Top Ten of the Most Common SEO Mistakes
By Chris Diprose
Firstly it should be noted that Search Engine Optimization is not
something performed with a blanket approach it is an individual set of
actions performed page by page to suit that page’s particular goals.
Here at Kanga Internet we break up a clients website into specific and
important pages based on the keyword terms we have identified through
research and then write the first few pages to suit those terms. We
associate page titles, page file names (buy-blue-widgets.html), H1
tags, description and keyword Meta tags and in page content to tell the
story that match those identified keywords. It is also important to
ensure your pages are W3 compliant and have no errors.
The following are the top ten mistakes that I have seen made over and
over again by people trying to self-optimize their websites.
1. Bad Titles. Titles are the most important thing about a
webpage. Search engines spiders see the title on your page first and
they make a general assessment about it based upon this. They scan the
page and make sure the content of the page matches the title and then
assign rankings based upon these matches and how they best fit. The
title tag is the best way to inform the search engine what your page is
about, and they play an important part in ranking if used properly.
Placing your main identified keywords in the title and ensuring to obey
the rule of leftward and stemming is vital – leftward rule, the closer
the word to the left of the sentence the more important it is, stemming
is where words can be associated but with words in-between i.e.: Great
Blue Widgets when stemmed would allow Great Widgets. It is important to
ensure your title matches your page content, description and Meta
keywords and in unique for your website. Every page title and content
should be unique otherwise is will be ranked supplemental.
2. Filename of the page. It is important if you are using
dynamic websites like Joomla or other content management systems that a
search engine friendly URL translator is installed. Because I use
Joomla every day I will describe what I mean relating to Joomla. In
Joomla (and most other dynamic websites) URL’s like the normal Joomla
URL
“index.php?option=com_mtree&task=listcats&cat_id=1766&Itemid=35″
drive the website. The problem with these URL’s is that they are
unintelligible by humans and also by search engines. Installing a
search engine friendly URL component will change these pages to
something more meaningful and also including your keywords in these
page names can help with SEO. The newly transformed search engine
friendly URL would look like this “buy-blue-widgets.html”. If you do
not have a dynamic website then ensuring your page name is short, to
the point and contains your main keywords for that page maybe with a
call to action like “buy” and “blue widgets”.
3. Duplicate or Bad Content. Ensuring your content is unique and
relevant is vital in SEO success. Often websites just duplicate content
or bring in plagiarized content from other websites. It is my
experience that these websites fail dismally in search engine rankings.
Write some decent and unique content or maybe search online and find
someone who can actually write you decent unique content for a fee.
Make it good, friendly and unique content that people will want to link
to. If you are listed in the supplemental index of Google then making
sure you titles, descriptions, Meta keywords and on page content is
unique is the only way to drag them out of the supplemental index.
4. No Links. Having covered off a few of the on page most
important SEO tips we now look at links, which are an off page SEO
concept. For each person or website that links to your website it is a
vote for your site. If the website that links to yours has a high
pagerank itself then it carries more weight. Simply having good
keywords, titles and text on your page is only part of SEO. Just
because you created a unique and perfectly optimized webpage does not
mean you will automatically gain a decent pagerank for that page. In
order to ensure SEO success you have to create incoming links – this is
probably the hardest part of search engine optimization because you are
effectively selling your pages all over the Internet. One way to gain
instant (within a few weeks) links is to pay for text advertising – A
search on Google will uncover some of the best text linking services.
Link exchanges are bad because for every vote you get you are giving
one away and if you happen to link to a “black listed” site then Google
will penalize you significantly. One way links are the ultimate in SEO
link campaigns so seek out directories (either paid or free, you need
to evaluate), post in forums, write articles and submit them and ask
other friendly webmasters if they can help you out with a link. The
best way to gain links is to have unique content that other people
actually want to link to.
5. Incoming link anchor text. Having pointed out how important
it is to gain incoming links it is now important to also point out that
the text those links are anchored to is important also. The text should
be targeted at your main keywords and the page they point to should
have those keywords as relevant and prominent also. The website you
link from should be relevant to your website. So, as an example I own a
web design company in Melbourne, Australia so I gain links from web
hosting providers and/or open source Joomla sites in or around my
region. Getting 1000 links from a casino related website will serve no
benefit to my website and will not make it rank higher for “web design”
keyword search terms. Use professional common sense when gaining links.
6. Bad Internal Page Links. We return to on page factors that
you can work on within your website. It is important to make sure that
the anchor text linking to pages within your own website is relevant to
the target page. Make sure the title tag is filled in also for each
link. You have the greatest control over links from within your own web
site so make sure they are relevant and that link title and the on page
copy match the main keywords of the target page.
7. Live links. Using some external tools like the link checker
that W3 Org offer is good. I suggest harnessing as many tools as you
can to ensure all of the links on your website are live, working and
not sending people to 404 error pages. It is also important to check
and make sure your page markup, or html, xhtml, is valid so W3 also
offer a tool to check this. Make use of both of these freely available
tools.
8. Impatience. Search Engine Optimization is not a short term
task. It is one of an ongoing refinement after refinement and hour
after hour of working on your website. Producing unique content,
checking it, validating, listing and checking the search engines and
making sure they have it listed correctly. Do not think for one second
that you can optimize your site thoroughly ever and do not ever think
that just because you are number one for a search term that it will
indefinitely stay that way. Search Engine Companies are always changing
their ranking and rating systems and coupled with this there are always
other people out there gunning for your top spot. Keep looking to
improve and learn more and don’t sit back and wait for others to take
your top spot, be proactive, seek out new content, links and keep ahead
of the curve.
9. Keyword selection. This is proving to be a very common
mistake among beginners to SEO. Often people base their own keyword
selection on what they *think* is right but is this what people
actually search for when they are looking for your product or service?
Often the answer to this questions is no. It is an important step to do
the correct keyword research and ensure you have the right keyword list
before you optimize any pages with them. Using Overture, Google Adwords
and some other paid keyword tools like WordTracker (the default
standard in Keyword Finding) are vital to success in finding good
keywords. It is important to localize your target market and figure out
what they are actually searching on when they are looking for products
or services that you offer. Do the research and be as specific as
possible while still being broad enough to capture some high keyword
traffic.
10. Keyword Spamming and Stuffing. If you sell “Blue Widgets”
then every page of your site does not need to have “Blue Widgets” in
the title, description and Meta tags. Try and be objective and analyze
you website. Focus pages on a specific group of keywords you have
identified from the keyword list. Sometimes finding niche markets
locally first can be best. So, as an example, “Buy Blue Widgets
Australia” or “Buy Blue Widgets Melbourne”. These would be examples of
good second or even third tier search keyword phrases but you can make
some good sales with these niche terms because the searcher is
targeting buying these items.
These are not the be-all and end-all of Search Engine Optimization
mistakes but I have found these to be the main mistakes made by my
clients prior to Kanga Internet being involved. Good luck and I wish
you all the best with your SEO efforts.
Technorati Tags: top 10 seo mistakes, seo tips and tricks, tips for webmasters, seo news
Rob Fleming is a Freelance writer with over 10 years experience in Developing unique website content, Website Marketing, and SEO techniques. He has authored hundreds of powerful articles on building site authority and driving traffic to websites. 
Filed under: SEO Tips and Tricks
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Leave a Reply