7 Mistakes to Avoid When Expanding Your Online Reach

Growing your audience online is one of the top priorities for businesses today, from small ecommerce shops to international corporations. Conquering this landscape is especially difficult if you own a small business, as it’s easy to get lost in just how complex digital marketing is.

This is why our article will provide a bird view of the most common mistakes business owners make in their strategies and ways to start fixing each.

 Ignoring Your Target Audience

This is not something business owners do on purpose. However, they do sometimes miss out on their target audience by trying to market to everyone. If you haven’t already, create buyer personas — distinctive customer types based on demographics, location, pain points, expectations, and strategies you can use to resolve them. 

The best way to understand your audience is through data. One of the tools you can use to gain more insights into your buyers is Google Analytics. It can tell you where your users are from and how they behave on your website. For example, you can discover that a number of your users give up on the pricing page, or that a certain page attracted a lot of interest. 

Neglecting Mobile Optimization

Mobile optimization is a requirement in 2025, and for several reasons. According to the latest stats, mobile traffic accounted for more than 54% of global traffic in late 2023, and over 30% in the US. Consequently, websites that are too slow or inconvenient for smartphones can compromise any modern business.

All themes on WordPress.com are mobile-responsive, so it’s not as common of an issue as it used to be. However, if you want to check your website’s mobile optimization, use tools such as Bing’s Mobile Friendliness Tools.

Overlooking the Value of Backlinks

Backlinks are links from another site to one of your pages. They are one of the signals search engines use to determine if your website is trustworthy, useful, and valuable to readers. There are various ways to acquire these links, from creating content to guest posting and industry collaborations. If your website ranks low on Google, a lack of quality backlinks could be why.

This strategy is as time-intensive as it is valuable, so many companies outsource the work to a llnk building agency. If you choose to pursue link building yourself, make sure to research the practice well and only to use white-hat strategies.

Relying Exclusively on Social Media

Social media is an amazing tool, but it’s not enough on its own. Businesses that want to grow further should look into other marketing strategie,s including email marketing, SEO, digital PR, and search engine marketing.

Each strategy has its strengths. Email marketing, for example, has an astounding ROI, bringing an average of $36 for every $1 spent. And when it comes to traffic, SEO can get you 1,000% more traffic than organic social media.

Overlooking User Experience (UX)

A slow-loading website, a website that’s difficult to navigate, or a complicated checkout process might harm your online business. A concerning 53% of users will leave your mobile website if the load time exceeds three seconds.

You’ll need to conduct regular UX audits to identify and address pain points and ensure your customers are receiving a smooth user experience.

Outdated SEO Tactics

With thousands of websites popping up every day and algorithms changing how they rank pages, using a plugin or two will likely not be enough if you want your business to grow. Your strategy will need to include all aspects of SEO, including local, technical, on-page, and off-page SEO, and you’ll need to stay on top of your game for each.

In 2025, the focus is on quality, multimedia, and hyper-personalization, often using AI tools. At the same time, in a sea of AI-generated content, it’s more important than ever to center your human audience in your content strategy.

Missing Collaboration Opportunities

Collaborating with industry experts, bloggers, influencers, and other business owners is essential for reaching new audiences. If you seek partnerships that align with your values and needs, you open up opportunities for joint content, endorsements, or beneficial projects.

In other words, don’t forget about offline opportunities that can enhance your online presence, including events or physical advertising.