|
10 SEO Mistakes
1 Targetting the wrong keywords
This is a mistake many people make and what is worse – even
experienced SEO experts make it. People choose keywords that
in their mind are descriptive of their website but the
average users just may not search them. For instance, if you
have a relationship site, you might discover that
“relationship guide” does not work for you, even though it
has the “relationship” keyword, while “dating advice” works
like a charm. Choosing the right keywords can make or break
your SEO campaign. Even if you are very resourceful, you
can't think on your own of all the great keywords but a good
keyword suggestion tool, for instance, the Website Keyword
Suggestion tool will help you find keywords that are good
for your site.
2 Ignoring the Title tag
Leaving the <title> tag empty is also very common. This is
one of the most important places to have a keyword, because
not only does it help you in optimization but the text in
your <title> tag shows in the search results as your page
title.
3 A Flash website without a html alternative
Flash might be attractive but not to search engines and
users. If you really insist that your site is Flash-based
and you want search engines to love it, provide an html
version. Here are some more tips for optimizing Flash sites.
Search engines don't like Flash sites for a reason – a
spider can't read Flash content and therefore can't index
it.
4 JavaScript Menus
Using JavaScript for navigation is not bad as long as you
understand that search engines do not read JavaScript and
build your web pages accordingly. So if you have JavaScript
menus you can't do without, you should consider build a
sitemap (or putting the links in a noscript tag) so that all
your links will be crawlable.
5 Lack of consistency and maintenance
Our friend Rob from Blackwood Productions often encounters
clients, who believe that once you optimize a site, it is
done foreve. If you want to be successful, you need to
permanently optimize your site, keep an eye on the
competition and – changes in the ranking algorithms of
search engines.
6 Concentrating too much on meta tags
A lot of people seem to think SEO is about getting your meta
keywords and description correct! In fact, meta tags are
becoming (if not already) a thing of the past. You can
create your meta keywords and descriptions but don't except
to rank well only because of this.
7 Using only Images for Headings
Many people think that an image looks better than text for
headings and menus. Yes, an image can make your site look
more distinctive but in terms of SEO images for headings and
menus are a big mistake because h2, h2, etc. tags and menu
links are important SEO items. If you are afraid that your
h1 h2, etc. tags look horrible, try modifying them in a
stylesheet or consider this approach: http://www.stopdesign.com/articles/replace_text.
8 Ignoring URLs
Many people underestimate how important a good URL is.
Dynamic page names are still very frequent and no keywords
in the URL is more a rule than an exception. Yes, it is
possible to rank high even without keywords in the URL but
all being equal, if you have keywords in the URL (the domain
itself, or file names, which are part of the URL), this
gives you additional advantage over your competitors.
Keywords in URLs are more important for MSN and Yahoo! but
even with Google their relative weight is high, so there is
no excuse for having keywordless URLs.
9 Backlink spamming
It is a common delusion that it more backlinks are ALWAYS
better and because of this web masters resort to link farms,
forum/newgroup spam etc., which ultimately could lead to
getting their site banned. In fact, what you need are
quality backlinks. Here are some more information on The
Importance of Backlinks
10 Lack of keywords in the content
Once you focus on your keywords, modify your content and put
the keywords wherever it makes sense. It is even better to
make them bold or highlight them.
|
