Top SEO Errors That You Should Avoid at All Costs
Do you want your site to obtain high ranking from search engines that would help you increase traffic and get more leads and business? Do you have a lot of information about SEO but don’t know which particular technique you should follow? Are you getting overwhelmed by the amount of reference materials about SEO that is available online? If you answered yes to all these three questions then maybe it is time we set the record straight when it comes to avoiding common SEO mistakes. Read along and find the top SEO errors that you should avoid at all costs.
- Lack of website content which is search engine friendly
If you want your website to be search engine friendly, you must first know what would make a particular site search engine friendly. The number one and most important thing is for your site to have a lot of unique and original content. If you are maintaining a website which just has a lot of graphics, flash animation and sound then it is probably not search engine friendly because the search engine would obviously look for a website which has text content that match the specific keywords that the user typed in the search box. Each page in your website shoud have at least 200 words of content which has a high keyword density.
- Not having the appropriate META tags
A basic SEO error that beginners make is not having the appropriate meta tags set on web pages. META tags are one of the most important on page factors for your SEO optimization. The key meta tags to set are your TITILE tag (include targeted keywords), your DESCRIPTION tag (which is used to generate the text the search engines use to describe your site), and your KEYWORD tag (a hint to the search engine on the topic of the webpage).
- Having links to site which are not popular and relevant
Search engines will give higher rankings to sites which house links that lead to other popular and relevant sites. Think quality instead of quantity. You may have one hundred links leading to your site placed all over the web, but are all those sites relevant to what your site is about? Some programs are even offering to link your sites to thousands of sites, which are considered as ‘link farming’ and will possibly result to a lower ranking in the search engines. You are probably wondering how you can avoid this type of SEO error. Simple, just have links to sites which complement and are relevant to your site. To have a better understanding of this technique, we can take a look on how Google ranks sites, for example if your site has a page rank of 1 and you have links to a site who has a page rank of 8, then your site will have a slightly higher ranking in effect. Backlinks (sites that link to your site) are also a key part of your SEO performance. However, those take more time to build.
- Not researching the keywords you are using
Keep in mind that all good marketing strategies, either on an actual business or over the web, require good research. If you have selected a keyword that is to be used all over your site, it is recommended that you test it first. Testing the keywords would ensure that you would be able to direct your time, money and efforts to keywords which actually work. It is also better if you can be specific with your keywords because if your keywords are too generic, it will just be like a million other sites out there which have the same keywords.
Remember that the internet is always changing, whatever might be trend right now might not be the same one tomorrow. In line with this, it is also important to update your keywords to keep your content new and fresh.
- Too much reliance on paid search advertising
Most website owners think that PPC is the number one solution to solve their marketing problems so they direct all their money and effort in PPC advertising. These people don’t realize that if their site had been properly optimized in the first place then they will be saving up to half of what they spent in PPC advertising. I am not saying that you should not use PPC advertising if you want to generate more traffic to your site, all I’m saying is that it is not the only solution. A properly optimized site will have a higher search engine ranking which would give more traffic to your site without you spending a lot of money on PPC ads.
- Using frames in your website
If your website is created using with frames, chances are the search engines will have a hard time indexing it. Different frames use different html addresses which will leave the search engine confused. Most search engines will index the first html address and that’s it. The other html addresses in the site will not be indexed and will not show up in search results. Also, users ignore sites with frames because it will require them to scroll down to see content in each frame.
- Not having a clear roadmap on where your website is heading
A good and effective optimized website would result from a good planning process. Before making your site, you must first determine the main purpose why you are making the site, who will be the target audience of your site and what do you want the visitors to do after they visit your site. Your site must be able to effectively convey the message that you want to say to your audience. If they are finished browsing your site, the audience should be able to know what the purpose of your website is. If you don’t have clear goals and purpose on creating your site, then all of it will be pointless and a waste of time.
Now that you know the different errors that are commonly used in SEO, you must avoid them at all costs. Since the internet is always changing, do your research and always be updated with the different things that are up and coming. Knowledge and quality information will get you a long way when it comes to SEO.
