SEO Mistake #1: Not using keywords correctly.
Many SEO webmasters are concerned about being banned from the search engines for keyword spamming or stuffing so they limit the use of keywords on their web pages. As long as your content sounds natural and reads easily, the chances are you have not overused your keywords.
Make sure your SEO keywords are included in the first and last paragraphs, in your headings and in your title and meta tags.
SEO Mistake #2: Trying to fool search engine spiders.
Search engines are a lot more sophisticated than most of us realize. They recognize – and penalize – hidden text, keyword spamming, and cloaking, which is showing different content to the search engine spiders than to your visitors. All of these practices only serve to hurt your page ranking and can in fact cause your website to be banned by the search engines, which means no one will find you – and no traffic means no profits.
SEO Mistake #3: Using Flash
Flash is a great presentation tool and can be dramatic and effective if used sparingly. It’s particularly appropriate if you have a social media related website and want to demonstrate your industry savvy. However for most website owners it’s just not necessary and can harm your page ranking. Search engine spiders cannot read content embedded in Flash files, which means they’re not recognized or indexed.
SEO Mistake #4: Using Your Company Name (and Only Your Company Name) As a Title Tag
Unless you’re branding your company name as in Halifax SEO, your company name shouldn’t be the only element in your title tag. Feel free to include it, however it’s also important to use your primary keyword for each webpage title tag. This is more useful for your customers and helps the search engines identify the various pages on your site.
SEO Mistake #5: Using A Splash Page
A splash page is a web page with a large graphic or company logo, and a link to enter the site. This is an ineffective strategy for a number of reasons: 13
* No keyword rich text on the page, nothing for the spiders to index.
* Only one internal link on the page
* These pages often have a redirect which often causes spiders to ignore them
If search engine optimization is important to your business, you may need to forgo the splash page. Your home page should be easy to navigate, content rich, and link visitors and spiders to other main web pages.
In general, unless you’re trying to outsmart the search engines and using nefarious tactics, the majority of search engine mistakes are reversible. If you’ve committed a few of these mistakes, simply correcting them can increase your page ranking almost immediately. Take some time to evaluate your SEO strategy and eliminate these SEO mistakes.
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© 2011 Michael Torbert, Semper Fi Web Design. All rights reserved in all media.
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