|
Here’s a consolidated list of things you
most definitely do not want to be doing if you want a high ranking in
the search engines. Let’s look at the most common search engine
optimization mistakes:
Mistake: Overloading of Keywords
Trying to optimize a home page for all
possible keywords is not a good thing. If you attempt to squeeze in all
the keywords on the home page thinking it’s going to improve your
ranking is not true. It will appear that you are ‘spamming’ the search
engines and it will make your rankings even worse since those search
engines will single you out. ‘Less’ can mean a lot more when it comes to
search engine optimization in that respect.
Mistake: Untargeted Keywords and
Phrases
Choice of keywords in the META keyword
tags are very important and it’s crucial that you use keywords related
to your line of work or your business product(s). Targeting such generic
words is a waste of time. What you need to do is optimize your site for
search terms and phrases that are highly targeted to your precise
business. There are numerous software programs or services that can help
you to find what people are actually typing into the search engines to
find goods and services familiar to yours and concentrate on ranking
well for those terms. The more qualified your site visitors are, the
more likely you are to convert those visitors into ‘paying’ customers.
Mistake: Non Utilization of the
Title Tag
Most search engines index the content
of the title tags and consider it to be one of the most important
factors in their relevancy algorithm. What you place in your title can
make or break your ranking for particular search terms for various
engines. When you don’t include your most important search phrases
within your title tag, you are overlooking a vital opportunity in your
quest for higher search rankings. In other words, give your best
information or rather ‘characters’ at the start of your tag, since
search engines give more ‘weight’ to content at the very beginning of
the tags. If you really want to include your company name in your title,
put it at the very end of your tag.
Mistake: Duplication of the Header
Area
Here’s another mistake that many
‘newbies’ do when it comes to designing their websites. Seeing the same
title on every page within that website which means the Meta tags are
identical on every page, only the visible content is different. Each
page should be optimized for different keywords whether it’s major or
minor and can be an entry point to your site from any search engine.
Never repeat the titles or Meta descriptions in your website. Treat each
page of your website if it were the most important and optimize it
thoroughly. Don’t leave the head area without any optimization means.
You’ll regret it and the search engines will not direct traffic to your
website.
Mistake: No Body Text, Too Much
Splash and Flash
A very common mistake. Many websites
think the more flashier they are with limited text will get them the
traffic they need. What you may not know is that without some text, or
lack thereof, will not get your site optimized since most search engines
can’t index images. If you want a web site to rank well in the search
engines, you need to give them what they want to see, visible content
that is optimized just as well as the invisible content. Most
importantly, if you have no content on your main page and only graphics
does not say much about your intelligence and looks very unprofessional.
The bottom line is simple; a site with no visible content becomes
effectively invisible to a search engine and has almost no chance of
appearing in the rankings for logical searches.
These are the most common search engine
mistakes, of course, in no particular order. If any of this sound
familiar to you, don’t worry about it since you’re not alone. Many
website owners will find themselves in at least one or more of these
situations. The important thing is that when you do recognize an error
within your optimization process, get the correct solution, understand
why the changes are needed, then you are better equipped with the
correct information and have the capability to reverse the damage.
|
