The 5 Common SEO Mistakes Emerging Luxury Brands Make

For many luxury brands, ranking #1 in Google’s organic search results is definitive marketing goal. As an SEO agency for luxury brands, that is what we try to achieve, along with increasing our clients online revenue.

Though there are some well known tricks, there are in fact hundreds of variables taken into consideration.

Not all dependencies are known, this is to encourage site owners to optimise for their audience and not a search engine – regular algorithm updates makes sure of this. However, there are some strategic signals that are well known. Despite this, some common mistakes are seen time and time again resulting in lower rankings and ultimately lower revenues for businesses. We’ve rounded up the top 5 most common SEO mistakes to help you avoid them.

1. Trying to Link Build Content that isn’t Link-Worthy

Most know that backlinks are a critical signal but instead of creating the unique and newsworthy content that publishers love to share,  resulting in high quality links back to their sites, a lot of brands try to push out old news in the hope of it becoming viral success. As the saying goes – old news is no news.

The key is to think long term and invest in link-worthy content. Research to find the gaps in the market to create something new and different – It’s far more likely to be picked up and will align your brand with your target market.

Invest in great content creators – it is always worth it.

2. Optimising the Wrong Keywords 

Keywords, especially topics, are hugely important. Although it should be noted that not every keyword is created equal. Just because one may have a huge volume of monthly searches, doesn’t necessarily mean that ranking in position one will generate revenue.

Instead of just focusing on optimising towards keywords with high search volumes, look into:

• • What results are shown for specific terms

• • Are they pulling in information or product pages?

• • Are there any organic listings showing above the fold or are they pushed beneath PPC and SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) features, such as videos or answer boxes?

• Are they converting terms, or awareness terms?

More often than not, ranking highly for a wide range of longer tail keywords that have smaller search volumes is much more profitable. These tend to have less competition in the SERPs and have a higher purchase intent from the audience. The best way to approach this is to focus on building out topical hubs that are suitable for a wide range of queries.

3. Not Focusing on Local SEO

With over 76% of searches from a mobile device resulting in an in-store visit that day, more companies with physical locations should spend the time and investment in local SEO; using on a combination of customising Google My Business listings, encouraging positive reviews (80-90% of users read an online review before finalising a purchase), local backlinks and local content on site can really help you stand out from competitors.

Another tip – engage with your audience. A recent study by Chartmeter found that:

“Responding to reviews is one of the best things a business can do for their online presence. By responding to negative and positive reviews, not only does it show customers you care, but it also has been shown to increase search rankings”.

4. Not Auditing Your Site Regularly

A website is like a machine – without proper care it will fall into disrepair. To help keep it well oiled, regular auditing is a must.https://verbbrands.com/news/tips/the-lessons-weve-learnt-about-ad-copywriting-for-luxury-brands/

There are different types of audits – tech audits that looks at the nuts and bolts of a sites inner working and content audits that assess the performance of onsite copy, video’s and images.

They allow you to:

• • Find any site errors that naturally crop up, such as broken links and 404s.

• • Look into areas for optimisation, for example metadata updates or site speed issues.

• • Highlight content that’s under performing, so you can decide to archive or update it.

• Highlight content that’s performing well, helping shape future pieces

5. Poor Internal Linking Structure

Internal linking is essential as it helps your users navigate around your site, as well as helping to boost the visibility of key pages. The number of links pointing to a page helps inform search engines how important it is.

To make sure you’re promoting the right pages for your business, an internal linking audit (part of a content audit) is integral. Assess which pages have the most links and if they are the areas of the site you want to be promoting – if they aren’t, look into what internal links could be changed or added to give them a boost.

If you would like to receive bespoke advice on your luxury SEO strategy, get in touch with us.