This entry was posted on Thursday, May 31st, 2007 at 1:20 pm and is filed under SEO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Top SEO Mistakes
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of methods aimed at improving the ranking of a website in search engine listings. (Wikipedia) This definition of SEO is accurate but I believe lacks the interaction with marketing. You need to optimize your site for traffic- which is…..YES you guessed it, humans! SEO is about getting your website listed properly and ranked well where you want it. But I always consider search engine marketing (SEM) when doing SEO. How does it effect traffic, my visitors, can they convert? Where are they exiting? What words bring in strong traffic? All of this and more needs to be considered when optimizing your website.
Below are my top 10 SEO mistakes that I see frequently…..
Not true, and if you believe this I have a bridge to sell you. While this process usually does help you- it helps more to start getting links from other relevant websites and to have quality content on your site. More on this later….
Non-Relevant Linking
Inbound links to your website play a large part in how search engines rank your site. If there are sites linking to you that have no relevance to your websites’ content they could be hurting you more then helping. External links to your site play a large part in most of the major search engine algorithms and can be considered an endorsement of your site. If you are involved in link exchanging, which I don’t recommend anymore, then be careful of who you are exchanging links with- and who they exchange link with. When in doubt - check it out.
Bad Keywords
Use keywords that are targeting your audience, nt the ones used in brochures. Research current trends and search variations and stay up-to-date on what people are search for that is reletative to your websites’ content. Talk to your customers, not jargon.
Graphics and Garbage
Yes, graphics do help make sites look great but if used in excess they can also slow a site down and confuse visitors. They are also no value to search engines. Search engines look for content and keywords relevant to their users searches. Case in point: visit CraigsList. No graphics or visual appeal - great information and most anyboday can use it.
Not all Search Engines are Equal
What is good for Google may not be good for Yahoo! Optimize the basics: content, keywords, inbound links and internal linking so there is something for all search engine- not just one.
Submit to Everyone
Whatever. Not true anymore. In fact- submitting to multiple engines could end up being considered spamming. A site with inbound links from other sites will get indexed naturally and search engine submission is not necessary. Contextual links win once again…
Title Tags
Every book needs chapters - and your webpages need titles. You must include your most important search phrases within your title tag and if you do want your company name there, keep it for the end. Stick to 65 characters so it’s not considered keyword packing.
Meta Description
Since your doing good title tags you may as well write 140 character descriptions written professionally, relevant and with a few keywords. Tell the search engines how to list your site in their results rather then have then figure it out.
Black Hat
If it smells like poop- it’s probably poop. If you are thinking that you can get “one-up” on the search engines….good luck. You may for a bit but it will catch upo with you. Techniques such as doorway pages, hidden text, and overstuffing keywords may have had success in the past but now they will earn you penalties and could even get you banned. Just like diet pills washed down with Coke and a snickers bar. Won’t do you any good…..
What else am I missing?
February 8th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
improving search engine ranking…
This enables authors to keep track of who is linking to, or referring to their articles. Six Apart started a working group in February…