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Search Engine Optimization Mistakes
by: Bruce Gow
http://www.searchengine-guy.com.au
Many web designers and website owners believe in "If You Build It They Will
Come". This attitude will get your web site nowhere fast.
Sure, if you build it you will get people that know about your company and know
that you have made the site live come and visit, but you will not be unleashing
the real potential of your web site.
Search engine optimization needs to be
implemented from the beginning and to be ongoing if you want any sort of
rankings for your website. The following are biggest mistakes in SEO that I see
all the time.
1. Poor Choice of URL or Website Address
How many people, let alone search engines would know that www.mpna.com.au
is all about mobile phones, even though the letters stand for Mobile Phones
Network Australia? Adding a strong keyword in the URL like,
www.mobilephonesnet.com.au would place this website in front straight away. It
tells English literate humans and search engines that the site is about mobile
phones!
2. Lack of Adequate Keyword Research
Keyword research HAS to be carried out initially or else you may be placing
your efforts into becoming popular for keywords that few people are searching
for regularly.
3. Laziness
Laziness is also a major contributing factor. Many webmasters feel it is just
too hard or too time consuming to do search engine optimization or write
articles about what they do best. If you are not adding at least one page to
your website every month, then you can't expect to be ranked very high for your
important terms.
In situations where you just can't devote the time to search engine optimize
your site I would recommend seeking the services of a professional search engine
optimization company, such as our SEO firm;
http://www.searchengine-guy.com.au
Whatever your choice, make sure that any firm that you choose has the appropriate
internet marketing qualifications to do
the job well.
4. Aiming too Low
Many people think "Well my site is only a small site, there is no way I will
be able to compete with the larger sites that have top spots in the search
engines". It is possible that that if you optimize your web site you may not be
able to compete with the larger sites and may not be able to get a page 1 or 2
ranking in any of the search engines, BUT, what if you did? Always shoot for the
stars so if you fall short you will at least hit the sky.
5. Lack of Planning
Simply said, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." Planning is an
essential factor in your SEO campaign. Knowing exactly what steps you are going
to make and in what order and how you are going to go about achieving each of
those steps will save you not only time but it will save you frustration as
well. Planning is essential.
6. Too Many Changes Made Without Testing
Don’t change your entire site all at once, instead, change a few areas at a
time and see what results they produce. If you are satisfied with this then move
on and optimize another section.
7. Failing to monitor Your SEO Progress
There are many ways to do this you will have to find the best method for you.
You will need to monitor your search engine ranking for the keywords you are
targeting after each update.
Changes should be recorded and used as references to monitor progress and for
strategy adjustments. There are many tools for this process as well. I recommend
IBP, Internet Business Promotion, will has most of the SEO tools that you need
to get top rankings in the search engines.
8. Linking to "Bad Neighbourhoods"
These sites are also known as free for all (FFA) pages and link farms. They
serve no other purpose other than to list tens of thousands of unrelated
websites. Not only will these sites not provide your site with any traffic,
certain search engines will ban sites who participate.
9. Over Optimisation
Trying to pull too many rabbits out of the hat at once, or "Over
Optimisation" of your website.
Optimizing your web pages for a particular search engine can be a good thing.
Over-optimizing can defeat the purpose, however. Search engines are catching on
quickly to pages that appear ‘over-optimized’. Stuffing key-words into your
pages is the most common problem. Never use hidden (invisible) text to add
keywords. Adding loads of links at once, even if they ARE related to your site.
You will get caught, and your site will get banned.
10. Use of Doorway Pages
Using Doorway Pages to get unrelated pages popular. Doorway pages are
orphaned web pages that are typically optimized for a particular key-phrase and
a particular search engine.
They are promoted to the search engine in an effort to achieve high rankings.
They are not linked back to by any other page on the website and, as such,
search engines are able to flush them out quite easily and penalize the entire
site.
One final note: Any company that tells you that it can achieve ‘guaranteed’
rankings is either lying to you or using some of these Black Hat techniques.
Unfortunately, there is no way to guarantee a number one result within (unpaid)
search results. When choosing a search engine optimization company to work with,
be sure you feel comfortable with them and trust them
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