SEO Mistakes to Avoid
If you own or run a website then you know the importance of traffic. The chief source of traffic is the search engines. Of course, you can use advertising, but it will cost you big bucks. Using the search engines to generate targeted traffic is the desired method.
Unfortunately, many site owners don't fully understand the importance of the search engine rankings on traffic. Many web designers place more importance on creating a "pretty" site. Not that pretty is bad, but it is really invisible when it comes to search engine rankings. Hopefully, our list of common SEO mistakes will help you improve your rankings and generate targeted traffic for your website.
1. Not keyword planning.
Your keywords and "keyword phrases" should be chosen carefully. Each page should concentrate on 1 or 2 keyword phrases. If your site is new, the right keywords might not necessary be the most popular. Sometimes you have to carve out your own niche. Here is a recommended list of keyword analysis tools.
2. Not using enough text.
Search engines love text and the highest ranking pages usually have hundreds of words on them. Fancy graphics and flash is fine but make sure you have lots of text on the majority of your pages.
3. Keyword stuffing.
Using the same keywords repeatedly (known as keyword stuffing) may be one reason that the search engines downgrade your web page or site. You should use sentences that are natural and easy to read. The same goes for assigning multiple keywords to the description of a graphic or layer with the "alt=" parameter. Using a bunch of meaningless keywords on your site is also not advisable. These techniques will also hurt your site's credibility.
4. Using hidden or tiny text.
Attempting to hide your keywords or phrases by making them invisible or tiny will only hurt you with the search engines. Setting text with the same color as the background is not advisable. Neither is setting the text size so small that it can barely be seen.
5. Link Farms
Links are necessary to do well in the SERPs. A link farm is a group of sites whose only purpose is to artificially inflate link popularity. The search engines are extremely good at identifying and penalizing these types of schemes. Be leary of participate in some link exchange programs.
5. Not having any original content.
You may have heard that "it is ok" to steal icons and text from websites. Learning from others is acceptable but copying work outright is another story. The major search engines are extremely smart these day and detect duplication. Your site needs to have some original content, the more the better.
6. Using unrelated keywords.
Using unrelated keywords for items that are currently receiving a lot of hits (such as "sex" or the name of a celebrity,) in a page or inside a meta tag. The keyword is unrelated to the page topic. This technique is spammy and search engines may penalize you in their rankings.
