7 Tragic Local SEO Mistakes You Have to Avoid

If you’re a small business owner, or an internet marketer, you’re going to love and laugh at this post below. But before we get to the fun stuff, I wanted to make sure and mention the upcoming GetListed.org LocalU seminar series that is going to be taking place in Salt Lake City on June 12, 2012. SLC|SEM is hosting the event and it’s an amazing upcoming event you should be attending whether you are local in SLC, or from out of state. It’s not that often that such an event takes place here in SLC and it’s certainly worth the price of admission to hear from the likes of David Mihm (author of Local Search Ranking Factors), and Matt McGee of SearchEngineLand.com. Reps from both Google and Bing will be there as well.

As most of you know, DSM is a strong supporter of SLC|SEM and it’s events, and we really feel it’s an amazing organization to help search engine marketers in the SLC area stay in the know and connected in the state. So, we hope to see you there at the event in June and you should register now so you don’t miss the early bird special. In light of this upcoming event, I thought it would be fun to write a post about what you DON’T want to do for your Local SEO, since you’ll be able to learn all day long at the event about what you DO want to do. Now onto the fun stuff!

As a full-service online marketing firm, we’ve seen our fair share of “the good, the bad, and the ugly” when it comes to Local SEO strategies.

Since Local SEO is a no-brainer for any brick and mortar business who wants to be found online, we decided to share a “What NOT To-Do” list so you avoid utter embarrassment.

If you do the exact OPPOSITE of these “no-no’s”, you’ll be well on your way to Local SEO success.

7 Local SEO Mistakes You HAVE to Avoid

1. Wrong phone number (or no phone number)

TRUE STORY: we signed a contract with a client to help them with their local SEO. They had just had their website re-designed and were excited to be seen. However, when we tested their phone number, instead of getting their receptionist, we heard a recorded message for an “adult service” business.

Apparently one simple typo can really effect business sales.Having NO PHONE NUMBER can be just as bad. If you’re a local company that depends on people coming to your store or at least contacting you, make sure you make it as easy as possible for them to actually CONTACT you.

2. Super long domain name

If your domain name is more than 3 words long, someone is probably going to spell it wrong.

3. All links point visitors to the home page

This is a common SEO mistake overall. When you’re linking to your website, both on your own site and on other sites, don’t always link to the home page. Not only will this hurt link credibility, but it will leave out important pages in Google results that may give your business better chance of conversion.

4. Basic HTML, Florescent Colors, and FLASH

Need we say more? Flash is OUT. It’s terrible for SEO; it’s horrible for user engagement, and it’s a great sign that your business hasn’t done much online marketing research.

5. All images (that aren’t optimized), no content

Yep, that’s their HOME PAGE!

6. Cramming Content

We’ll let the image and link speak for themselves here:



Make sure to visit this site! 🙂

7. Keyword stuffed Global Title Tag

A Few Other SEO No-No’s You Should Be Aware Of

  1. No blogging strategy
    • One blog post last year, 5 blog posts yesterday
  2. No internal linking (or linking to the wrong page or 404 error page)

6 thoughts on “7 Tragic Local SEO Mistakes You Have to Avoid

  1. Robert Rogers says:

    I love the “personal” examples. Even though I have a law practice, I have done much of my own SEO via the “trial and error” educational method. Tips like these are golden for someone like me. Thanks!

  2. Lee says:

    Great post andrew, the main point i see people doing wrong a lot is “keyword stuffing” it’s truly a “shoot yourself in the foot technique”.

    Not only does it mess up your on-page seo but half the time it doesnt even make sense nor attract potential customers.

  3. Pingback: Local Search Experts say Local Factors haven’t changed much | Thomas Ballantyne

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