SEO Mistakes: What to Do and Not Do

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), even after so much time, is still somewhat of an enigma. You are bombarded with information and you need to know exactly what to do so that the search engines love your website.

There are many things that you should do and many things that you should not do when it comes to having your website optimized for the search engines.

Dos

• Do target the best keywords: It is very common to target the wrong keywords. Even professional search engine optimizers make that mistake at times. Marketers will often choose keywords that they think describe and explain their website accurately. However, the average online searcher generally does not think in the same keyword terms. Picking the best keywords will greatly affect your SEO campaign. In fact, if you don’t choose the correct keywords, your SEO campaign will be worthless. The wrong keywords will mean that you won’t achieve high rankings in the search engines and you won’t increase your business revenue.
   
• Do implement a Robots.txt file: The main reason for using a robots.txt file is to have complete control over the data that are indexed by serachbots. You should implement a Robots.txt file only on the occasion that you want to avoid unwanted web pages from being indexed. A Robot.txt file should always be placed in the root folder of your website where the searchbots will be able to access it easily.
   
• Do perform competitive intelligence: Before you even begin your SEO campaign, you should visit competing websites that rank the highest in your searches. The types of questions that you should be researching are:
  • What kind of social media is being used by the top-ranking websites?
  • How many back links do the top-ranking websites list?
  • How old are the top-ranking websites?
  • How many websites are in competition for the same keyword?
  • You should definitely take full advantage of Google Analytics
     
• Do include long-tail keywords: There are millions of websites that are competing for short tail keywords. If you go the “short-tail keyword route,” it may take you up to 6 months to rank in the top 20 for a competitive keyword. This is when long tail keywords are useful. Long-tail keywords are those low-volume, obscure, infrequently searched-for keywords that turn up in your search query reports. ‘Web design strategies for traffic generation’ is one example of a long-tail keyword. ‘Web design’ is not. Long-tail keywords are very specific and can contain the name of your specific brand, product or city. It is pretty easy to get long-tail keywords ranked and the conversion rate is better than that of short-tail keywords. Definitely include keywords in your title tags.
   
• Do write fresh content: If you publish duplicate content, the search engines will probably penalize you. With plagiarism being so widespread, along with the sophisticated content-checking tools that can easily detect if content is not original, marketers are becoming more cautious. You should contribute fresh content to your website so that you generate the interest of your website visitors and so that you also build your credibility with the search engines.

Don’ts

• Don’t use flash for SEO: Websites that use Flash are very attractive and eye catching; however, the search engines cannot read or index that type of content. If you feel that you just can’t avoid a website that is built around Flash and you need the search engines to index it, you will need a second version of your website that is done in html. The reason that search engines don’t like Flash is that a spider cannot read Flash content and thus, can’t index it.
   
• Don’t use an overabundance of JavaScript: Searchbots are not built to read JavaScript code. If a website should happen to contain a few lines of JavaScript code, most likely the Searchbots will be able to ignore the JavaScript code along with the text. The less JavaScript code you have in your website, the better. If you must have a website with JavaScript code, you should create an external JavaScript file.
   
• Don’t link to low-quality websites: Link building is an integral part of SEO. The search engines view the number of links that come into a website as an indication of how popular the website is and rank it accordingly. Many novices don’t realize that the links from credible and high-quality websites are so extremely important and the novices mistakenly link to low-quality websites for higher rankings. Unfortunately, the result of this can be that the website with the inferior links can lose some of its credibility. The worst-case scenario could be that the website will be banned by the search engines.

Conclusion

Search engine optimization and search engines are extremely important when it comes to the success of your online presence and how successful it is for your business. It is essential that you avoid actions that will detract from your credibility, your position as a subject matter expert, and the strength of your online presence and reputation. If you use the tips here on what to do, you will start to achieve even greater success in your business and you will expand your online network and build more and more relationships. Remember, if you choose to hire an SEO organization to optimize your website, you need to make sure that the SEO organization is reputable and that they will do the best job possible when it comes to optimizing your website.

We are pleased to provide you with the insightful comments contained herein. Please contact us at CompuKol Communications for further discussion on how we might be able to assist you and your team.