficult to spot with one’s own eye, so using a site crawl tool is essential to making sure that everything is in proper working order.

The above are only 6 of the 12 most common areas that businesses make SEO mistakes. Stay tuned for our next blog where we will share the final 6 to round out the list.

If you are interested in learning more about SEO programs, which include SEO keywords and other optimization tools, the experts at Fasturtle would be more than happy to offer their expertise. We have worked with hundreds of businesses in a range of industries to create successful campaigns for online marketing in Phoenix. To learn more about a personalized, integrated campaign for online marketing in Phoenix or another city, call Fasturtle at (888) 468-8785 or contact us online.

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