Search Engine Optimization: 4 Huge Mistakes Even Social Media Marketers Make

Search engine optimization (SEO) can easily be misunderstood - even by those who practice it day in and day out. This is because it is very complex and time-consuming due to all the keywords, algorithms and everything in between. You need to decided which keywords will work best, how many links you should use, and more. While there are multiple questions to ask and answer, the bottom line comes down to ensuring your content is seen by the right audience.

So, to ensure you stay on top of your SEO strategy, especially as it relates to social media, here are a few of the biggest and worst mistakes that people -- even big-name marketers -- make when it comes to SEO and how you can successfully avoid them:

Mistake #1: Failing to Properly Understand the SEO and Social Media Relationship.

While social media may not specifically help your rankings, according to Google, quality content that performs well can be beneficial. When content on social media is of high quality, it will usually receive a lot of likes, comments, and shares, which will possibly get on Google's radar and your rankings will be positively impacted as a result.

Basically, it is just important to understand that you should not create social media content with the sole intent on improving your search engine rankings. Instead, you should use social media content as a complementary tool to your SEO strategy to help improve your audience boost and boost overall engagement. Content with value and a strong presence on social media can help with increasing overall brand awareness and boost traffic to your website.

Mistake #2: Failing to Strategically Share Content.

Since SEO and social media are essential for marketing success, it is important that you are strategic when it comes to the content that you decide to share. While it is important to create and share new content, it is also important to take the time to analyze how your past content was performing and see what is bringing in the most traffic to your website. What's driving your traffic? What's getting the most shares? What topics and themes are the most popular with your audience? This will help you decide on what you need to focus on when developing social media content as a whole.

Mistake #3: Expecting to See Success Overnight.

While it is true that SEO is amazingly effective at driving traffic to your website, it is not going to be a way for you to achieve success overnight. Marketers are used to implementing strategies and achieving results immediately. If those results aren't achieved, then the plan is abandoned. With SEO, results take time to achieve. Therefore, patience is necessary. SEO is not a short-term strategy, but rather a long-term one and it is important to understand this. It is also crucial to realize that you are not the only one in your industry implementing a strategy, which means you need to constantly be pushing out quality content and analyzing the performance. It takes consistent work to build authority, establish credibility, position your brand at the top and get search engines to see this. Once this can be realized, you can then focus on moving forward with an SEO and social media strategy.

Mistake #4: Failing to Stay Current with SEO Advancements.

Over the last decade, SEO has definitely evolved. However, everyone has not been able to successfully keep up. Some people are stuck on practices from the past, while others simple don't keep up with the changing strategies. One popular tactic that people tend to practice is keyword stuffing. This was something very popular years ago, but it is not something that is recommended, as it not only looks ridiculous, but it also reduces the overall credibility of your page. Search engines are cracking down on things like this, and it isn't easy to come back from it.

Search engine results are more personalized today than they were just a few years ago, which means that you need to make sure that your content and your audience are connected. Search engines look for content that is fresh, authoritive, keyword-rich, and engaging. Due to technology always changing, social media managers and search engine marketers need to ensure they're always staying on top of advancements and make certain that they are adjusting their strategies and content creations as necessary.