Are you trying to save money by not hiring professionals for their content marketing services? You could be doing more harm than good. Reading a few articles online about content marketing does not make you an expert in the field, and utilizing the strategies poorly may be hurting your search engine optimization. Here are some website mistakes that could be causing customers not to find your webpage.

Keyword stuffing

Remember the Bedazzler? The Bedazzler allowed suburban moms in the 80s to add gemstones and sparkles to almost any surface imaginable. It may not surprise you, but some moms overused this new crafting tool.

Don't Bedazzle your website with keywords.

What does this mean? Don't use the same keywords and keyword combinations repetitively throughout your website. Also, don't try to trick customers by luring them to pages with keywords that have nothing to do with the page's contents. Search engines don't look highly upon these strategies. It hurts the quality of your content and makes your website look unprofessional.

Having a slow website

It doesn't matter how dazzling the content of your site is, but if Google thinks that your website speed is too slow, they will penalize your ranking for it. Customers will not have the patience to wait for your website to load, and they will leave your site faster than a New York minute. Talk with your "tech people" to make sure this isn't happening to your customers.

Ignoring content quality

You may have read that search engines reward websites that publish new content often. Because of this, you may be adding pointless videos or rambling, uninspired articles every day. This may increase your traffic . . . for a while. If unimpressed customers leave your website quickly, this will eventually hurt your rankings.

Instead, ask yourself how often can I reasonably add a quality piece of content to my website? Try to find a happy medium between quality and quantity.

Not submitting a sitemap to Google

Talk with your "tech people" to see if they are submitting a sitemap of your website to Google. This helps Google understand and find all your content. Also, make sure that Google knows which page you want to be your home page. If your "tech people" don't know how to make this happen, then maybe it is time to outsource this part of your business.

Not making your website mobile or tablet friendly.

Studies have shown that those quick web searches people make from their phones matter. Up to 78 percent of mobile searches lead to an in-person sale. If you are a business that relies on local customers, you need to make sure that your website is mobile friendly.

Listing too much information on one page.

If you have multiple products or services listed on one page, this confuses the search engines. One keyword or listing per page is the best practice to use to achieve high rankings.

Yes, you can try to spread the sparkles all over your own website in the hopes of customers finding your page, or you may consider hiring a professional to help you with this critical part of your business.